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Place dossier plate
SheetKY-NEW-CASTLE-KY · New Castle, KY 865 pop · income 4th pct
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around New Castle
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest New Castle on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Mosses · lowest
26,250
Mosses · lowest
26,250 median HH income
21.9% of the leader · rank #1
Olmito · near
33,813
Olmito · near
33,813 median HH income
28.2% of the leader · rank #2
New Castle · this city
33,833
New Castle · this city
33,833 median HH income
28.2% of the leader · rank #3
Rossmore · near
33,833
Rossmore · near
33,833 median HH income
28.2% of the leader · rank #4
Tutwiler · near
33,836
Tutwiler · near
33,836 median HH income
28.2% of the leader · rank #5
Skyline Acres · near
33,854
Skyline Acres · near
33,854 median HH income
28.3% of the leader · rank #6
Bellemeade · highest
119,792
Bellemeade · highest
119,792 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for New Castle on ACS population and median household income
. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 865.
Nationally, New Castle sits in the 4th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
4th
percentile, household income
27th
percentile, home value
10th
percentile, median rent
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: New Castle, KY
Kentucky's New Castle is a small town, with 865 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $33,833 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 10.6%. New Castle's housing stock carries a median value of $151,500, and the median resident age is 49.4 years. About 17.6% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 44.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 4 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
Living costs in Kentucky run below the national norm: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Kentucky scores 90.2 (Well Below Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $984 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $225 across Kentucky, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 44.2 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of New Castle's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from work and mobility to population change to housing and income to schools and households to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For New Castle, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in New Castle?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. The profile is strongly car-oriented, so a relocation comparison should put trip distance, vehicle access, and household fuel costs ahead of a citywide commute average. The same-state peer links offer a more relevant benchmark than a national label.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 85.9%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Is New Castle growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +31 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +3.5% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
How far does income reach against housing in New Castle?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 10.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
Which cities make useful reference points for New Castle?
Within Kentucky, the closest population matches are Camargo (858 residents, $47,500 income); Greenup (880 residents, $45,625 income); Bellemeade (889 residents, $119,792 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Mosses, AL (865 residents); Delton, MI (865 residents); Oregon, MO (865 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for New Castle?
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 17.6% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
Matched public schools
4
Bachelor's degree+
17.6%
Poverty estimate
10.6%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 10.6% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
90.2 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Kentucky average
F
City profile score · New Castle, KY
36/100
4 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Cost of living A
90.2 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Poverty rate F
10.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
17.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$33,833
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
New Castle profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 85/100 (A) · 90.2 index
Poverty rate: 37/100 (F) · 10.6%
Bachelor's+ share: 27/100 (F) · 17.6%
Household income: 0/100 (F) · $33,833
How does New Castle compare to other US cities?
Where New Castle sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income4% higher than other cities
Home value27% pricier than other cities
Median rent10% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares New Castle against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Kentucky only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Kentucky-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places New Castle near the bottom of Kentucky's cities
Among the 520 Kentucky cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, New Castle ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares New Castle only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#423 of 485
13th percentile in Kentucky
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 520
0th percentile in Kentucky
Median Home Value
#233 of 484
52nd percentile in Kentucky
Poverty Rate
#269 of 519
48th percentile in Kentucky
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#263 of 520
49th percentile in Kentucky
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Kentucky only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
4th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How New Castle's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$151,500Among the most affordablemore affordable than 73% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
New Castle's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,927 of 15,516
More affordable than 23% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#9,148 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.5×, New Castle sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,927 of 15,516 and #9,148 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$33,833New Castle, KY median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context New Castle, KY median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for New Castle, KY.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)17.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)10.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)44.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
865
Median Income
$33,833
Median Home Value
$151,500
Median Age
49.4
Poverty Rate
10.6%
Labor force participation
44.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
17.6%
Schools
Total Schools
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
New Castle's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
878 residents
2021
878 residents
2022
877 residents
2023
890 residents
2024
900 residents
2025
909 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
85.9%
Carpool
7.0%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
1.0%
Work from Home
6.1%
Based on 313 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Kentucky statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $225
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Kentucky at $225 (electricity about $115 , water and sewer about $40 ).
These are Kentucky statewide averages, not a meter reading for New Castle. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Kentucky's BEA cost-of-living index is 90.2 (Well Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around New Castle is $984/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Kentucky statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 44.2 / 100 (Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Kentucky statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county New Castle sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How New Castle compares to similar-size Kentucky cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, NCES CCD, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.