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Place dossier plate
SheetKY-PROVIDENCE-KY · Providence, KY 2,861 pop · income 25th pct · 4 tracts
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 Providence
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Providence on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Brent · lowest
24,041
Brent · lowest
24,041 median HH income
12.7% of the leader · rank #1
Sikeston · near
53,203
Sikeston · near
53,203 median HH income
28.2% of the leader · rank #2
Thompson Falls · near
53,203
Thompson Falls · near
53,203 median HH income
28.2% of the leader · rank #3
New Straitsvi… · near
53,203
New Straitsvi… · near
53,203 median HH income
28.2% of the leader · rank #4
Elyria · near
53,204
Elyria · near
53,204 median HH income
28.2% of the leader · rank #5
Providence · this city
53,208
Providence · this city
53,208 median HH income
28.2% of the leader · rank #6
Indian Hills · highest
188,750
Indian Hills · highest
188,750 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, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Providence on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. 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: 2,861.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Providence - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Providence places in the 25th percentile for household income and the 96th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
25th
percentile, household income
2nd
percentile, home value
10th
percentile, median rent
96th
percentile, safety
📝 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: Providence, KY
2,861 people live in Providence, Kentucky - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $53,208 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 15.2%. Home values in Providence run a median of $66,800, and the median resident age is 46.4 years. About 16.0% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 47.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 4 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Slowing), down 20% from five years earlier. Providence reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 178.6 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Providence's yearly average temperature at 57.5°F with 48.5 inches of precipitation per year.
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. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $984 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Kentucky's average monthly utility costs around $225 (state average). Natural-hazard exposure scores 44.2 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Providence'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 housing and income to comparison shortlist to schools and households to within-city variation to reported crime to work and mobility to climate and hazard context to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Providence, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, annual population history.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Providence?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 1.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 15.2%, 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. The ratio makes housing the clearest place to start this profile, but a low multiple can coexist with slow demand, older stock, or household-level hardship. Compare the home-value distribution and same-state peer table before treating it as an advantage.
Which cities make useful reference points for Providence?
Within Kentucky, the closest population matches are Rineyville (2,869 residents, $82,037 income); Indian Hills (2,870 residents, $188,750 income); Springfield (2,871 residents, $40,890 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Park View, IA (2,861 residents); Wilburton, OK (2,861 residents); Brent, AL (2,862 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. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
What does the education layer cover for Providence?
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 16.0% 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 matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
What can 4 Census tracts reveal inside Providence?
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Providence?
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 178.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 92% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
178.6
Violent rate
0.0
Total reported rate
178.6
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What does the journey to work look like in Providence?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 68.0%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
1.4%
Drive alone
68.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 1,132 workers age 16+.
What physical conditions frame life in Providence?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 57.5°F, with 48.5 inches of precipitation. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Kentucky is 44.2 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
Mean temperature
57.5°F
Annual precipitation
48.5 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
44.2
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
Is Providence growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -20 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 4 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
-0.7%
2025 estimate
2,872
2020 estimate
2,892
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
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.
Violent crime A+
0 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
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.
Household income F
$53,208
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
16.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
15.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Providence profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 97/100 (A+) · 0 /100k
Cost of living: 85/100 (A) · 90.2 index
Household income: 25/100 (F) · $53,208
Bachelor's+ share: 23/100 (F) · 16.0%
Poverty rate: 22/100 (F) · 15.2%
Where Providence sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Providence's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Providence highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Providence, KY (this city): home $66,800, crime 179/100k
Wilburton, OK : home $94,400, crime 1,482/100k
Brent, AL : home $143,300, crime 3,442/100k
Lincoln, AR : home $151,000, crime 1,304/100k
Bayfield, CO : home $418,400, crime 312/100k
Indian Hills, KY : home $666,200, crime 1,864/100k
Springfield, KY : home $154,800, crime 371/100k
Brandenburg, KY : home $208,100, crime 642/100k
How does Providence compare to other US cities?
Providence measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income25% higher than other cities
Home value2% pricier than other cities
Median rent10% pricier than other cities
Safety96% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Kentucky alone, Providence ranks #23 of 181 Kentucky cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Providence 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 Providence near the bottom of Kentucky's cities
Among the 520 Kentucky cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Providence ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Providence only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#258 of 485
47th percentile in Kentucky
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 520
0th percentile in Kentucky
Median Home Value
#460 of 484
5th percentile in Kentucky
Poverty Rate
#207 of 519
60th percentile in Kentucky
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#293 of 520
44th 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
25th percentile nationally for median household income · 96th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Providence's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Providence's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Providence's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$66,800Among the most affordablemore affordable than 98% 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
Providence's home-value-to-income ratio: 1.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#140 of 15,516
More affordable than 99% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#138 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 1.3×, Providence sits in the affordable band:
national rank #140 of 15,516 and #138 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
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
$53,208Providence, KY median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Providence, 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 Providence, KY.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)16.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)15.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)47.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,861
Median Income
$53,208
Median Home Value
$66,800
Median Age
46.4
Poverty Rate
15.2%
Labor force participation
47.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
16.0%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
178.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
178.6
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Climate
Avg Temperature
57.5°F
Annual Precipitation
48.5"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
1
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Providence's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,892 residents
2021
2,855 residents
2022
2,825 residents
2023
2,832 residents
2024
2,862 residents
2025
2,872 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Slowing
Total Permits (2024)
4
housing units authorized
Single-Family
4
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
5
1
4
$0.0M
2020
5
1
4
$0.0M
2021
2
2
0
$0.4M
2022
7
7
0
$1.8M
2023
6
6
0
$1.7M
2024
4
4
0
$1.0M
Permit volume decreased 20% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
68.0%
Carpool
26.2%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
4.3%
Work from Home
1.4%
Based on 1,132 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 Providence. 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 Providence 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 Providence sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Providence 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, FBI UCR, NOAA Climate Normals, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, 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.