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Place dossier plate
SheetKY-SONORA-KY · Sonora, KY 597 pop · income 20th 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 Sonora
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Sonora on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Artemus · lowest
25,179
Artemus · lowest
25,179 median HH income
21.2% of the leader · rank #1
Sonora · this city
50,417
Sonora · this city
50,417 median HH income
42.5% of the leader · rank #2
Kamrar · near
50,417
Kamrar · near
50,417 median HH income
42.5% of the leader · rank #3
Iola · near
50,417
Iola · near
50,417 median HH income
42.5% of the leader · rank #4
Morse · near
50,417
Morse · near
50,417 median HH income
42.5% of the leader · rank #5
Oakley · near
50,417
Oakley · near
50,417 median HH income
42.5% of the leader · rank #6
Beverly Shores · highest
118,750
Beverly Shores · highest
118,750 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Sonora 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: 597.
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Sonora places in the 20th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
20th
percentile, household income
36th
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: Sonora, KY
597 people live in Sonora, Kentucky - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Sonora households earn a median of $50,417 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 17.0%. Sonora's housing stock carries a median value of $178,400, and the median resident age is 33.3 years. 16.1% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 47.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 2 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
Living costs in Kentucky run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Kentucky at 90.2 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Well Below Average). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $984 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Kentucky run around $225, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. 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 Sonora'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 population change to schools and households to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Sonora, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
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. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Sonora?
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. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 17.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Sonora?
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.
Within Kentucky, the closest population matches are Hustonville (600 residents, $40,625 income); Kuttawa (594 residents, $63,750 income); Murray Hill (589 residents, $115,625 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Hollins, AL (597 residents); Flagler, CO (597 residents); Clayton, IL (597 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.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -16 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.8% 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.
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
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.
The NCES join finds 2 public schools within the city match. 16.1% 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.
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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Sonora?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 84.4%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
Drive alone
84.4%
Work from home
1.6%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 186 workers age 16+.
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.
Bachelor's+ share F
16.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$50,417
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
17.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Sonora profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 85/100 (A) · 90.2 index
Bachelor's+ share: 23/100 (F) · 16.1%
Household income: 21/100 (F) · $50,417
Poverty rate: 19/100 (F) · 17.0%
How does Sonora compare to other US cities?
Sonora measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income20% higher than other cities
Home value36% 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 Sonora 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 Sonora near the bottom of Kentucky's cities
Among the 520 Kentucky cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Sonora ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Sonora only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#285 of 485
41st percentile in Kentucky
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 520
0th percentile in Kentucky
Median Home Value
#176 of 484
64th percentile in Kentucky
Poverty Rate
#180 of 519
65th percentile in Kentucky
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#291 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
20th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Sonora's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$178,400Among the most affordablemore affordable than 64% 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
Sonora's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#9,133 of 15,516
More affordable than 41% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#7,354 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.5×, Sonora sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,133 of 15,516 and #7,354 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
$50,417Sonora, KY median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Sonora, 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 Sonora, KY.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)16.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)17.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)47.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
597
Median Income
$50,417
Median Home Value
$178,400
Median Age
33.3
Poverty Rate
17.0%
Labor force participation
47.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
16.1%
Schools
Total Schools
2
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Sonora's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
580 residents
2021
584 residents
2022
582 residents
2023
577 residents
2024
565 residents
2025
564 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
84.4%
Carpool
7.0%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
5.4%
Work from Home
1.6%
Other
1.6%
Based on 186 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 Sonora. 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 Sonora 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 Sonora sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Sonora 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.