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Place dossier plate
SheetKY-SUMMER-SHADE-KY · Summer Shade, KY 295 pop
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.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Summer Shade 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: 295.
Kentucky's Summer Shade counts 295 residents. Source: Census ACS.
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: Summer Shade, KY
Kentucky's Summer Shade is a small town, with 295 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. The median resident age is 31.6 years. 11.1% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 46.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
NOAA puts Summer Shade's yearly average temperature at 56.9°F with 49.6 inches of precipitation per year and 7.2 inches of snowfall.
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). 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 Summer Shade'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 comparison shortlist to climate and hazard context to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Summer Shade, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Summer Shade?
Within Kentucky, the closest population matches are Bremen (299 residents, $46,324 income); Druid Hills (300 residents, $131,250 income); Goose Creek (300 residents, $112,083 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Lost Bridge, AR (295 residents); Andersonville, GA (295 residents); Pakala, HI (295 residents). 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.
What physical conditions frame life in Summer Shade?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 56.9°F, with 49.6 inches of precipitation and 7.2 inches of annual snowfall. 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Summer Shade?
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 81.4%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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
15.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
11.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income N/A
N/A
No ACS median household income on file for this place.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Summer Shade profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 85/100 (A) · 90.2 index
Poverty rate: 21/100 (F) · 15.9%
Bachelor's+ share: 9/100 (F) · 11.1%
How does Summer Shade compare to other US cities?
Summer Shade measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
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 Summer Shade 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 Summer Shade near the bottom of Kentucky's cities
Among the 520 Kentucky cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Summer Shade ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Summer Shade only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 520
0th percentile in Kentucky
Poverty Rate
#197 of 519
62nd percentile in Kentucky
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#368 of 520
29th 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.
Income distribution context
Median household income is not available for Summer Shade in the current Census ACS release (common for very small places).
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)11.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)15.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)46.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
295
Median Income
N/A
Median Home Value
N/A
Median Age
31.6
Poverty Rate
15.9%
Labor force participation
46.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
11.1%
Climate
Avg Temperature
56.9°F
Annual Precipitation
49.6"
Annual Snowfall
7.2"
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
81.4%
Carpool
0.0%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
0.0%
Other
18.6%
Based on 118 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 Summer Shade. 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 Summer Shade 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 Summer Shade sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Summer Shade 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, NOAA Climate Normals, 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.