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Place dossier plate
SheetKY-WHITESBURG-KY · Whitesburg, KY 1,998 pop · income 3rd 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 Whitesburg
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Whitesburg on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Jamestown · lowest
25,602
Jamestown · lowest
25,602 median HH income
16.6% of the leader · rank #1
Whitesburg · this city
31,875
Whitesburg · this city
31,875 median HH income
20.6% of the leader · rank #2
Casas Adobes · near
31,875
Casas Adobes · near
31,875 median HH income
20.6% of the leader · rank #3
Pittsburg · near
31,875
Pittsburg · near
31,875 median HH income
20.6% of the leader · rank #4
Rule · near
31,875
Rule · near
31,875 median HH income
20.6% of the leader · rank #5
Reedy · near
31,875
Reedy · near
31,875 median HH income
20.6% of the leader · rank #6
Aptos Hills-L… · highest
154,591
Aptos Hills-L… · highest
154,591 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 Whitesburg 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: 1,998.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Whitesburg - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Whitesburg places in the 3rd percentile for household income and the 90th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
3rd
percentile, household income
14th
percentile, home value
10th
percentile, median rent
90th
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: Whitesburg, KY
Whitesburg is a small town in Kentucky, home to 1,998 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Whitesburg brings in $31,875 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 38.7%. Whitesburg's housing stock carries a median value of $111,300, and the median resident age is 41.3 years. Educational attainment runs 21.9% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 36.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 1 residential building permits were authorized in Whitesburg (Low Activity), per Census BPS data. Whitesburg reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 369.5 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 53.9°F with 50.5 inches of precipitation per year.
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. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Kentucky's average monthly utility costs around $225 (state average). 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 Whitesburg'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 population change to work and mobility to comparison shortlist to climate and hazard context to schools and households to reported crime to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Whitesburg, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Is Whitesburg growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -158 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -8.9% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 1 housing units authorized in 2024. 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Whitesburg?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 78.3%. 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Whitesburg?
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.
Within Kentucky, the closest population matches are Orchard Grass Hills (2,008 residents, $105,417 income); Hurstbourne Acres (1,984 residents, $68,229 income); Owingsville (1,977 residents, $40,150 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Rice, MN (1,998 residents); Canisteo, NY (1,998 residents); Biltmore, TN (1,998 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.
What physical conditions frame life in Whitesburg?
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.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 53.9°F, with 50.5 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.
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 Whitesburg?
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.
The NCES join finds 6 public schools within the city match. 21.9% 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.
Poverty estimate
38.7%
Bachelor's degree+
21.9%
Matched public schools
6
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Whitesburg?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 369.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 84% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
Total reported rate
369.5
Violent rate
61.6
Property rate
307.9
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
How far does income reach against housing in Whitesburg?
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 38.7%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
3.5×
Home value
$111,300
Household income
$31,875
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 38.7% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
90.2 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Kentucky average
F
City profile score · Whitesburg, KY
39/100
5 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.
Violent crime A-
62 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share D
21.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$31,875
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
38.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Whitesburg profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 85/100 (A) · 90.2 index
Violent crime: 81/100 (A-) · 62 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 40/100 (D) · 21.9%
Household income: 0/100 (F) · $31,875
Poverty rate: 0/100 (F) · 38.7%
Where Whitesburg sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Whitesburg'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 - Whitesburg highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Whitesburg, KY (this city): home $111,300, crime 370/100k
Rice, MN : home $237,600, crime 267/100k
Bertram, TX : home $195,100, crime 360/100k
Hurstbourne Acres, KY : home $292,900, crime 1,548/100k
Owingsville, KY : home $92,700, crime 501/100k
Jamestown, KY : home $119,200, crime 691/100k
Dawson Springs, KY : home $73,500, crime 748/100k
Albany, KY : home $102,500, crime 347/100k
How does Whitesburg compare to other US cities?
Here's how Whitesburg stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income3% higher than other cities
Home value14% pricier than other cities
Median rent10% pricier than other cities
Safety90% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Kentucky and the picture shifts: Whitesburg ranks #47 of 181 Kentucky cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Whitesburg 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 Whitesburg near the bottom of Kentucky's cities
Among the 520 Kentucky cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Whitesburg ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Whitesburg only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#438 of 485
9th percentile in Kentucky
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 520
0th percentile in Kentucky
Median Home Value
#339 of 484
29th percentile in Kentucky
Poverty Rate
#24 of 519
95th percentile in Kentucky
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#214 of 520
58th 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
3rd percentile nationally for median household income · 90th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Whitesburg's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Whitesburg'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 Whitesburg's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$111,300Among the most affordablemore affordable than 86% 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
Whitesburg'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
#8,938 of 15,516
More affordable than 42% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#7,214 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.5×, Whitesburg sits in the moderate band:
national rank #8,938 of 15,516 and #7,214 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
$31,875Whitesburg, KY median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Whitesburg, 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 Whitesburg, KY.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)21.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)38.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)36.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,998
Median Income
$31,875
Median Home Value
$111,300
Median Age
41.3
Poverty Rate
38.7%
Labor force participation
36.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
21.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
369.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
61.6
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
307.9
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
53.9°F
Annual Precipitation
50.5"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
6
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Whitesburg's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
1,767 residents
2021
1,741 residents
2022
1,684 residents
2023
1,655 residents
2024
1,631 residents
2025
1,609 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Low Activity
Total Permits (2024)
1
housing units authorized
Single-Family
1
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.5
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
0
0
0
-
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
0
0
0
-
2024
1
1
0
$0.2M
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
78.3%
Carpool
5.8%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
3.6%
Work from Home
11.0%
Other
1.3%
Based on 591 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 Whitesburg. 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 Whitesburg 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 Whitesburg sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Whitesburg 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.