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Place dossier plate
SheetMA-AMHERST-MA · Amherst, MA 35,472 pop · income 44th pct · 35 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 Amherst
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Amherst on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Holyoke · lowest
51,892
Holyoke · lowest
51,892 median HH income
23.7% of the leader · rank #1
Amherst · this city
65,938
Amherst · this city
65,938 median HH income
30.1% of the leader · rank #2
Plainview · near
65,938
Plainview · near
65,938 median HH income
30.1% of the leader · rank #3
Farragut · near
65,938
Farragut · near
65,938 median HH income
30.1% of the leader · rank #4
Marble Rock · near
65,938
Marble Rock · near
65,938 median HH income
30.1% of the leader · rank #5
Reading · near
65,938
Reading · near
65,938 median HH income
30.1% of the leader · rank #6
Lexington · highest
219,402
Lexington · highest
219,402 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 Amherst 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: 35,472.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Amherst - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Amherst places in the 44th percentile for household income and the 87th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
44th
percentile, household income
82nd
percentile, home value
98th
percentile, median rent
87th
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: Amherst, MA
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 35,472 residents in Amherst, a small city within Massachusetts. Amherst households earn a median of $65,938 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 3.7%. Home values in Amherst run a median of $454,000, and the median resident age is 21.3 years. Educational attainment runs 73.8% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 48.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Amherst reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 466.5 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 climate normals record an annual average temperature of 48.2°F with 46.6 inches of precipitation per year and 36.5 inches of snowfall.
Massachusetts carries a cost-of-living premium: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Massachusetts scores 105.8 (Above Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $2,261 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Massachusetts's average monthly utility costs around $330 (state average). On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 78.8 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Amherst'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 climate and hazard context to work and mobility to housing and income to population change to reported crime to schools and households to comparison shortlist to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Amherst, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Climate and hazard context
What physical conditions frame life in Amherst?
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 48.2°F, with 46.6 inches of precipitation and 36.5 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Massachusetts is 78.8 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Amherst?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 42.1%. 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. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Which cities make useful reference points for Amherst?
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 Massachusetts, the closest population matches are Watertown (35,270 residents, $123,422 income); Randolph (34,683 residents, $103,129 income); Lexington (34,085 residents, $219,402 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Fair Oaks, VA (35,472 residents); Addison, IL (35,470 residents); Springville, UT (35,474 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.
PlainCities matches 35 Census tracts to this city.
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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Amherst?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 6.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.7%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
6.9×
Home value
$454,000
Household income
$65,938
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +13,117 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +47.2% 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 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.
2020 estimate
27,803
2025 estimate
40,920
Period change
+47.2%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Amherst?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 466.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 80% 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
466.5
Violent rate
159.8
Property rate
306.7
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
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 5 public schools within the city match. 73.8% 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
3.7%
Bachelor's degree+
73.8%
Matched public schools
5
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Below median income · poverty 3.7% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
105.8 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, Massachusetts average
C
City profile score · Amherst, MA
55/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share A+
73.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate B
3.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime C
160 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income D
$65,938
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Cost of living F
105.8 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Amherst profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 100/100 (A+) · 73.8%
Poverty rate: 74/100 (B) · 3.7%
Violent crime: 56/100 (C) · 160 /100k
Household income: 43/100 (D) · $65,938
Cost of living: 18/100 (F) · 105.8 index
Where Amherst sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Amherst'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 - Amherst highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Amherst, MA (this city): home $454,000, crime 467/100k
Addison, IL : home $318,000, crime 1,034/100k
Springville, UT : home $429,200, crime 985/100k
Stockbridge, GA : home $248,000, crime 2,580/100k
Torrington, CT : home $195,800, crime 1,120/100k
Oswego, IL : home $319,000, crime 586/100k
Watertown, MA : home $737,600, crime 2,012/100k
Randolph, MA : home $463,500, crime 1,135/100k
Lexington, MA : home $1,147,900, crime 387/100k
Franklin, MA : home $567,100, crime 383/100k
Holyoke, MA : home $255,300, crime 5,273/100k
Braintree, MA : home $623,200, crime 1,405/100k
How does Amherst compare to other US cities?
Here's how Amherst stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income44% higher than other cities
Home value82% pricier than other cities
Median rent98% pricier than other cities
Safety87% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at Massachusetts, Amherst ranks #31 of 149 Massachusetts cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Amherst against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Massachusetts only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Massachusetts-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Amherst near the bottom of Massachusetts's cities
Among the 247 Massachusetts cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Amherst ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Amherst only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#200 of 233
14th percentile in Massachusetts
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 247
0th percentile in Massachusetts
Median Home Value
#143 of 240
40th percentile in Massachusetts
Poverty Rate
#121 of 247
50th percentile in Massachusetts
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#24 of 247
90th percentile in Massachusetts
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 Massachusetts only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
44th percentile nationally for median household income · 87th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Amherst's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Amherst'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 Amherst's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$454,00018th percentilemore affordable than 18% 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
Amherst's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,620 of 15,516
More affordable than 6% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,093 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 6.9×, Amherst sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,620 of 15,516 and #3,093 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median, a comparison flag, not a verdict on any household.
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
$65,938Amherst, MA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Amherst, MA median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Amherst, MA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)73.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)48.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
35,472
Median Income
$65,938
Median Home Value
$454,000
Median Age
21.3
Poverty Rate
3.7%
Labor force participation
48.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
73.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
466.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
159.8
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
306.7
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
48.2°F
Annual Precipitation
46.6"
Annual Snowfall
36.5"
Schools
Total Schools
5
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Amherst's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
27,803 residents
2021
40,328 residents
2022
40,740 residents
2023
40,996 residents
2024
40,925 residents
2025
40,920 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
42.1%
Carpool
5.8%
Public Transit
8.2%
Walk
21.8%
Work from Home
19.3%
Other
2.8%
Based on 14,320 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Massachusetts statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $330
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Massachusetts at $330 (electricity about $160 , water and sewer about $60 ).
These are Massachusetts statewide averages, not a meter reading for Amherst. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Massachusetts's BEA cost-of-living index is 105.8 (Above Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Amherst is $2,261/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Massachusetts statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 78.8 / 100 (High).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Massachusetts statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Amherst sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Amherst compares to similar-size Massachusetts 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 ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.