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Place dossier plate
SheetMA-ANDOVER-MA · Andover, MA 9,261 pop · income 89th 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 Andover
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Andover on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Middlesborough · lowest
34,349
Middlesborough · lowest
34,349 median HH income
27.0% of the leader · rank #1
Bedford · near
127,019
Bedford · near
127,019 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #2
Machias · near
127,043
Machias · near
127,043 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #3
Andover · this city
127,054
Andover · this city
127,054 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #4
Lake Morton-B… · near
127,074
Lake Morton-B… · near
127,074 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #5
Boston Heights · near
127,083
Boston Heights · near
127,083 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #6
Angwin · highest
127,115
Angwin · highest
127,115 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 Andover 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: 9,261.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Andover - the verdict
Andover ranks in the 89th percentile for household income and the 69th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
89th
percentile, household income
93rd
percentile, home value
98th
percentile, median rent
69th
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: Andover, MA
Andover is a small town in Massachusetts, home to 9,261 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $127,054 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 5.7%. Typical homes in Andover are valued around $719,900, and the median resident age is 45.5 years. Educational attainment runs 67.7% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 59.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Andover reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 872.1 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Massachusetts carries a cost-of-living premium: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Massachusetts at 105.8 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Above Average). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $2,261 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $330 across Massachusetts, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 78.8 out of 100 (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Andover'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 work and mobility to schools and households to comparison shortlist 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 Andover, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Andover?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 58.4%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
The NCES join finds 11 public schools within the city match. 67.7% 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 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Andover?
Within Massachusetts, the closest population matches are Athol (8,711 residents, $61,742 income); Hull (10,098 residents, $127,112 income); Middleborough Center (8,064 residents, $79,520 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Eunice, LA (9,261 residents); Smithville, NJ (9,260 residents); Middlesborough, KY (9,258 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 can the FBI record say about safety in Andover?
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 872.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 62% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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 Andover?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 5.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 5.7%, 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. 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.
Household income
$127,054
Home value
$719,900
Value / income
5.7×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
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+
67.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income A
$127,054
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime B
94 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate C+
5.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
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.
Andover profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 96/100 (A+) · 67.7%
Household income: 89/100 (A) · $127,054
Violent crime: 72/100 (B) · 94 /100k
Poverty rate: 61/100 (C+) · 5.7%
Cost of living: 18/100 (F) · 105.8 index
Where Andover sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Andover'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 - Andover highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Andover, MA (this city): home $719,900, crime 872/100k
Delta, CO : home $238,100, crime 3,424/100k
Charlotte, MI : home $140,500, crime 2,298/100k
Augusta, KS : home $162,200, crime 2,044/100k
Athol, MA : home $227,000, crime 1,184/100k
Hull, MA : home $606,100, crime 727/100k
Maynard, MA : home $494,200, crime 985/100k
Plymouth, MA : home $426,000, crime 1,018/100k
Nantucket, MA : home $1,359,200, crime 1,116/100k
How does Andover compare to other US cities?
Where Andover sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income89% higher than other cities
Home value93% pricier than other cities
Median rent98% pricier than other cities
Safety69% 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 Massachusetts alone, Andover ranks #64 of 149 Massachusetts 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 Andover 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 Andover near the bottom of Massachusetts's cities
Among the 247 Massachusetts cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Andover ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Andover only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#54 of 233
77th percentile in Massachusetts
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 247
0th percentile in Massachusetts
Median Home Value
#47 of 240
80th percentile in Massachusetts
Poverty Rate
#82 of 247
66th percentile in Massachusetts
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#34 of 247
86th 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
89th percentile nationally for median household income · 69th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Andover's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Andover'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 Andover's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$719,9007th percentilemore affordable than 7% 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
Andover's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#13,784 of 15,516
More affordable than 11% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#10,279 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 5.7×, Andover sits in the pressured band:
national rank #13,784 of 15,516 and #10,279 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$127,054Andover, MA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Andover, 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 Andover, MA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)67.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)5.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)59.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
9,261
Median Income
$127,054
Median Home Value
$719,900
Median Age
45.5
Poverty Rate
5.7%
Labor force participation
59.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
67.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
872.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
94.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
777.9
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.
Schools
Total Schools
11
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
58.4%
Carpool
4.9%
Public Transit
2.3%
Walk
8.6%
Work from Home
24.7%
Other
1.1%
Based on 4,492 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 Andover. 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 Andover 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 Andover sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Andover 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, 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.