Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetMA-ARLINGTON-MA · Arlington, MA 46,015 pop · income 93rd 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 Arlington
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Arlington on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Huntington · lowest
43,146
Huntington · lowest
43,146 median HH income
18.0% of the leader · rank #1
Congers · near
141,413
Congers · near
141,413 median HH income
59.1% of the leader · rank #2
Herndon · near
141,418
Herndon · near
141,418 median HH income
59.1% of the leader · rank #3
Larch Way · near
141,429
Larch Way · near
141,429 median HH income
59.1% of the leader · rank #4
Arlington · this city
141,440
Arlington · this city
141,440 median HH income
59.1% of the leader · rank #5
San Francisco · near
141,446
San Francisco · near
141,446 median HH income
59.1% of the leader · rank #6
Potomac · highest
239,205
Potomac · highest
239,205 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 Arlington 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: 46,015.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Arlington - the verdict
Nationally, Arlington sits in the 93rd percentile for household income and the 86th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
93rd
percentile, household income
96th
percentile, home value
98th
percentile, median rent
86th
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: Arlington, MA
46,015 people live in Arlington, Massachusetts - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $141,440 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 3.3%. Arlington's housing stock carries a median value of $885,000, and the median resident age is 41.3 years. Educational attainment runs 74.4% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 71.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Arlington reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 489.8 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).
Massachusetts carries a cost-of-living premium: the state registers 105.8 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Above Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. 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. Commute times here average 22.4 minutes, with 45.8% driving alone and 30.5% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. Natural-hazard exposure scores 78.8 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Arlington'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 reported crime 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 Arlington, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for annual population history, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles; 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 Arlington?
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 6.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.3%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Arlington?
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 Attleboro (46,499 residents, $93,266 income); Salem (44,241 residents, $85,137 income); Leominster (43,697 residents, $81,556 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Strongsville, OH (46,022 residents); Urbandale, IA (46,026 residents); Charlottesville, VA (45,863 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 can the FBI record say about safety in Arlington?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 489.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 79% 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.
What does the education layer cover for Arlington?
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 11 public schools within the city match. 74.4% 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 Arlington?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 45.8%. The reported mean trip to work is 22.4 minutes.
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.
Drive alone
45.8%
Work from home
30.5%
Public transit
12.5%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 26,776 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.
Bachelor's+ share A+
74.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income A+
$141,440
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime A-
55 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate B+
3.3%
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.
Arlington profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 100/100 (A+) · 74.4%
Household income: 94/100 (A+) · $141,440
Violent crime: 82/100 (A-) · 55 /100k
Poverty rate: 76/100 (B+) · 3.3%
Cost of living: 18/100 (F) · 105.8 index
Where Arlington sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Arlington'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 - Arlington highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Arlington, MA (this city): home $885,000, crime 490/100k
Strongsville, OH : home $279,600, crime 1,355/100k
Urbandale, IA : home $318,800, crime 724/100k
Charlottesville, VA : home $448,400, crime 3,550/100k
Huntington, WV : home $118,800, crime 4,403/100k
Attleboro, MA : home $409,100, crime 1,347/100k
Salem, MA : home $497,400, crime 1,706/100k
Leominster, MA : home $345,000, crime 1,799/100k
Pittsfield, MA : home $233,700, crime 1,751/100k
Barnstable, MA : home $559,200, crime 1,196/100k
Everett, MA : home $605,200, crime 1,662/100k
How does Arlington compare to other US cities?
Arlington measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income93% higher than other cities
Home value96% pricier than other cities
Median rent98% pricier than other cities
Safety86% 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, Arlington ranks #34 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 Arlington 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 Arlington near the bottom of Massachusetts's cities
Among the 247 Massachusetts cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Arlington ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Arlington only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#35 of 233
85th percentile in Massachusetts
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 247
0th percentile in Massachusetts
Median Home Value
#24 of 240
90th percentile in Massachusetts
Poverty Rate
#130 of 247
44th percentile in Massachusetts
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#20 of 247
91st 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
93rd percentile nationally for median household income · 86th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Arlington's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Arlington'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 Arlington's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$885,0004th percentilemore affordable than 4% 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
Arlington's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,301 of 15,516
More affordable than 8% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,019 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 6.3×, Arlington sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,301 of 15,516 and #3,019 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
$141,440Arlington, MA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Arlington, 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 Arlington, MA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)74.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)71.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
46,015
Median Income
$141,440
Median Home Value
$885,000
Median Age
41.3
Poverty Rate
3.3%
Labor force participation
71.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
74.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
489.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
55.4
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
434.4
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
Average Commute Time
22.4 minutes
Drive Alone
45.8%
Carpool
3.4%
Public Transit
12.5%
Walk
2.0%
Work from Home
30.5%
Other
5.8%
Based on 26,776 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 Arlington. 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 Arlington 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 Arlington sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Arlington 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.