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Place dossier plate
SheetMA-ATHOL-MA · Athol, MA 8,711 pop · income 38th 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 Athol
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Athol on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Port Jervis · lowest
50,721
Port Jervis · lowest
50,721 median HH income
20.3% of the leader · rank #1
Cortland · near
61,740
Cortland · near
61,740 median HH income
24.7% of the leader · rank #2
Athol · this city
61,742
Athol · this city
61,742 median HH income
24.7% of the leader · rank #3
North Fond du… · near
61,744
North Fond du… · near
61,744 median HH income
24.7% of the leader · rank #4
Thorne Bay · near
61,750
Thorne Bay · near
61,750 median HH income
24.7% of the leader · rank #5
Gillham · near
61,750
Gillham · near
61,750 median HH income
24.7% of the leader · rank #6
Glencoe · highest
250,001
Glencoe · highest
250,001 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 Athol 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: 8,711.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Athol - the verdict
Athol ranks in the 38th percentile for household income and the 56th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
38th
percentile, household income
50th
percentile, home value
98th
percentile, median rent
56th
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: Athol, MA
Athol is a small town in Massachusetts, home to 8,711 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Athol brings in $61,742 a year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 17.2%. Athol's housing stock carries a median value of $227,000, and the median resident age is 36.7 years. About 21.9% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 56.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Athol reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 1183.7 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. 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 Athol'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 reported crime to work and mobility to schools and households to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Athol, 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. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Athol?
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 3.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 17.2%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Athol?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1183.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 48% 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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 71.5%. 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 Athol?
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 Andover (9,261 residents, $127,054 income); Middleborough Center (8,064 residents, $79,520 income); Plymouth (7,852 residents, $72,639 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Millersville, PA (8,711 residents); Wyoming, OH (8,712 residents); Port Jervis, NY (8,709 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.
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 Athol?
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 3 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
17.2%
Bachelor's degree+
21.9%
Matched public schools
3
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Below median income · poverty 17.2% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
105.8 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, Massachusetts average
F
City profile score · Athol, MA
26/100
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 D
21.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$61,742
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
17.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
452 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger 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.
Athol profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 40/100 (D) · 21.9%
Household income: 37/100 (F) · $61,742
Poverty rate: 19/100 (F) · 17.2%
Violent crime: 19/100 (F) · 452 /100k
Cost of living: 18/100 (F) · 105.8 index
Where Athol sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Athol'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 - Athol highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Athol, MA (this city): home $227,000, crime 1,184/100k
Millersville, PA : home $265,500, crime 480/100k
Wyoming, OH : home $404,500, crime 694/100k
Port Jervis, NY : home $220,700, crime 1,951/100k
Glencoe, IL : home $1,354,900, crime 625/100k
Lake Villa, IL : home $325,900, crime 605/100k
Andover, MA : home $719,900, crime 872/100k
Plymouth, MA : home $426,000, crime 1,018/100k
Hull, MA : home $606,100, crime 727/100k
How does Athol compare to other US cities?
Where Athol sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income38% higher than other cities
Home value50% pricier than other cities
Median rent98% pricier than other cities
Safety56% 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, Athol ranks #98 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 Athol 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 Athol near the bottom of Massachusetts's cities
Among the 247 Massachusetts cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Athol ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Athol only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#206 of 233
12th percentile in Massachusetts
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 247
0th percentile in Massachusetts
Median Home Value
#232 of 240
3rd percentile in Massachusetts
Poverty Rate
#7 of 247
97th percentile in Massachusetts
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#227 of 247
8th 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
38th percentile nationally for median household income · 56th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Athol's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Athol'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 Athol's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$227,000Among the most affordablemore affordable than 50% 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
Athol's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#9,636 of 15,516
More affordable than 38% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#7,678 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.7×, Athol sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,636 of 15,516 and #7,678 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
$61,742Athol, MA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Athol, 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 Athol, MA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)21.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)17.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)56.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
8,711
Median Income
$61,742
Median Home Value
$227,000
Median Age
36.7
Poverty Rate
17.2%
Labor force participation
56.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
21.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1183.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
452.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
731.6
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
3
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
71.5%
Carpool
11.8%
Public Transit
1.1%
Walk
6.1%
Work from Home
8.2%
Other
1.3%
Based on 3,741 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 Athol. 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 Athol 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 Athol sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Athol 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.