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Place dossier plate
SheetMA-BELCHERTOWN-MA · Belchertown, MA 2,299 pop · income 47th 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 Belchertown
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Belchertown on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Cibecue · lowest
21,629
Cibecue · lowest
21,629 median HH income
8.7% of the leader · rank #1
Belchertown · this city
68,393
Belchertown · this city
68,393 median HH income
27.4% of the leader · rank #2
Micanopy · near
68,393
Micanopy · near
68,393 median HH income
27.4% of the leader · rank #3
Neck City · near
68,393
Neck City · near
68,393 median HH income
27.4% of the leader · rank #4
Harrells · near
68,393
Harrells · near
68,393 median HH income
27.4% of the leader · rank #5
Clarksville · near
68,393
Clarksville · near
68,393 median HH income
27.4% of the leader · rank #6
Dover · highest
250,001
Dover · 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 Belchertown 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: 2,299.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Belchertown - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Belchertown places in the 47th percentile for household income and the 75th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
47th
percentile, household income
69th
percentile, home value
98th
percentile, median rent
75th
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: Belchertown, MA
2,299 people live in Belchertown, Massachusetts - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Belchertown households earn a median of $68,393 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 10.2%. Typical homes in Belchertown are valued around $331,500, and the median resident age is 52.1 years. Educational attainment runs 42.5% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 56.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Belchertown reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 730.2 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 47.7°F with 47.5 inches of precipitation per year and 47.5 inches of snowfall.
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. 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 Belchertown'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 comparison shortlist to schools and households to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Belchertown, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What physical conditions frame life in Belchertown?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 47.7°F, with 47.5 inches of precipitation and 47.5 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.
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.
What does the journey to work look like in Belchertown?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 81.3%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
How far does income reach against housing in Belchertown?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 10.2%, 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Belchertown?
Within Massachusetts, the closest population matches are Cedar Crest (2,289 residents, $175,313 income); Sturbridge (2,277 residents, $129,413 income); Boxford (2,325 residents, $238,375 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Linden, AZ (2,299 residents); Spring City, TN (2,299 residents); Westover, AL (2,298 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.
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 Belchertown?
The NCES join finds 5 public schools within the city match. 42.5% 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.
Matched public schools
5
Bachelor's degree+
42.5%
Poverty estimate
10.2%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Belchertown?
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 730.2 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 68% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
521.5
Violent rate
208.6
Total reported rate
730.2
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Below median income · poverty 10.2% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
105.8 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, Massachusetts average
D
City profile score · Belchertown, MA
44/100
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 B+
42.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income D
$68,393
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime D
209 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate F
10.2%
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.
Belchertown profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 77/100 (B+) · 42.5%
Household income: 47/100 (D) · $68,393
Violent crime: 46/100 (D) · 209 /100k
Poverty rate: 39/100 (F) · 10.2%
Cost of living: 18/100 (F) · 105.8 index
Where Belchertown sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Belchertown'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 - Belchertown highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Belchertown, MA (this city): home $331,500, crime 730/100k
Spring City, TN : home $151,600, crime 615/100k
Tremont, IL : home $200,600, crime 537/100k
Mechanic Falls, ME : home $197,700, crime 827/100k
Sturbridge, MA : home $404,700, crime 1,066/100k
Boxford, MA : home $977,400, crime 145/100k
Dover, MA : home $1,230,600, crime 655/100k
Lunenburg, MA : home $439,600, crime 1,141/100k
How does Belchertown compare to other US cities?
Where Belchertown sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income47% higher than other cities
Home value69% pricier than other cities
Median rent98% pricier than other cities
Safety75% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Massachusetts and the picture shifts: Belchertown ranks #58 of 149 Massachusetts cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Belchertown 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 Belchertown near the bottom of Massachusetts's cities
Among the 247 Massachusetts cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Belchertown ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Belchertown only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#193 of 233
17th percentile in Massachusetts
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 247
0th percentile in Massachusetts
Median Home Value
#196 of 240
18th percentile in Massachusetts
Poverty Rate
#43 of 247
82nd percentile in Massachusetts
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#141 of 247
42nd 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
47th percentile nationally for median household income · 75th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Belchertown's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Belchertown'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 Belchertown's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$331,50031st percentilemore affordable than 31% 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
Belchertown's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#12,623 of 15,516
More affordable than 19% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#9,594 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.8×, Belchertown sits in the moderate band:
national rank #12,623 of 15,516 and #9,594 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
$68,393Belchertown, MA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Belchertown, 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 Belchertown, MA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)42.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)10.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)56.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,299
Median Income
$68,393
Median Home Value
$331,500
Median Age
52.1
Poverty Rate
10.2%
Labor force participation
56.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
42.5%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
730.2
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
208.6
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
521.5
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
47.7°F
Annual Precipitation
47.5"
Annual Snowfall
47.5"
Schools
Total Schools
5
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
81.3%
Carpool
2.2%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
1.8%
Work from Home
14.7%
Based on 1,079 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 Belchertown. 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 Belchertown 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 Belchertown sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Belchertown 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.