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Place dossier plate
SheetMA-HOLYOKE-MA · Holyoke, MA 37,949 pop · income 23rd 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 Holyoke
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Holyoke on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Hot Springs · lowest
46,441
Hot Springs · lowest
46,441 median HH income
37.1% of the leader · rank #1
Holyoke · this city
51,892
Holyoke · this city
51,892 median HH income
41.4% of the leader · rank #2
Oroville · near
51,893
Oroville · near
51,893 median HH income
41.4% of the leader · rank #3
Poplar-Cotton… · near
51,893
Poplar-Cotton… · near
51,893 median HH income
41.4% of the leader · rank #4
Struthers · near
51,894
Struthers · near
51,894 median HH income
41.4% of the leader · rank #5
Piedmont · near
51,896
Piedmont · near
51,896 median HH income
41.4% of the leader · rank #6
Braintree · highest
125,305
Braintree · highest
125,305 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 Holyoke 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: 37,949.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Holyoke - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Holyoke lands in the 23rd percentile for household income and the 3rd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
23rd
percentile, household income
57th
percentile, home value
98th
percentile, median rent
3rd
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: Holyoke, MA
37,949 people live in Holyoke, Massachusetts - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Holyoke brings in $51,892 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 18.0%. Holyoke's housing stock carries a median value of $255,300, and the median resident age is 39.1 years. Educational attainment runs 24.3% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 52.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 10 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Rapid Growth), up 25% from five years earlier. Holyoke's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 5273.1 crimes per 100,000 residents, above the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than 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. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $2,261 monthly. 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 Holyoke'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 schools and households to housing and income to work and mobility to reported crime to comparison shortlist to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Holyoke, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, annual population history, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Holyoke?
The NCES join finds 14 public schools within the city match. 24.3% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Holyoke?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 18.0%, 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Holyoke?
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 76.6%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Which cities make useful reference points for Holyoke?
Within Massachusetts, the closest population matches are Braintree (38,762 residents, $125,305 income); Chelsea (39,460 residents, $72,220 income); Amherst (35,472 residents, $65,938 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Portage, IN (37,951 residents); Northglenn, CO (37,953 residents); Adelanto, CA (38,010 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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Holyoke?
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 5273.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 131% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
4232.1
Violent rate
1041.0
Total reported rate
5273.1
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -119 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.3% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 10 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
-0.3%
2025 estimate
38,023
2020 estimate
38,142
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
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
24.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$51,892
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.
Poverty rate F
18.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
1,041 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Holyoke profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 47/100 (D) · 24.3%
Household income: 23/100 (F) · $51,892
Cost of living: 18/100 (F) · 105.8 index
Poverty rate: 17/100 (F) · 18.0%
Violent crime: 0/100 (F) · 1,041 /100k
Where Holyoke sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Holyoke'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 - Holyoke highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Holyoke, MA (this city): home $255,300, crime 5,273/100k
Portage, IN : home $210,800, crime 1,344/100k
Northglenn, CO : home $440,900, crime 3,010/100k
Adelanto, CA : home $318,300, crime 1,560/100k
Lewiston, ME : home $214,200, crime 1,774/100k
Hot Springs, AR : home $156,900, crime 4,697/100k
Braintree, MA : home $623,200, crime 1,405/100k
Chelsea, MA : home $476,500, crime 2,415/100k
Amherst, MA : home $454,000, crime 467/100k
Watertown, MA : home $737,600, crime 2,012/100k
Westfield, MA : home $295,500, crime 998/100k
Woburn, MA : home $641,800, crime 1,142/100k
How does Holyoke compare to other US cities?
Holyoke measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income23% higher than other cities
Home value57% pricier than other cities
Median rent98% pricier than other cities
Safety3% 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, Holyoke ranks #149 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 Holyoke 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 Holyoke near the bottom of Massachusetts's cities
Among the 247 Massachusetts cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Holyoke ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Holyoke only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#229 of 233
2nd percentile in Massachusetts
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 247
0th percentile in Massachusetts
Median Home Value
#224 of 240
7th percentile in Massachusetts
Poverty Rate
#6 of 247
98th percentile in Massachusetts
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#218 of 247
12th 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
23rd percentile nationally for median household income · 3rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Holyoke's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Holyoke'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 Holyoke's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$255,30043rd percentilemore affordable than 43% 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
Holyoke's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#12,754 of 15,516
More affordable than 18% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,568 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 4.9×, Holyoke sits in the moderate band:
national rank #12,754 of 15,516 and #2,568 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$51,892Holyoke, MA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Holyoke, 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 Holyoke, MA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)24.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)18.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)52.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
37,949
Median Income
$51,892
Median Home Value
$255,300
Median Age
39.1
Poverty Rate
18.0%
Labor force participation
52.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
24.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
5273.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
1041.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
4232.1
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
14
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Holyoke's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
38,142 residents
2021
37,708 residents
2022
37,661 residents
2023
37,919 residents
2024
38,028 residents
2025
38,023 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Rapid Growth
Total Permits (2024)
10
housing units authorized
Single-Family
4
detached homes
Multifamily
6
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
8
4
4
$1.8M
2020
3
3
0
$0.5M
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
5
3
2
$1.0M
2023
14
4
10
$2.3M
2024
10
4
6
$1.2M
Permit volume increased 25% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
76.6%
Carpool
8.4%
Public Transit
2.7%
Walk
2.4%
Work from Home
9.1%
Other
0.8%
Based on 15,530 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 Holyoke. 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 Holyoke 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 Holyoke sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Holyoke 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 BPS 2024, 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.