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-NORTH-ADAMS-MA · North Adams, MA 12,660 pop · income 17th 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 North Adams
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest North Adams on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Canóvanas zon… · lowest
43,804
Canóvanas zon… · lowest
43,804 median HH income
25.4% of the leader · rank #1
North Adams · this city
48,521
North Adams · this city
48,521 median HH income
28.1% of the leader · rank #2
Aguila · near
48,523
Aguila · near
48,523 median HH income
28.1% of the leader · rank #3
Mesa Verde · near
48,523
Mesa Verde · near
48,523 median HH income
28.1% of the leader · rank #4
Goldonna · near
48,523
Goldonna · near
48,523 median HH income
28.1% of the leader · rank #5
Quapaw · near
48,523
Quapaw · near
48,523 median HH income
28.1% of the leader · rank #6
Lynnfield · highest
172,484
Lynnfield · highest
172,484 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 North Adams 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: 12,660.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
North Adams - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, North Adams places in the 17th percentile for household income and the 9th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
17th
percentile, household income
38th
percentile, home value
98th
percentile, median rent
9th
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: North Adams, MA
12,660 people live in North Adams, Massachusetts - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $48,521 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 12.8%. North Adams's housing stock carries a median value of $185,300, and the median resident age is 44.4 years. About 27.0% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 51.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 2 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Low Activity). North Adams's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 3751.5 in FBI UCR data, above 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. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Massachusetts's average monthly utility costs around $330 (state average). On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 78.8 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of North Adams'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 reported crime to housing and income to schools and households to population change to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For North Adams, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, commute-mode shares, annual population history, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates.
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 journey to work look like in North Adams?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 72.1%. 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in North Adams?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 3751.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 65% higher 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.
How far does income reach against housing in North Adams?
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 3.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 12.8%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for North Adams?
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 Palmer (12,372 residents, $78,789 income); Lynnfield (12,964 residents, $172,484 income); Webster (12,300 residents, $60,384 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Verde, AZ (12,662 residents); Canóvanas zona urbana, PR (12,662 residents); Enumclaw, WA (12,663 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 North Adams?
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 5 public schools within the city match. 27.0% 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
12.8%
Bachelor's degree+
27.0%
Matched public schools
5
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Is North Adams growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -364 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.9% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 2 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
2020 estimate
12,732
2025 estimate
12,368
Period change
-2.9%
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 C-
27.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
12.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$48,521
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.
Violent crime F
1,194 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
North Adams profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 53/100 (C-) · 27.0%
Poverty rate: 29/100 (F) · 12.8%
Household income: 18/100 (F) · $48,521
Cost of living: 18/100 (F) · 105.8 index
Violent crime: 0/100 (F) · 1,194 /100k
Where North Adams sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
North Adams'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 - North Adams highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
North Adams, MA (this city): home $185,300, crime 3,752/100k
Enumclaw, WA : home $498,700, crime 1,478/100k
Eufaula, AL : home $137,400, crime 3,297/100k
Robinson, TX : home $269,000, crime 623/100k
Palmer, MA : home $255,000, crime 949/100k
Lynnfield, MA : home $904,200, crime 955/100k
Webster, MA : home $303,900, crime 1,438/100k
Holbrook, MA : home $436,500, crime 1,693/100k
Nantucket, MA : home $1,359,200, crime 1,116/100k
How does North Adams compare to other US cities?
Where North Adams sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income17% higher than other cities
Home value38% pricier than other cities
Median rent98% pricier than other cities
Safety9% 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, North Adams ranks #148 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 North Adams 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 North Adams near the bottom of Massachusetts's cities
Among the 247 Massachusetts cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, North Adams ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares North Adams only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#232 of 233
0th percentile in Massachusetts
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 247
0th percentile in Massachusetts
Median Home Value
#240 of 240
0th percentile in Massachusetts
Poverty Rate
#23 of 247
91st percentile in Massachusetts
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#205 of 247
17th 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
17th percentile nationally for median household income · 9th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
North Adams's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
North Adams'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 North Adams's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$185,300Among the most affordablemore affordable than 62% 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
North Adams's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,127 of 15,516
More affordable than 35% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,808 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.8×, North Adams sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,127 of 15,516 and #1,808 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
$48,521North Adams, MA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context North Adams, 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 North Adams, MA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)27.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)12.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)51.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
12,660
Median Income
$48,521
Median Home Value
$185,300
Median Age
44.4
Poverty Rate
12.8%
Labor force participation
51.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
27.0%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3751.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
1194.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2557.5
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.
Schools
Total Schools
5
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
North Adams's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
12,732 residents
2021
12,653 residents
2022
12,556 residents
2023
12,511 residents
2024
12,457 residents
2025
12,368 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Low Activity
Total Permits (2024)
2
housing units authorized
Single-Family
2
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
0
0
0
-
2021
2
2
0
$0.5M
2022
3
3
0
$0.8M
2023
1
1
0
$0.9M
2024
2
2
0
$1.7M
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
72.1%
Carpool
8.3%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
9.4%
Work from Home
9.7%
Based on 5,294 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 North Adams. 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 North Adams 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 North Adams sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How North Adams 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.