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Place dossier plate
SheetMA-NORTHAMPTON-MA · Northampton, MA 28,640 pop · income 60th 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 Northampton
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Northampton on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Danville · lowest
44,239
Danville · lowest
44,239 median HH income
24.8% of the leader · rank #1
Cottage City · near
78,456
Cottage City · near
78,456 median HH income
44.1% of the leader · rank #2
Cowley · near
78,456
Cowley · near
78,456 median HH income
44.1% of the leader · rank #3
Agricola · near
78,462
Agricola · near
78,462 median HH income
44.1% of the leader · rank #4
Northampton · this city
78,467
Northampton · this city
78,467 median HH income
44.1% of the leader · rank #5
Elk Rapids · near
78,472
Elk Rapids · near
78,472 median HH income
44.1% of the leader · rank #6
Milton · highest
178,053
Milton · highest
178,053 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 Northampton 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: 28,640.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Northampton - the verdict
Nationally, Northampton sits in the 60th percentile for household income and the 39th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
60th
percentile, household income
77th
percentile, home value
98th
percentile, median rent
39th
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: Northampton, MA
Massachusetts's Northampton is a small city, with 28,640 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Northampton households earn a median of $78,467 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 7.9%. Typical homes in Northampton are valued around $398,000, and the median resident age is 41.7 years. About 61.3% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 58.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 58 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 93% from five years earlier. Northampton reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 1717.2 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). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $2,261 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $330 across Massachusetts, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Northampton'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 comparison shortlist to schools and households to population change to reported crime to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Northampton, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, matched public-school count, local building permits.
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 Northampton?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 59.7%. 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. 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Northampton?
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 West Springfield (28,635 residents, $70,401 income); Bridgewater (28,669 residents, $112,482 income); Saugus (28,599 residents, $100,819 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Newburgh, NY (28,649 residents); Carney, MD (28,624 residents); Danville, IL (28,663 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.
What does the education layer cover for Northampton?
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 4 public schools within the city match. 61.3% 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.
Is Northampton growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +1,748 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +6.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 58 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 upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
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 Northampton?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1717.2 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 25% 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.
Total reported rate
1717.2
Violent rate
445.1
Property rate
1272.1
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
How far does income reach against housing in Northampton?
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 5.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 7.9%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
5.1×
Home value
$398,000
Household income
$78,467
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Above median income · poverty 7.9% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
105.8 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, Massachusetts average
D
City profile score · Northampton, MA
45/100
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 A+
61.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income C
$78,467
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate D
7.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
445 /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.
Northampton profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 92/100 (A+) · 61.3%
Household income: 58/100 (C) · $78,467
Poverty rate: 48/100 (D) · 7.9%
Violent crime: 19/100 (F) · 445 /100k
Cost of living: 18/100 (F) · 105.8 index
Where Northampton sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Northampton'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 - Northampton highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Northampton, MA (this city): home $398,000, crime 1,717/100k
Newburgh, NY : home $221,100, crime 2,901/100k
Danville, IL : home $76,800, crime 7,361/100k
Slidell, LA : home $207,800, crime 2,541/100k
Daphne, AL : home $309,700, crime 899/100k
West Springfield, MA : home $307,900, crime 3,589/100k
Bridgewater, MA : home $500,600, crime 275/100k
Saugus, MA : home $589,500, crime 1,652/100k
Agawam, MA : home $290,000, crime 1,331/100k
Milton, MA : home $896,500, crime 614/100k
Danvers, MA : home $611,200, crime 1,618/100k
How does Northampton compare to other US cities?
Where Northampton sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income60% higher than other cities
Home value77% pricier than other cities
Median rent98% pricier than other cities
Safety39% 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, Northampton ranks #127 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 Northampton 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 Northampton near the bottom of Massachusetts's cities
Among the 247 Massachusetts cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Northampton ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Northampton only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#170 of 233
27th percentile in Massachusetts
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 247
0th percentile in Massachusetts
Median Home Value
#173 of 240
28th percentile in Massachusetts
Poverty Rate
#65 of 247
74th percentile in Massachusetts
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#55 of 247
78th 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
60th percentile nationally for median household income · 39th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Northampton's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Northampton'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 Northampton's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$398,00023rd percentilemore affordable than 23% 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
Northampton's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#13,026 of 15,516
More affordable than 16% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,651 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 5.1×, Northampton sits in the pressured band:
national rank #13,026 of 15,516 and #2,651 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
$78,467Northampton, MA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Northampton, 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 Northampton, MA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)61.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)7.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)58.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
28,640
Median Income
$78,467
Median Home Value
$398,000
Median Age
41.7
Poverty Rate
7.9%
Labor force participation
58.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
61.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1717.2
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
445.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1272.1
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
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Northampton's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
29,299 residents
2021
31,511 residents
2022
31,371 residents
2023
31,316 residents
2024
31,327 residents
2025
31,047 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
58
housing units authorized
Single-Family
36
detached homes
Multifamily
22
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
30
20
10
$7.2M
2020
29
21
8
$7.2M
2021
34
24
10
$8.4M
2022
37
22
15
$8.5M
2023
44
14
30
$18.2M
2024
58
36
22
$30.9M
Permit volume increased 93% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
59.7%
Carpool
5.2%
Public Transit
2.9%
Walk
8.7%
Work from Home
21.9%
Other
1.6%
Based on 14,281 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 Northampton. 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 Northampton 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 Northampton sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Northampton 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.