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Place dossier plate
SheetMA-SPENCER-MA · Spencer, MA 5,520 pop · income 35th 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 Spencer
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Spencer on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Adams · lowest
48,750
Adams · lowest
48,750 median HH income
19.5% of the leader · rank #1
Strasburg · near
59,614
Strasburg · near
59,614 median HH income
23.8% of the leader · rank #2
South Charles… · near
59,616
South Charles… · near
59,616 median HH income
23.8% of the leader · rank #3
Spencer · this city
59,618
Spencer · this city
59,618 median HH income
23.8% of the leader · rank #4
Floresville · near
59,618
Floresville · near
59,618 median HH income
23.8% of the leader · rank #5
Churubusco · near
59,621
Churubusco · near
59,621 median HH income
23.8% of the leader · rank #6
Noroton · highest
250,001
Noroton · 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 Spencer 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: 5,520.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Spencer - the verdict
Spencer ranks in the 35th percentile for household income and the 91st percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
35th
percentile, household income
65th
percentile, home value
98th
percentile, median rent
91st
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: Spencer, MA
Spencer is a small town in Massachusetts, home to 5,520 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Spencer brings in $59,618 a year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 1.6%. Spencer's housing stock carries a median value of $297,700, and the median resident age is 50.8 years. About 15.7% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 54.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Spencer reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 362.7 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: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Massachusetts scores 105.8 (Above Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $2,261 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Massachusetts run around $330, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. 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 Spencer'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 comparison shortlist to housing and income to schools and households to work and mobility to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Spencer, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count.
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.
1. Comparison shortlist
Which cities make useful reference points for Spencer?
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 Oxford (5,572 residents, $91,742 income); Adams (5,584 residents, $48,750 income); Scituate (5,602 residents, $126,379 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are White Hall, AR (5,520 residents); New Castle, DE (5,519 residents); Noroton, CT (5,522 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Spencer?
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 5.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 1.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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. 15.7% 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Spencer?
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.
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.
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 Spencer?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 362.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 84% 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
362.7
Violent rate
82.4
Property rate
280.3
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
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.
Poverty rate A
1.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime B+
82 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income F
$59,618
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
15.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; 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.
Spencer profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 89/100 (A) · 1.6%
Violent crime: 75/100 (B+) · 82 /100k
Household income: 34/100 (F) · $59,618
Bachelor's+ share: 22/100 (F) · 15.7%
Cost of living: 18/100 (F) · 105.8 index
Where Spencer sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Spencer'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 - Spencer highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Spencer, MA (this city): home $297,700, crime 363/100k
White Hall, AR : home $207,100, crime 1,167/100k
New Castle, DE : home $262,100, crime 3,909/100k
Berlin, WI : home $143,800, crime 533/100k
Oxford, MA : home $327,300, crime 900/100k
Adams, MA : home $189,100, crime 1,510/100k
Scituate, MA : home $699,200, crime 157/100k
Hingham, MA : home $1,216,800, crime 930/100k
How does Spencer compare to other US cities?
Here's how Spencer stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income35% higher than other cities
Home value65% pricier than other cities
Median rent98% pricier than other cities
Safety91% 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: Spencer ranks #21 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 Spencer 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 Spencer near the bottom of Massachusetts's cities
Among the 247 Massachusetts cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Spencer ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Spencer only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#209 of 233
10th percentile in Massachusetts
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 247
0th percentile in Massachusetts
Median Home Value
#208 of 240
13th percentile in Massachusetts
Poverty Rate
#193 of 247
21st percentile in Massachusetts
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#241 of 247
2nd 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
35th percentile nationally for median household income · 91st percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Spencer's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Spencer'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 Spencer's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$297,70035th percentilemore affordable than 35% 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
Spencer's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#12,869 of 15,516
More affordable than 17% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#9,746 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 5.0×, Spencer sits in the moderate band:
national rank #12,869 of 15,516 and #9,746 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
$59,618Spencer, MA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Spencer, 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 Spencer, MA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)15.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)1.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)54.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
5,520
Median Income
$59,618
Median Home Value
$297,700
Median Age
50.8
Poverty Rate
1.6%
Labor force participation
54.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
15.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
362.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
82.4
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
280.3
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
76.6%
Carpool
9.4%
Public Transit
4.3%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
9.7%
Based on 2,610 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 Spencer. 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 Spencer 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 Spencer sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Spencer 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.