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.
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.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Ashland 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: 676.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Ashland - the verdict
Ashland ranks in the 97th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
23rd
percentile, home value
69th
percentile, median rent
97th
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: Ashland, ME
Maine's Ashland is a small town, with 676 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Ashland's housing stock carries a median value of $136,300, and the median resident age is 49.4 years. Educational attainment runs 18.2% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 54.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Ashland reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 165.6 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Maine tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: the state registers 97.1 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Near Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,448 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Maine run around $273, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 56.7 out of 100 (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Ashland'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 schools and households to reported crime to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Ashland, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Ashland?
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 80.0%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 18.2% 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 matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Ashland?
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 165.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 93% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Which cities make useful reference points for Ashland?
Within Maine, the closest population matches are Anson (687 residents, $52,083 income); Alfred (696 residents, $32,476 income); Corinna (636 residents, $48,393 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Chaires, FL (676 residents); Shiloh, GA (676 residents); East Galesburg, IL (676 residents). 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.
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.
Violent crime A+
0 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate B+
3.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Cost of living C-
97.1 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Bachelor's+ share F
18.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income N/A
N/A
No ACS median household income on file for this place.
Ashland profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 97/100 (A+) · 0 /100k
Poverty rate: 76/100 (B+) · 3.4%
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Bachelor's+ share: 29/100 (F) · 18.2%
Where Ashland sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Ashland'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 - Ashland highlighted among 23 peers.Read the chart values
Ashland, ME (this city): home $136,300, crime 166/100k
Shiloh, GA : home $168,300, crime 7,226/100k
Port Austin, MI : home $162,100, crime 920/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Ashland compare to other US cities?
Ashland measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Home value23% pricier than other cities
Median rent69% pricier than other cities
Safety97% 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 Maine, Ashland ranks #6 of 73 Maine 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 Ashland against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Maine only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Maine-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Ashland near the bottom of Maine's cities
Among the 154 Maine cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Ashland ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Ashland only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 154
0th percentile in Maine
Median Home Value
#116 of 151
23rd percentile in Maine
Poverty Rate
#112 of 154
27th percentile in Maine
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#116 of 154
25th percentile in Maine
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 Maine only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
97th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Ashland's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$136,300Among the most affordablemore affordable than 77% 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
Income distribution context
Median household income is not available for Ashland in the current Census ACS release (common for very small places).
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)18.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)54.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
676
Median Income
N/A
Median Home Value
$136,300
Median Age
49.4
Poverty Rate
3.4%
Labor force participation
54.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
18.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
165.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
165.6
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
1
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
80.0%
Carpool
0.0%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
3.8%
Work from Home
2.8%
Other
13.4%
Based on 290 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Maine statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $273
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Maine at $273 (electricity about $130 , water and sewer about $48 ).
These are Maine statewide averages, not a meter reading for Ashland. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Maine's BEA cost-of-living index is 97.1 (Near Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Ashland is $1,448/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Maine statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 56.7 / 100 (Moderate).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Maine statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Ashland sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Ashland compares to similar-size Maine 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.