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Place dossier plate
SheetME-BIDDEFORD-ME · Biddeford, ME 22,463 pop · income 49th pct · 59 tracts
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 Biddeford
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Biddeford on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Central Falls · lowest
45,921
Central Falls · lowest
45,921 median HH income
37.2% of the leader · rank #1
Dyer · near
69,792
Dyer · near
69,792 median HH income
56.6% of the leader · rank #2
Daisy · near
69,792
Daisy · near
69,792 median HH income
56.6% of the leader · rank #3
Irwin · near
69,792
Irwin · near
69,792 median HH income
56.6% of the leader · rank #4
Charlotte · near
69,792
Charlotte · near
69,792 median HH income
56.6% of the leader · rank #5
Biddeford · this city
69,794
Biddeford · this city
69,794 median HH income
56.6% of the leader · rank #6
McNair · highest
123,327
McNair · highest
123,327 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 Biddeford 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: 22,463.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Biddeford - the verdict
Nationally, Biddeford sits in the 49th percentile for household income and the 20th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
49th
percentile, household income
72nd
percentile, home value
69th
percentile, median rent
20th
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: Biddeford, ME
Maine's Biddeford is a small city, with 22,463 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. The typical household in Biddeford brings in $69,794 a year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 11.2%. Home values in Biddeford run a median of $349,300, and the median resident age is 36.1 years. About 30.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 65.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 63 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 350% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 2662.5 crimes per 100,000 residents, near the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score).
Maine tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Maine scores 97.1 (Near Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,448 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $273 across Maine, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. The average commute for Biddeford workers runs 19.9 minutes, with 68.2% driving alone and 12.3% working from home. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 56.7 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Biddeford'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 reported crime to comparison shortlist to within-city variation to population change to housing and income to work and mobility to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Biddeford, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Biddeford?
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 2662.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 17% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Which cities make useful reference points for Biddeford?
Within Maine, the closest population matches are Sanford (22,095 residents, $70,570 income); Saco (20,636 residents, $84,328 income); Auburn (24,294 residents, $66,552 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Villa Park, IL (22,456 residents); Roselle, NJ (22,455 residents); McNair, VA (22,451 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.
What can 59 Census tracts reveal inside Biddeford?
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
PlainCities matches 59 Census tracts to this city.
Is Biddeford growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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 -155 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 63 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Biddeford?
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 11.2%, 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.
Household income
$69,794
Home value
$349,300
Value / income
5.0×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What does the journey to work look like in Biddeford?
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 68.2%. The reported mean trip to work is 19.9 minutes.
Public transit
0.8%
Work from home
12.3%
Drive alone
68.2%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 12,647 workers age 16+.
What does the education layer cover for Biddeford?
The NCES join finds 5 public schools within the city match. 30.4% 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.
Matched public schools
5
Bachelor's degree+
30.4%
Poverty estimate
11.2%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Below median income · poverty 11.2% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Maine average
D
City profile score · Biddeford, ME
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 C
30.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
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.
Household income D
$69,794
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
11.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
314 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Biddeford profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 59/100 (C) · 30.4%
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Household income: 49/100 (D) · $69,794
Poverty rate: 35/100 (F) · 11.2%
Violent crime: 31/100 (F) · 314 /100k
Where Biddeford sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Biddeford'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 - Biddeford highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Biddeford, ME (this city): home $349,300, crime 2,663/100k
Villa Park, IL : home $313,100, crime 1,748/100k
Roselle, NJ : home $336,500, crime 1,311/100k
Central Falls, RI : home $300,500, crime 1,329/100k
East Peoria, IL : home $160,800, crime 2,629/100k
Sanford, ME : home $257,200, crime 2,784/100k
Saco, ME : home $370,300, crime 1,159/100k
Auburn, ME : home $254,600, crime 2,644/100k
Westbrook, ME : home $341,800, crime 1,330/100k
Augusta, ME : home $188,900, crime 4,342/100k
South Portland, ME : home $405,800, crime 1,433/100k
How does Biddeford compare to other US cities?
Biddeford measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income49% higher than other cities
Home value72% pricier than other cities
Median rent69% pricier than other cities
Safety20% 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 Maine alone, Biddeford ranks #65 of 73 Maine 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 Biddeford 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 Biddeford near the bottom of Maine's cities
Among the 154 Maine cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Biddeford ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Biddeford only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#46 of 145
68th percentile in Maine
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 154
0th percentile in Maine
Median Home Value
#33 of 151
78th percentile in Maine
Poverty Rate
#47 of 154
69th percentile in Maine
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#68 of 154
56th 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
49th percentile nationally for median household income · 20th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Biddeford's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Biddeford'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 Biddeford's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$349,30028th percentilemore affordable than 28% 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
Biddeford's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#12,888 of 15,516
More affordable than 17% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,603 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 5.0×, Biddeford sits in the pressured band:
national rank #12,888 of 15,516 and #2,603 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
$69,794Biddeford, ME median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Biddeford, ME median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Biddeford, ME.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)30.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)11.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)65.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
22,463
Median Income
$69,794
Median Home Value
$349,300
Median Age
36.1
Poverty Rate
11.2%
Labor force participation
65.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
30.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2662.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
313.8
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2348.7
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
Biddeford's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
22,554 residents
2021
22,533 residents
2022
22,519 residents
2023
22,598 residents
2024
22,442 residents
2025
22,399 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
63
housing units authorized
Single-Family
24
detached homes
Multifamily
39
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2.8
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
14
14
0
$2.5M
2020
17
17
0
$3.0M
2021
21
21
0
$3.8M
2022
20
20
0
$3.6M
2023
16
16
0
$2.9M
2024
63
24
39
$17.8M
Permit volume increased 350% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
19.9 minutes
Drive Alone
68.2%
Carpool
10.4%
Public Transit
0.8%
Walk
7.5%
Work from Home
12.3%
Other
0.8%
Based on 12,647 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 Biddeford. 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 Biddeford 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 Biddeford sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Biddeford 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 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.