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Place dossier plate
SheetME-LEWISTON-ME · Lewiston, ME 37,886 pop · income 30th pct · 32 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 Lewiston
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Lewiston on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Holyoke · lowest
51,892
Holyoke · lowest
51,892 median HH income
61.4% of the leader · rank #1
Cocoa · near
56,553
Cocoa · near
56,553 median HH income
66.9% of the leader · rank #2
Boston · near
56,557
Boston · near
56,557 median HH income
66.9% of the leader · rank #3
Lewiston · this city
56,558
Lewiston · this city
56,558 median HH income
66.9% of the leader · rank #4
Togiak · near
56,563
Togiak · near
56,563 median HH income
66.9% of the leader · rank #5
White Mountain · near
56,563
White Mountain · near
56,563 median HH income
66.9% of the leader · rank #6
South Portland · highest
84,563
South Portland · highest
84,563 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 Lewiston 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: 37,886.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Lewiston - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Lewiston places in the 30th percentile for household income and the 38th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
30th
percentile, household income
47th
percentile, home value
69th
percentile, median rent
38th
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: Lewiston, ME
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 37,886 residents in Lewiston, a small city within Maine. Lewiston households earn a median of $56,558 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 12.6%. Typical homes in Lewiston are valued around $214,200, and the median resident age is 37.8 years. Educational attainment runs 21.7% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 57.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 32 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 68% from five years earlier. Lewiston reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 1773.5 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 46.3°F with 45.2 inches of precipitation per year and 65.1 inches of snowfall.
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. Commute times here average 18.4 minutes, with 68.7% driving alone and 11.2% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. 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 Lewiston'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 climate and hazard context to reported crime to within-city variation to population change to housing and income to schools and households to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Lewiston, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, local building permits, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Lewiston?
Within Maine, the closest population matches are Bangor (31,663 residents, $58,096 income); South Portland (26,780 residents, $84,563 income); Auburn (24,294 residents, $66,552 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Longview, WA (37,836 residents); Tupelo, MS (37,825 residents); Holyoke, MA (37,949 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.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 46.3°F, with 45.2 inches of precipitation and 65.1 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Maine is 56.7 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Lewiston?
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 1773.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 22% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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 32 Census tracts to this city.
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.
Population change
Is Lewiston growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +1,756 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +4.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 32 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+4.7%
2025 estimate
38,866
2020 estimate
37,110
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
How far does income reach against housing in Lewiston?
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 12.6%, 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. 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.
Household income
$56,558
Home value
$214,200
Value / income
3.8×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
The NCES join finds 8 public schools within the city match. 21.7% 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.
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
8
Bachelor's degree+
21.7%
Poverty estimate
12.6%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in Lewiston?
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 68.7%. The reported mean trip to work is 18.4 minutes.
Public transit
0.8%
Work from home
11.2%
Drive alone
68.7%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 17,192 workers age 16+.
Below median income · poverty 12.6% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Maine average
F
City profile score · Lewiston, ME
38/100
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.
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.
Violent crime D
245 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
21.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$56,558
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
12.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Lewiston profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Violent crime: 41/100 (D) · 245 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 39/100 (F) · 21.7%
Household income: 29/100 (F) · $56,558
Poverty rate: 29/100 (F) · 12.6%
Where Lewiston sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Lewiston'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 - Lewiston highlighted among 13 peers.Read the chart values
Lewiston, ME (this city): home $214,200, crime 1,774/100k
Longview, WA : home $339,000, crime 3,392/100k
Tupelo, MS : home $201,300, crime 4,168/100k
Holyoke, MA : home $255,300, crime 5,273/100k
Portage, IN : home $210,800, crime 1,344/100k
Northglenn, CO : home $440,900, crime 3,010/100k
Montclair, CA : home $549,600, crime 4,290/100k
Bangor, ME : home $206,300, crime 4,399/100k
South Portland, ME : home $405,800, crime 1,433/100k
Auburn, ME : home $254,600, crime 2,644/100k
Biddeford, ME : home $349,300, crime 2,663/100k
Sanford, ME : home $257,200, crime 2,784/100k
Saco, ME : home $370,300, crime 1,159/100k
How does Lewiston compare to other US cities?
Lewiston measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income30% higher than other cities
Home value47% pricier than other cities
Median rent69% pricier than other cities
Safety38% 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, Lewiston ranks #55 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 Lewiston 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 Lewiston near the bottom of Maine's cities
Among the 154 Maine cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Lewiston ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Lewiston only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#78 of 145
46th percentile in Maine
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 154
0th percentile in Maine
Median Home Value
#75 of 151
50th percentile in Maine
Poverty Rate
#39 of 154
74th percentile in Maine
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#104 of 154
32nd 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
30th percentile nationally for median household income · 38th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Lewiston's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Lewiston'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 Lewiston's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$214,200Among the most affordablemore affordable than 53% 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
Lewiston'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
#10,016 of 15,516
More affordable than 35% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,778 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.8×, Lewiston sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,016 of 15,516 and #1,778 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
$56,558Lewiston, ME median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Lewiston, 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 Lewiston, ME.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)21.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)12.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)57.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
37,886
Median Income
$56,558
Median Home Value
$214,200
Median Age
37.8
Poverty Rate
12.6%
Labor force participation
57.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
21.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1773.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
244.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1529.0
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
46.3°F
Annual Precipitation
45.2"
Annual Snowfall
65.1"
Schools
Total Schools
8
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Lewiston's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
37,110 residents
2021
38,366 residents
2022
38,600 residents
2023
38,702 residents
2024
38,821 residents
2025
38,866 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
32
housing units authorized
Single-Family
32
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.8
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
19
19
0
$3.9M
2020
35
31
4
$6.5M
2021
65
30
35
$11.7M
2022
27
27
0
$6.9M
2023
20
20
0
$5.4M
2024
32
32
0
$7.0M
Permit volume increased 68% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
18.4 minutes
Drive Alone
68.7%
Carpool
10.9%
Public Transit
0.8%
Walk
7.0%
Work from Home
11.2%
Other
1.4%
Based on 17,192 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 Lewiston. 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 Lewiston 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 Lewiston sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Lewiston 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, NOAA Climate Normals, 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.