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.
Place dossier plate
SheetME-NORWAY-ME · Norway, ME 3,145 pop · income 9th 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 Norway
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Norway on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Altheimer · lowest
41,364
Altheimer · lowest
41,364 median HH income
25.7% of the leader · rank #1
Combee Settle… · near
41,366
Combee Settle… · near
41,366 median HH income
25.7% of the leader · rank #2
Campbell · near
41,368
Campbell · near
41,368 median HH income
25.7% of the leader · rank #3
Rio Grande Ci… · near
41,369
Rio Grande Ci… · near
41,369 median HH income
25.7% of the leader · rank #4
Norway · this city
41,370
Norway · this city
41,370 median HH income
25.7% of the leader · rank #5
Norway · near
41,375
Norway · near
41,375 median HH income
25.7% of the leader · rank #6
High Bridge · highest
160,938
High Bridge · highest
160,938 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 Norway 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: 3,145.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Norway - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Norway places in the 9th percentile for household income and the 34th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
9th
percentile, household income
18th
percentile, home value
69th
percentile, median rent
34th
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: Norway, ME
Maine's Norway is a small town, with 3,145 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. The typical household in Norway brings in $41,370 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 27.5%. Typical homes in Norway are valued around $121,200, and the median resident age is 47.1 years. Educational attainment runs 15.3% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 35.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 1923.1 incidents per 100,000 residents, near the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not 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. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,448 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $273 across Maine, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Natural-hazard exposure scores 56.7 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Norway'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 schools and households to comparison shortlist to work and mobility 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 Norway, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits, annual population history; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Norway?
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.
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 15.3% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Norway?
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 Maine, the closest population matches are Bucksport (3,140 residents, $58,644 income); Calais (3,087 residents, $48,654 income); Pittsfield (3,078 residents, $57,292 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Carrabelle, FL (3,145 residents); Brimfield, OH (3,144 residents); Sharpsburg, PA (3,146 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 journey to work look like in Norway?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 70.4%. 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Norway?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1923.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 16% 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.
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 Norway?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 27.5%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
2.9×
Home value
$121,200
Household income
$41,370
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 27.5% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Maine average
F
City profile score · Norway, ME
35/100
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.
Violent crime A+
19 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger 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
15.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$41,370
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
27.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Norway profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 92/100 (A+) · 19 /100k
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Bachelor's+ share: 21/100 (F) · 15.3%
Household income: 9/100 (F) · $41,370
Poverty rate: 3/100 (F) · 27.5%
Where Norway sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Norway'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 - Norway highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Norway, ME (this city): home $121,200, crime 1,923/100k
Sharpsburg, PA : home $118,800, crime 992/100k
Bucksport, ME : home $193,800, crime 595/100k
Calais, ME : home $111,800, crime 1,465/100k
Pittsfield, ME : home $151,100, crime 1,168/100k
Madawaska, ME : home $157,400, crime 440/100k
South Berwick, ME : home $340,800, crime 446/100k
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 Norway compare to other US cities?
Norway measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income9% higher than other cities
Home value18% pricier than other cities
Median rent69% pricier than other cities
Safety34% 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, Norway ranks #57 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 Norway 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 Norway near the bottom of Maine's cities
Among the 154 Maine cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Norway ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Norway only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#125 of 145
14th percentile in Maine
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 154
0th percentile in Maine
Median Home Value
#122 of 151
19th percentile in Maine
Poverty Rate
#6 of 154
96th percentile in Maine
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#127 of 154
18th 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
9th percentile nationally for median household income · 34th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Norway's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Norway'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 Norway's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$121,200Among the most affordablemore affordable than 82% 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
Norway's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#6,303 of 15,516
More affordable than 59% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#5,378 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.9×, Norway sits in the affordable band:
national rank #6,303 of 15,516 and #5,378 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
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
$41,370Norway, ME median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Norway, 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 Norway, ME.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)15.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)27.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)35.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
3,145
Median Income
$41,370
Median Home Value
$121,200
Median Age
47.1
Poverty Rate
27.5%
Labor force participation
35.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
15.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1923.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
18.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1904.4
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
70.4%
Carpool
20.1%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
2.4%
Work from Home
7.2%
Based on 977 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 Norway. 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 Norway 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 Norway sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Norway 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.