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Place dossier plate
SheetME-WALDOBORO-ME · Waldoboro, ME 1,487 pop · income 45th pct · 10 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 Waldoboro
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Waldoboro on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Kenton · lowest
40,993
Kenton · lowest
40,993 median HH income
25.5% of the leader · rank #1
Banner Hill · near
66,270
Banner Hill · near
66,270 median HH income
41.2% of the leader · rank #2
Waldoboro · this city
66,290
Waldoboro · this city
66,290 median HH income
41.2% of the leader · rank #3
Cheektowaga · near
66,293
Cheektowaga · near
66,293 median HH income
41.2% of the leader · rank #4
Gilbertown · near
66,300
Gilbertown · near
66,300 median HH income
41.2% of the leader · rank #5
Delhi · near
66,306
Delhi · near
66,306 median HH income
41.3% of the leader · rank #6
Diablo Grande · highest
160,741
Diablo Grande · highest
160,741 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 Waldoboro 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: 1,487.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Waldoboro - the verdict
Nationally, Waldoboro sits in the 45th percentile for household income and the 62nd percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
45th
percentile, household income
61st
percentile, home value
69th
percentile, median rent
62nd
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: Waldoboro, ME
Maine's Waldoboro is a small town, with 1,487 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $66,290 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 0.0%. Waldoboro's housing stock carries a median value of $277,200, and the median resident age is 53.6 years. About 23.2% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 56.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Waldoboro reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 1041.3 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as 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. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,448 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $273 across Maine, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Waldoboro'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 schools and households to work and mobility to housing and income to reported crime to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Waldoboro, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for annual population history, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Waldoboro?
Within Maine, the closest population matches are Randolph (1,479 residents, $52,917 income); Newport (1,469 residents, $42,740 income); Kennebunkport (1,450 residents, $118,922 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Quincy, MI (1,487 residents); Lone Jack, MO (1,487 residents); Helena, OK (1,487 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 does the education layer cover for Waldoboro?
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 23.2% 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 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Waldoboro?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. The profile is strongly car-oriented, so a relocation comparison should put trip distance, vehicle access, and household fuel costs ahead of a citywide commute average. The same-state peer links offer a more relevant benchmark than a national label.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 88.2%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
What can 10 Census tracts reveal inside Waldoboro?
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 10 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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Waldoboro?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 0.0%, 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
$66,290
Home value
$277,200
Value / income
4.2×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Waldoboro?
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 1041.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 54% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1004.1
Violent rate
37.2
Total reported rate
1041.3
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Below median income · poverty 0.0% (Very low poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Maine average
B-
City profile score · Waldoboro, ME
66/100
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.
Poverty rate A+
0.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime A
37 /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.
Household income D
$66,290
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share D
23.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Waldoboro profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 100/100 (A+) · 0.0%
Violent crime: 87/100 (A) · 37 /100k
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Household income: 44/100 (D) · $66,290
Bachelor's+ share: 44/100 (D) · 23.2%
Where Waldoboro sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Waldoboro'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 - Waldoboro highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Waldoboro, ME (this city): home $277,200, crime 1,041/100k
Lone Jack, MO : home $307,400, crime 1,098/100k
Newport, ME : home $162,800, crime 1,139/100k
Kennebunkport, ME : home $805,200, crime 646/100k
Falmouth, ME : home $737,300, crime 654/100k
Milo, ME : home $88,000, crime 875/100k
Freeport, ME : home $344,100, crime 1,114/100k
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 Waldoboro compare to other US cities?
Waldoboro measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income45% higher than other cities
Home value61% pricier than other cities
Median rent69% pricier than other cities
Safety62% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Maine and the picture shifts: Waldoboro ranks #35 of 73 Maine cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Waldoboro 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 Waldoboro near the bottom of Maine's cities
Among the 154 Maine cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Waldoboro ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Waldoboro only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#53 of 145
63rd percentile in Maine
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 154
0th percentile in Maine
Median Home Value
#52 of 151
66th percentile in Maine
Poverty Rate
#126 of 154
0th percentile in Maine
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#95 of 154
37th 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
45th percentile nationally for median household income · 62nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Waldoboro's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Waldoboro'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 Waldoboro's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$277,20039th percentilemore affordable than 39% 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
Waldoboro's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,194 of 15,516
More affordable than 28% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#8,684 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.2×, Waldoboro sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,194 of 15,516 and #8,684 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
$66,290Waldoboro, ME median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Waldoboro, 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 Waldoboro, ME.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)23.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)0.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)56.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,487
Median Income
$66,290
Median Home Value
$277,200
Median Age
53.6
Poverty Rate
0.0%
Labor force participation
56.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
23.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1041.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
37.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1004.1
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
88.2%
Carpool
7.0%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
1.4%
Work from Home
3.4%
Based on 772 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 Waldoboro. 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 Waldoboro 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 Waldoboro sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Waldoboro 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.