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Place dossier plate
SheetMN-ANOKA-MN · Anoka, MN 17,941 pop · income 56th 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 Anoka
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Anoka on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Portsmouth · lowest
35,319
Portsmouth · lowest
35,319 median HH income
27.0% of the leader · rank #1
North Gates · near
75,257
North Gates · near
75,257 median HH income
57.5% of the leader · rank #2
Crooked River… · near
75,260
Crooked River… · near
75,260 median HH income
57.5% of the leader · rank #3
Anoka · this city
75,262
Anoka · this city
75,262 median HH income
57.5% of the leader · rank #4
Cheney · near
75,263
Cheney · near
75,263 median HH income
57.5% of the leader · rank #5
Utica · near
75,268
Utica · near
75,268 median HH income
57.5% of the leader · rank #6
St. Michael · highest
130,814
St. Michael · highest
130,814 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 Anoka 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: 17,941.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Anoka - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Anoka places in the 56th percentile for household income and the 48th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
56th
percentile, household income
64th
percentile, home value
36th
percentile, median rent
48th
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: Anoka, MN
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 17,941 residents in Anoka, a small town within Minnesota. Anoka households earn a median of $75,262 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 5.5%. Typical homes in Anoka are valued around $292,900, and the median resident age is 40.0 years. Educational attainment runs 27.4% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 61.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 2 residential building permits were authorized in Anoka (Building Boom), up 100% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Anoka reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 1431.6 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Minnesota tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Minnesota scores 98.6 (Near Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,125 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Minnesota run around $225, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. The average commute for Anoka workers runs 22.5 minutes, with 77.4% driving alone and 10.2% working from home. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 42.4 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Anoka'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 work and mobility to schools and households to population change to housing and income to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Anoka, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Anoka?
Within Minnesota, the closest population matches are Albert Lea (18,379 residents, $62,522 income); Hopkins (18,696 residents, $71,170 income); Red Wing (16,660 residents, $65,259 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Los Lunas, NM (17,932 residents); Mount Holly, NC (17,928 residents); Stanford, CA (17,958 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.
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 77.4%. The reported mean trip to work is 22.5 minutes.
The NCES join finds 11 public schools within the city match. 27.4% 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.
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 +265 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 2 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 Anoka?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 5.5%, 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
$75,262
Home value
$292,900
Value / income
3.9×
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 Anoka?
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 1431.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 37% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1187.4
Violent rate
244.1
Total reported rate
1431.6
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Above median income · poverty 5.5% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
98.6 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Minnesota average
C-
City profile score · Anoka, MN
52/100
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 C+
5.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income C
$75,262
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share C-
27.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Cost of living D
98.6 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
244 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Anoka profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 62/100 (C+) · 5.5%
Household income: 55/100 (C) · $75,262
Bachelor's+ share: 53/100 (C-) · 27.4%
Cost of living: 46/100 (D) · 98.6 index
Violent crime: 41/100 (D) · 244 /100k
Where Anoka sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Anoka'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 - Anoka highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Anoka, MN (this city): home $292,900, crime 1,432/100k
Los Lunas, NM : home $232,700, crime 3,496/100k
Mount Holly, NC : home $286,400, crime 1,755/100k
Ashtabula, OH : home $99,200, crime 1,106/100k
Portsmouth, OH : home $95,000, crime 4,572/100k
El Reno, OK : home $157,000, crime 1,563/100k
Albert Lea, MN : home $150,400, crime 1,698/100k
Hopkins, MN : home $350,100, crime 1,577/100k
Red Wing, MN : home $224,800, crime 2,355/100k
Stillwater, MN : home $398,100, crime 949/100k
How does Anoka compare to other US cities?
Here's how Anoka stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income56% higher than other cities
Home value64% pricier than other cities
Median rent36% pricier than other cities
Safety48% 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 Minnesota, Anoka ranks #155 of 229 Minnesota 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 Anoka against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Minnesota only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Minnesota-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Anoka near the bottom of Minnesota's cities
Among the 785 Minnesota cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Anoka ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Anoka only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#300 of 775
61st percentile in Minnesota
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 785
0th percentile in Minnesota
Median Home Value
#156 of 774
80th percentile in Minnesota
Poverty Rate
#387 of 785
50th percentile in Minnesota
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#246 of 784
68th percentile in Minnesota
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 Minnesota only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
56th percentile nationally for median household income · 48th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Anoka's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Anoka'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 Anoka's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$292,90036th percentilemore affordable than 36% 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
Anoka's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,369 of 15,516
More affordable than 33% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,885 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.9×, Anoka sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,369 of 15,516 and #1,885 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
$75,262Anoka, MN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Anoka, MN median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Anoka, MN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)27.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)5.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)61.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
17,941
Median Income
$75,262
Median Home Value
$292,900
Median Age
40.0
Poverty Rate
5.5%
Labor force participation
61.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
27.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1431.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
244.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1187.4
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
11
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Anoka's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
17,904 residents
2021
17,955 residents
2022
18,010 residents
2023
18,027 residents
2024
18,133 residents
2025
18,169 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
2
housing units authorized
Single-Family
2
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
1
1
0
$0.2M
2020
48
16
32
$9.1M
2021
127
40
87
$34.4M
2022
38
38
0
$9.1M
2023
8
8
0
$2.4M
2024
2
2
0
$0.5M
Permit volume increased 100% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
22.5 minutes
Drive Alone
77.4%
Carpool
8.9%
Public Transit
0.5%
Walk
1.0%
Work from Home
10.2%
Other
2.0%
Based on 8,650 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Minnesota statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $225
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Minnesota at $225 (electricity about $95 , water and sewer about $45 ).
These are Minnesota statewide averages, not a meter reading for Anoka. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Minnesota's BEA cost-of-living index is 98.6 (Near Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Anoka is $1,125/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Minnesota statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 42.4 / 100 (Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Minnesota statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Anoka sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Anoka compares to similar-size Minnesota 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.