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Place dossier plate
SheetMN-BLUE-EARTH-MN · Blue Earth, MN 3,170 pop · income 34th pct · 6 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 Blue Earth
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Blue Earth on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
East Gaffney · lowest
26,314
East Gaffney · lowest
26,314 median HH income
27.1% of the leader · rank #1
Blue Earth · this city
59,118
Blue Earth · this city
59,118 median HH income
60.8% of the leader · rank #2
Fort Morgan · near
59,121
Fort Morgan · near
59,121 median HH income
60.8% of the leader · rank #3
Crab Orchard · near
59,122
Crab Orchard · near
59,122 median HH income
60.8% of the leader · rank #4
Sunny Isles B… · near
59,124
Sunny Isles B… · near
59,124 median HH income
60.9% of the leader · rank #5
Veedersburg · near
59,125
Veedersburg · near
59,125 median HH income
60.9% of the leader · rank #6
Eagle Lake · highest
97,161
Eagle Lake · highest
97,161 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 Blue Earth 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: 3,170.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Blue Earth - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Blue Earth lands in the 34th percentile for household income and the 83rd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
34th
percentile, household income
19th
percentile, home value
36th
percentile, median rent
83rd
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: Blue Earth, MN
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 3,170 residents in Blue Earth, a small town within Minnesota. Households in Blue Earth report a median income of $59,118 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 10.4%. Home values in Blue Earth run a median of $125,200, and the median resident age is 45.0 years. Educational attainment runs 26.2% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 60.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 4 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 100% from five years earlier. Blue Earth reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 569.4 crimes per 100,000 residents, below the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score).
Minnesota tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Minnesota at 98.6 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Near Average). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,125 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Minnesota's average monthly utility costs around $225 (state average). Natural-hazard exposure scores 42.4 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Blue Earth'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 work and mobility to comparison shortlist to within-city variation to reported crime to housing and income to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Blue Earth, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits, annual population history, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Blue Earth?
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.
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 26.2% 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Blue Earth?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 73.4%. 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Blue Earth?
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 Minnesota, the closest population matches are Proctor (3,102 residents, $80,913 income); Ely (3,239 residents, $46,042 income); Rush City (3,262 residents, $58,543 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Millersburg, OH (3,170 residents); Corning, AR (3,169 residents); Country Club, MO (3,171 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 can 6 Census tracts reveal inside Blue Earth?
PlainCities matches 6 Census tracts to this city.
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.
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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Blue Earth?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 569.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 75% 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.
Total reported rate
569.4
Violent rate
379.6
Property rate
189.8
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
How far does income reach against housing in Blue Earth?
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. The ratio makes housing the clearest place to start this profile, but a low multiple can coexist with slow demand, older stock, or household-level hardship. Compare the home-value distribution and same-state peer table before treating it as an advantage.
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 2.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 10.4%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
2.1×
Home value
$125,200
Household income
$59,118
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Is Blue Earth growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -4 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 4 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
2020 estimate
3,169
2025 estimate
3,165
Period change
-0.1%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Below median income · poverty 10.4% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
98.6 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Minnesota average
F
City profile score · Blue Earth, MN
37/100
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-
26.2%
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.
Poverty rate F
10.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$59,118
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
380 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Blue Earth profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 51/100 (C-) · 26.2%
Cost of living: 46/100 (D) · 98.6 index
Poverty rate: 38/100 (F) · 10.4%
Household income: 33/100 (F) · $59,118
Violent crime: 23/100 (F) · 380 /100k
Where Blue Earth sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Blue Earth'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 - Blue Earth highlighted among 25 peers.Read the chart values
Blue Earth, MN (this city): home $125,200, crime 569/100k
Corning, AR : home $85,800, crime 907/100k
Nevada City, CA : home $607,300, crime 2,985/100k
Proctor, MN : home $219,500, crime 715/100k
Ely, MN : home $150,800, crime 810/100k
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 Blue Earth compare to other US cities?
Here's how Blue Earth stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income34% higher than other cities
Home value19% pricier than other cities
Median rent36% pricier than other cities
Safety83% 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, Blue Earth ranks #79 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 Blue Earth 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 Blue Earth near the bottom of Minnesota's cities
Among the 785 Minnesota cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Blue Earth ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Blue Earth only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#538 of 775
31st percentile in Minnesota
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 785
0th percentile in Minnesota
Median Home Value
#544 of 774
30th percentile in Minnesota
Poverty Rate
#185 of 785
76th percentile in Minnesota
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#260 of 784
66th 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
34th percentile nationally for median household income · 83rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Blue Earth's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Blue Earth'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 Blue Earth's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$125,200Among the most affordablemore affordable than 81% 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
Blue Earth's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#2,075 of 15,516
More affordable than 87% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,965 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.1×, Blue Earth sits in the affordable band:
national rank #2,075 of 15,516 and #1,965 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
$59,118Blue Earth, MN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Blue Earth, 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 Blue Earth, MN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)26.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)10.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)60.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
3,170
Median Income
$59,118
Median Home Value
$125,200
Median Age
45.0
Poverty Rate
10.4%
Labor force participation
60.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
26.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
569.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
379.6
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
189.8
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
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Blue Earth's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
3,169 residents
2021
3,171 residents
2022
3,179 residents
2023
3,174 residents
2024
3,164 residents
2025
3,165 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
4
housing units authorized
Single-Family
4
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
2
2
0
$0.5M
2020
2
2
0
$0.5M
2021
2
2
0
$0.5M
2022
2
2
0
$0.5M
2023
0
0
0
-
2024
4
4
0
$1.4M
Permit volume increased 100% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
73.4%
Carpool
8.7%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
8.5%
Work from Home
9.3%
Based on 1,464 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 Blue Earth. 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 Blue Earth 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 Blue Earth sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Blue Earth 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.