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
SheetMN-BROOKLYN-CENTER-MN · Brooklyn Center, MN 32,811 pop · income 52nd 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 Brooklyn Center
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Brooklyn Center on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Desert Hot Sp… · lowest
50,349
Desert Hot Sp… · lowest
50,349 median HH income
24.2% of the leader · rank #1
Brinson · near
72,000
Brinson · near
72,000 median HH income
34.6% of the leader · rank #2
Burtons Bridge · near
72,000
Burtons Bridge · near
72,000 median HH income
34.6% of the leader · rank #3
Canton · near
72,000
Canton · near
72,000 median HH income
34.6% of the leader · rank #4
Boys Town · near
72,000
Boys Town · near
72,000 median HH income
34.6% of the leader · rank #5
Brooklyn Cent… · this city
72,009
Brooklyn Cent… · this city
72,009 median HH income
34.6% of the leader · rank #6
Los Gatos · highest
207,891
Los Gatos · highest
207,891 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 Brooklyn Center 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: 32,811.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Brooklyn Center - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Brooklyn Center places in the 52nd percentile for household income and the 12th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
52nd
percentile, household income
58th
percentile, home value
36th
percentile, median rent
12th
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: Brooklyn Center, MN
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 32,811 residents in Brooklyn Center, a small city within Minnesota. Households in Brooklyn Center report a median income of $72,009 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 8.0%. Home values in Brooklyn Center run a median of $261,100, and the median resident age is 32.8 years. 25.6% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 67.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 1 residential building permits were authorized in Brooklyn Center (Construction Slowdown), down 67% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Brooklyn Center's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 3367.9 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, above the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Minnesota tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: the state registers 98.6 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 $1,125 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Minnesota run around $225, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Workers in Brooklyn Center report an average commute of 19.9 minutes, with 67.9% driving alone and 12.3% working from home. 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 Brooklyn Center'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 housing and income to population change to comparison shortlist to schools and households to work and mobility to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Brooklyn Center, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, annual population history, matched public-school count.
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
How far does income reach against housing in Brooklyn Center?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 8.0%, 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. 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.
Is Brooklyn Center growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -1,812 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -5.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 1 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Which cities make useful reference points for Brooklyn Center?
Within Minnesota, the closest population matches are Andover (32,825 residents, $131,528 income); Savage (32,706 residents, $122,646 income); Fridley (29,944 residents, $79,274 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Bell, CA (32,830 residents); Desert Hot Springs, CA (32,786 residents); Menlo Park, CA (32,775 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 Brooklyn Center?
The NCES join finds 15 public schools within the city match. 25.6% 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.
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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Brooklyn Center?
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 67.9%. The reported mean trip to work is 19.9 minutes.
Public transit
3.7%
Work from home
12.3%
Drive alone
67.9%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 15,661 workers age 16+.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Brooklyn Center?
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 3367.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 48% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
2688.5
Violent rate
679.4
Total reported rate
3367.9
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Above median income · poverty 8.0% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
98.6 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Minnesota average
D
City profile score · Brooklyn Center, MN
41/100
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.
Household income C-
$72,009
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share C-
25.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate D
8.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
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 F
679 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Brooklyn Center profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 52/100 (C-) · $72,009
Bachelor's+ share: 50/100 (C-) · 25.6%
Poverty rate: 48/100 (D) · 8.0%
Cost of living: 46/100 (D) · 98.6 index
Violent crime: 6/100 (F) · 679 /100k
Where Brooklyn Center sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Brooklyn Center'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 - Brooklyn Center highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Brooklyn Center, MN (this city): home $261,100, crime 3,368/100k
Bell, CA : home $561,400, crime 1,745/100k
Desert Hot Springs, CA : home $309,300, crime 1,692/100k
Menlo Park, CA : home $2,000,000+, crime 2,010/100k
Los Gatos, CA : home $2,000,000+, crime 1,580/100k
Kaysville, UT : home $583,700, crime 629/100k
Savage, MN : home $395,600, crime 794/100k
Fridley, MN : home $277,100, crime 3,327/100k
Inver Grove Heights, MN : home $352,300, crime 1,560/100k
Roseville, MN : home $334,800, crime 8,897/100k
Richfield, MN : home $320,400, crime 2,728/100k
How does Brooklyn Center compare to other US cities?
Where Brooklyn Center sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income52% higher than other cities
Home value58% pricier than other cities
Median rent36% pricier than other cities
Safety12% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Minnesota and the picture shifts: Brooklyn Center ranks #220 of 229 Minnesota cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Brooklyn Center 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 Brooklyn Center near the bottom of Minnesota's cities
Among the 785 Minnesota cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Brooklyn Center ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Brooklyn Center only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#334 of 775
57th percentile in Minnesota
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 785
0th percentile in Minnesota
Median Home Value
#199 of 774
74th percentile in Minnesota
Poverty Rate
#260 of 785
67th percentile in Minnesota
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#281 of 784
64th 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
52nd percentile nationally for median household income · 12th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Brooklyn Center's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Brooklyn Center'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 Brooklyn Center's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$261,10042nd percentilemore affordable than 42% 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
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#9,455 of 15,516
More affordable than 39% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,611 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.6×, Brooklyn Center sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,455 of 15,516 and #1,611 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
$72,009Brooklyn Center, MN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Brooklyn Center, 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 Brooklyn Center, MN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)25.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)8.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)67.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
32,811
Median Income
$72,009
Median Home Value
$261,100
Median Age
32.8
Poverty Rate
8.0%
Labor force participation
67.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
25.6%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3367.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
679.4
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2688.5
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
15
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Brooklyn Center's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
33,658 residents
2021
32,925 residents
2022
32,289 residents
2023
31,847 residents
2024
31,876 residents
2025
31,846 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
1
housing units authorized
Single-Family
1
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
3
3
0
$0.6M
2020
2
2
0
$0.4M
2021
2
2
0
$0.4M
2022
2
2
0
$0.4M
2023
1
1
0
$0.2M
2024
1
1
0
$0.2M
Permit volume decreased 67% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
19.9 minutes
Drive Alone
67.9%
Carpool
13.9%
Public Transit
3.7%
Walk
0.6%
Work from Home
12.3%
Other
1.6%
Based on 15,661 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 Brooklyn Center. 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 Brooklyn Center 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 Brooklyn Center sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Brooklyn Center 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.