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Place dossier plate
SheetMN-MADELIA-MN · Madelia, MN 2,380 pop · income 59th 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 Madelia
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Madelia on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Spruce Pine · lowest
47,583
Spruce Pine · lowest
47,583 median HH income
23.9% of the leader · rank #1
Madelia · this city
77,500
Madelia · this city
77,500 median HH income
38.9% of the leader · rank #2
Thorsby · near
77,500
Thorsby · near
77,500 median HH income
38.9% of the leader · rank #3
Noatak · near
77,500
Noatak · near
77,500 median HH income
38.9% of the leader · rank #4
Scotia · near
77,500
Scotia · near
77,500 median HH income
38.9% of the leader · rank #5
Salmon Brook · near
77,500
Salmon Brook · near
77,500 median HH income
38.9% of the leader · rank #6
Adamstown · highest
198,993
Adamstown · highest
198,993 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 Madelia 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: 2,380.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Madelia - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Madelia places in the 59th percentile for household income and the 90th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
59th
percentile, household income
29th
percentile, home value
36th
percentile, median rent
90th
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: Madelia, MN
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 2,380 residents in Madelia, a small town within Minnesota. Madelia households earn a median of $77,500 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 10.0%. Home values in Madelia run a median of $158,300, and the median resident age is 34.9 years. Educational attainment runs 18.9% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 69.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 2 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 100% from five years earlier. Madelia reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 380.2 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below 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: 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. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Minnesota run around $225, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Commute times here average 25.3 minutes, with 77.9% driving alone and 2.8% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. 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 Madelia'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 population change to housing and income to work and mobility to reported crime to schools and households to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Madelia, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, local building permits, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates.
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
Is Madelia growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +89 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +3.7% 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.
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.
How far does income reach against housing in Madelia?
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 2.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 10.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What does the journey to work look like in Madelia?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 77.9%. The reported mean trip to work is 25.3 minutes.
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 Madelia?
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 Lauderdale (2,386 residents, $76,558 income); Excelsior (2,359 residents, $108,611 income); Staples (2,359 residents, $51,506 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Westby, WI (2,380 residents); Adamstown, MD (2,381 residents); Spruce Pine, NC (2,381 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.
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 Madelia?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 380.2 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 83% 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
380.2
Violent rate
42.2
Property rate
338.0
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
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 2 public schools within the city match. 18.9% 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.
Poverty estimate
10.0%
Bachelor's degree+
18.9%
Matched public schools
2
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Above median income · poverty 10.0% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
98.6 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Minnesota average
C-
City profile score · Madelia, MN
53/100
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
42 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income C
$77,500
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); 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 D
10.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
18.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Madelia profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 86/100 (A) · 42 /100k
Household income: 57/100 (C) · $77,500
Cost of living: 46/100 (D) · 98.6 index
Poverty rate: 40/100 (D) · 10.0%
Bachelor's+ share: 31/100 (F) · 18.9%
Where Madelia sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Madelia'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 - Madelia highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Madelia, MN (this city): home $158,300, crime 380/100k
Spruce Pine, NC : home $202,300, crime 1,599/100k
Holyoke, CO : home $260,000, crime 176/100k
Lake Lotawana, MO : home $550,000, crime 889/100k
Staples, MN : home $119,300, crime 1,709/100k
Wells, MN : home $93,200, crime 292/100k
Janesville, MN : home $194,400, crime 523/100k
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 Madelia compare to other US cities?
Where Madelia sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income59% higher than other cities
Home value29% pricier than other cities
Median rent36% pricier than other cities
Safety90% 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 Minnesota alone, Madelia ranks #53 of 229 Minnesota 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 Madelia 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 Madelia near the bottom of Minnesota's cities
Among the 785 Minnesota cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Madelia ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Madelia only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#278 of 775
64th percentile in Minnesota
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 785
0th percentile in Minnesota
Median Home Value
#430 of 774
44th percentile in Minnesota
Poverty Rate
#198 of 785
74th percentile in Minnesota
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#448 of 784
42nd 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
59th percentile nationally for median household income · 90th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Madelia's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Madelia'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 Madelia's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$158,300Among the most affordablemore affordable than 71% 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
Madelia's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#1,783 of 15,516
More affordable than 89% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,703 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.0×, Madelia sits in the affordable band:
national rank #1,783 of 15,516 and #1,703 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
$77,500Madelia, MN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Madelia, 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 Madelia, MN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)18.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)10.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)69.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,380
Median Income
$77,500
Median Home Value
$158,300
Median Age
34.9
Poverty Rate
10.0%
Labor force participation
69.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
18.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
380.2
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
42.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
338.0
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
2
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Madelia's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,399 residents
2021
2,388 residents
2022
2,407 residents
2023
2,410 residents
2024
2,466 residents
2025
2,488 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
0.8
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
1
1
0
$0.3M
2020
5
5
0
$1.4M
2021
1
1
0
$0.3M
2022
3
3
0
$1.0M
2023
16
2
14
$2.6M
2024
2
2
0
$0.6M
Permit volume increased 100% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
25.3 minutes
Drive Alone
77.9%
Carpool
8.6%
Public Transit
2.3%
Walk
7.0%
Work from Home
2.8%
Other
1.4%
Based on 1,237 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 Madelia. 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 Madelia 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 Madelia sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Madelia 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.