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Place dossier plate
SheetMN-MOORHEAD-MN · Moorhead, MN 44,706 pop · income 49th pct · 16 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 Moorhead
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Moorhead on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
West Lafayette · lowest
33,497
West Lafayette · lowest
33,497 median HH income
27.6% of the leader · rank #1
Moorhead · this city
69,371
Moorhead · this city
69,371 median HH income
57.1% of the leader · rank #2
Ozark · near
69,372
Ozark · near
69,372 median HH income
57.1% of the leader · rank #3
Modesto · near
69,375
Modesto · near
69,375 median HH income
57.1% of the leader · rank #4
Seaton · near
69,375
Seaton · near
69,375 median HH income
57.1% of the leader · rank #5
Hawarden · near
69,375
Hawarden · near
69,375 median HH income
57.1% of the leader · rank #6
Cottage Grove · highest
121,452
Cottage Grove · highest
121,452 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 Moorhead 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: 44,706.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Moorhead - the verdict
Moorhead ranks in the 49th percentile for household income and the 31st percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
49th
percentile, household income
55th
percentile, home value
36th
percentile, median rent
31st
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: Moorhead, MN
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 44,706 residents in Moorhead, a small city within Minnesota. The typical household in Moorhead brings in $69,371 a year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 7.6%. Moorhead's housing stock carries a median value of $246,300, and the median resident age is 31.2 years. 42.3% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 67.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 227 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Growing), up 10% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 2040.8 incidents per 100,000 residents, near the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 42.2°F with 26.1 inches of precipitation per year and 52.7 inches of snowfall.
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. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,125 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $225 across Minnesota, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Workers in Moorhead report an average commute of 15.2 minutes, with 74.1% driving alone and 11.8% 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 Moorhead'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 climate and hazard context to within-city variation 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 Moorhead, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, annual population history.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
Is Moorhead growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +1,984 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +4.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 227 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 Moorhead?
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.
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 7.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
PlainCities matches 16 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Moorhead?
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 Mankato (44,882 residents, $64,826 income); Shakopee (45,002 residents, $110,989 income); Maplewood (40,981 residents, $88,534 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Cleveland Heights, OH (44,694 residents); North Lauderdale, FL (44,650 residents); Burlington, VT (44,649 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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Moorhead?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 74.1%. The reported mean trip to work is 15.2 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.
Drive alone
74.1%
Work from home
11.8%
Public transit
1.7%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 23,006 workers age 16+.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 42.2°F, with 26.1 inches of precipitation and 52.7 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Minnesota is 42.4 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
FEMA risk index (state avg)
42.4
Annual precipitation
26.1 in
Mean temperature
42.2°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Moorhead?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2040.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 11% 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
2040.8
Violent rate
365.4
Property rate
1675.3
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
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 12 public schools within the city match. 42.3% 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
7.6%
Bachelor's degree+
42.3%
Matched public schools
12
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Below median income · poverty 7.6% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
98.6 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Minnesota average
D
City profile score · Moorhead, MN
47/100
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 B+
42.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate D
7.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income D
$69,371
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.
Violent crime F
365 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Moorhead profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 77/100 (B+) · 42.3%
Poverty rate: 49/100 (D) · 7.6%
Household income: 48/100 (D) · $69,371
Cost of living: 46/100 (D) · 98.6 index
Violent crime: 24/100 (F) · 365 /100k
Where Moorhead sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Moorhead'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 - Moorhead highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Moorhead, MN (this city): home $246,300, crime 2,041/100k
Cleveland Heights, OH : home $176,700, crime 1,551/100k
Burlington, VT : home $400,200, crime 4,769/100k
West Lafayette, IN : home $318,100, crime 1,298/100k
Fairfield, OH : home $218,100, crime 1,659/100k
York, PA : home $103,100, crime 2,392/100k
Mankato, MN : home $250,600, crime 2,865/100k
Shakopee, MN : home $361,400, crime 1,275/100k
Maplewood, MN : home $291,300, crime 3,169/100k
Cottage Grove, MN : home $359,600, crime 721/100k
St. Louis Park, MN : home $371,600, crime 3,507/100k
Richfield, MN : home $320,400, crime 2,728/100k
How does Moorhead compare to other US cities?
Where Moorhead sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income49% higher than other cities
Home value55% pricier than other cities
Median rent36% pricier than other cities
Safety31% 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, Moorhead ranks #191 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 Moorhead 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 Moorhead near the bottom of Minnesota's cities
Among the 785 Minnesota cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Moorhead ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Moorhead only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#368 of 775
53rd percentile in Minnesota
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 785
0th percentile in Minnesota
Median Home Value
#224 of 774
71st percentile in Minnesota
Poverty Rate
#278 of 785
64th percentile in Minnesota
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#93 of 784
88th 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
49th percentile nationally for median household income · 31st percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Moorhead's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Moorhead'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 Moorhead's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$246,30045th percentilemore affordable than 45% 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
Moorhead's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#9,182 of 15,516
More affordable than 41% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,543 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.6×, Moorhead sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,182 of 15,516 and #1,543 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
$69,371Moorhead, MN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Moorhead, 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 Moorhead, MN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)42.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)7.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)67.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
44,706
Median Income
$69,371
Median Home Value
$246,300
Median Age
31.2
Poverty Rate
7.6%
Labor force participation
67.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
42.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2040.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
365.4
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1675.3
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
42.2°F
Annual Precipitation
26.1"
Annual Snowfall
52.7"
Schools
Total Schools
12
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Moorhead's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
44,549 residents
2021
44,797 residents
2022
45,073 residents
2023
45,427 residents
2024
46,170 residents
2025
46,533 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Growing
Total Permits (2024)
227
housing units authorized
Single-Family
72
detached homes
Multifamily
155
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
5.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
206
125
81
$35.0M
2020
231
129
102
$41.2M
2021
284
108
176
$49.9M
2022
198
59
139
$38.1M
2023
335
111
224
$56.4M
2024
227
72
155
$42.3M
Permit volume increased 10% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
15.2 minutes
Drive Alone
74.1%
Carpool
7.1%
Public Transit
1.7%
Walk
3.6%
Work from Home
11.8%
Other
1.7%
Based on 23,006 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 Moorhead. 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 Moorhead 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 Moorhead sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Moorhead 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, NOAA Climate Normals, 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.