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-NORTHFIELD-MN · Northfield, MN 20,678 pop · income 72nd 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 Northfield
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Northfield on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
West Pensacola · lowest
38,641
West Pensacola · lowest
38,641 median HH income
30.4% of the leader · rank #1
Northfield · this city
92,000
Northfield · this city
92,000 median HH income
72.3% of the leader · rank #2
Point Lay · near
92,000
Point Lay · near
92,000 median HH income
72.3% of the leader · rank #3
Palm Valley · near
92,000
Palm Valley · near
92,000 median HH income
72.3% of the leader · rank #4
Carlyss · near
92,004
Carlyss · near
92,004 median HH income
72.3% of the leader · rank #5
Waterloo · near
92,005
Waterloo · near
92,005 median HH income
72.3% of the leader · rank #6
Otsego · highest
127,219
Otsego · highest
127,219 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 Northfield 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: 20,678.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Northfield - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Northfield lands in the 72nd percentile for household income and the 46th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
72nd
percentile, household income
66th
percentile, home value
36th
percentile, median rent
46th
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: Northfield, MN
20,678 people live in Northfield, Minnesota - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Northfield households earn a median of $92,000 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 4.4%. Typical homes in Northfield are valued around $305,300, and the median resident age is 28.3 years. Educational attainment runs 51.5% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 62.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 10 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 74% from five years earlier. Northfield reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 1502.4 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: 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. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Minnesota's average monthly utility costs around $225 (state average). The average commute for Northfield workers runs 15.2 minutes, with 56.5% driving alone and 19.5% 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 Northfield'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 reported crime to schools and households to comparison shortlist to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Northfield, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, annual population history, commute-mode shares, local building permits, 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.
1. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Northfield?
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 3.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 4.4%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Is Northfield growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +1,166 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +5.6% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 10 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Northfield?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1502.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 34% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Northfield?
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 Forest Lake (20,678 residents, $89,879 income); South St. Paul (20,633 residents, $84,472 income); West St. Paul (21,076 residents, $70,738 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are West Pensacola, FL (20,679 residents); Tullahoma, TN (20,672 residents); Marquette, MI (20,691 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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Northfield?
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. 51.5% 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
4.4%
Bachelor's degree+
51.5%
Matched public schools
12
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in Northfield?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 56.5%. 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. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Drive alone
56.5%
Work from home
19.5%
Public transit
0.7%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 10,704 workers age 16+.
Above median income · poverty 4.4% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
98.6 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Minnesota average
B-
City profile score · Northfield, MN
65/100
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 A
51.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income B
$92,000
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate B-
4.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime C
152 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger 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.
Northfield profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 85/100 (A) · 51.5%
Household income: 71/100 (B) · $92,000
Poverty rate: 69/100 (B-) · 4.4%
Violent crime: 58/100 (C) · 152 /100k
Cost of living: 46/100 (D) · 98.6 index
Where Northfield sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Northfield'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 - Northfield highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Northfield, MN (this city): home $305,300, crime 1,502/100k
Tullahoma, TN : home $228,800, crime 2,061/100k
Marquette, MI : home $254,100, crime 697/100k
Montrose, CO : home $359,000, crime 2,451/100k
Forest Lake, MN : home $375,900, crime 1,596/100k
South St. Paul, MN : home $266,800, crime 1,671/100k
West St. Paul, MN : home $281,800, crime 4,465/100k
Willmar, MN : home $186,000, crime 1,731/100k
New Hope, MN : home $314,600, crime 2,131/100k
How does Northfield compare to other US cities?
Here's how Northfield stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income72% higher than other cities
Home value66% pricier than other cities
Median rent36% pricier than other cities
Safety46% 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, Northfield ranks #160 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 Northfield 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 Northfield near the bottom of Minnesota's cities
Among the 785 Minnesota cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Northfield ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Northfield only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#169 of 775
78th percentile in Minnesota
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 785
0th percentile in Minnesota
Median Home Value
#141 of 774
82nd percentile in Minnesota
Poverty Rate
#461 of 785
41st percentile in Minnesota
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#53 of 784
93rd 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
72nd percentile nationally for median household income · 46th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Northfield's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Northfield'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 Northfield's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$305,30034th percentilemore affordable than 34% 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
Northfield's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#8,210 of 15,516
More affordable than 47% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,310 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.3×, Northfield sits in the moderate band:
national rank #8,210 of 15,516 and #1,310 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
$92,000Northfield, MN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Northfield, 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 Northfield, MN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)51.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)4.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)62.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
20,678
Median Income
$92,000
Median Home Value
$305,300
Median Age
28.3
Poverty Rate
4.4%
Labor force participation
62.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
51.5%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1502.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
151.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1350.8
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
12
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Northfield's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
20,826 residents
2021
20,849 residents
2022
21,038 residents
2023
21,575 residents
2024
21,933 residents
2025
21,992 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
10
housing units authorized
Single-Family
6
detached homes
Multifamily
4
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.5
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
39
13
26
$7.0M
2020
13
13
0
$4.8M
2021
85
19
66
$12.8M
2022
49
17
32
$17.5M
2023
26
22
4
$9.7M
2024
10
6
4
$4.1M
Permit volume decreased 74% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
15.2 minutes
Drive Alone
56.5%
Carpool
5.3%
Public Transit
0.7%
Walk
16.8%
Work from Home
19.5%
Other
1.2%
Based on 10,704 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 Northfield. 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 Northfield 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 Northfield sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Northfield 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.