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Place dossier plate
SheetMN-PERHAM-MN · Perham, MN 3,577 pop · income 15th pct · 17 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 Perham
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Perham on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Tees Toh · lowest
47,083
Tees Toh · lowest
47,083 median HH income
30.4% of the leader · rank #1
Clearfield · near
47,083
Clearfield · near
47,083 median HH income
30.4% of the leader · rank #2
Melbeta · near
47,083
Melbeta · near
47,083 median HH income
30.4% of the leader · rank #3
Rainsburg · near
47,083
Rainsburg · near
47,083 median HH income
30.4% of the leader · rank #4
Perham · this city
47,088
Perham · this city
47,088 median HH income
30.4% of the leader · rank #5
Del Monte For… · highest
154,730
Del Monte For… · highest
154,730 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #6
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 Perham 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: 3,577.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Perham - the verdict
Nationally, Perham sits in the 15th percentile for household income and the 90th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
15th
percentile, household income
38th
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: Perham, MN
Perham is a small town in Minnesota, home to 3,577 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Perham households earn a median of $47,088 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 14.5%. Home values in Perham run a median of $186,000, and the median resident age is 35.0 years. 28.7% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 57.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 16 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 433% from five years earlier. Perham reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 376.5 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. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,125 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $225 across Minnesota, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Perham'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 within-city variation 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 Perham, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
Is Perham growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +222 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +6.3% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 16 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 Perham?
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 4.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 14.5%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
PlainCities matches 17 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 Perham?
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 St. Augusta (3,576 residents, $116,384 income); Two Harbors (3,598 residents, $62,885 income); Melrose (3,608 residents, $58,107 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are North Cape May, NJ (3,577 residents); Del Monte Forest, CA (3,576 residents); Osage, IA (3,578 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 Perham?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 74.8%. 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.
Drive alone
74.8%
Work from home
6.8%
Public transit
0.7%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 1,469 workers age 16+.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Perham?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 376.5 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
376.5
Violent rate
0.0
Property rate
376.5
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 4 public schools within the city match. 28.7% 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
14.5%
Bachelor's degree+
28.7%
Matched public schools
4
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Minnesota average
D
City profile score · Perham, MN
46/100
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+
0 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share C
28.7%
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
14.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$47,088
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Perham profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 97/100 (A+) · 0 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 56/100 (C) · 28.7%
Cost of living: 46/100 (D) · 98.6 index
Poverty rate: 24/100 (F) · 14.5%
Household income: 16/100 (F) · $47,088
Where Perham sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Perham'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 - Perham highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Perham, MN (this city): home $186,000, crime 377/100k
Osage, IA : home $141,800, crime 742/100k
O'Neill, NE : home $130,900, crime 252/100k
Two Harbors, MN : home $187,100, crime 600/100k
Melrose, MN : home $198,300, crime 305/100k
Plainview, MN : home $230,600, crime 226/100k
Long Prairie, MN : home $130,100, crime 1,048/100k
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 Perham compare to other US cities?
Here's how Perham stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income15% higher than other cities
Home value38% 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.
Zoom in to just Minnesota and the picture shifts: Perham ranks #52 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 Perham 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 Perham near the bottom of Minnesota's cities
Among the 785 Minnesota cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Perham ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Perham only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#698 of 775
10th percentile in Minnesota
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 785
0th percentile in Minnesota
Median Home Value
#347 of 774
55th percentile in Minnesota
Poverty Rate
#90 of 785
88th percentile in Minnesota
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#226 of 784
71st 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
15th percentile nationally for median household income · 90th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Perham's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Perham'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 Perham's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$186,000Among the most affordablemore affordable than 62% 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
Perham's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,557 of 15,516
More affordable than 32% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#8,274 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.0×, Perham sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,557 of 15,516 and #8,274 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$47,088Perham, MN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Perham, 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 Perham, MN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)28.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)14.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)57.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
3,577
Median Income
$47,088
Median Home Value
$186,000
Median Age
35.0
Poverty Rate
14.5%
Labor force participation
57.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
28.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
376.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
376.5
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
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Perham's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
3,524 residents
2021
3,608 residents
2022
3,645 residents
2023
3,686 residents
2024
3,718 residents
2025
3,746 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
16
housing units authorized
Single-Family
8
detached homes
Multifamily
8
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
4.5
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
3
3
0
$0.3M
2020
47
5
42
$4.4M
2021
14
14
0
$3.5M
2022
22
10
12
$3.5M
2023
20
10
10
$3.3M
2024
16
8
8
$3.0M
Permit volume increased 433% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
74.8%
Carpool
9.0%
Public Transit
0.7%
Walk
8.4%
Work from Home
6.8%
Based on 1,469 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 Perham. 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 Perham 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 Perham sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Perham 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.