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Place dossier plate
SheetMN-ROCHESTER-MN · Rochester, MN 121,638 pop · income 69th pct · 35 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 Rochester
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Rochester on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
College Stati… · lowest
51,776
College Stati… · lowest
51,776 median HH income
37.5% of the leader · rank #1
Doe Valley · near
87,757
Doe Valley · near
87,757 median HH income
63.5% of the leader · rank #2
Morton · near
87,760
Morton · near
87,760 median HH income
63.5% of the leader · rank #3
Dayton · near
87,763
Dayton · near
87,763 median HH income
63.5% of the leader · rank #4
Rochester · this city
87,767
Rochester · this city
87,767 median HH income
63.5% of the leader · rank #5
Castlewood · near
87,768
Castlewood · near
87,768 median HH income
63.5% of the leader · rank #6
Lakeville · highest
138,119
Lakeville · highest
138,119 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 Rochester 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: 121,638.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Rochester - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Rochester lands in the 69th percentile for household income and the 45th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
69th
percentile, household income
63rd
percentile, home value
36th
percentile, median rent
45th
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: Rochester, MN
Rochester is a mid-sized U.S. city in Minnesota, home to 121,638 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Rochester brings in $87,767 a year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 5.6%. Rochester's housing stock carries a median value of $287,500, and the median resident age is 36.4 years. Educational attainment runs 50.1% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 67.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 1,118 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Rapid Growth), up 44% from five years earlier. Rochester reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 1522.5 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 44.8°F with 34.7 inches of precipitation per year and 53.1 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. 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). Commute times here average 15.0 minutes, with 65.5% driving alone and 12.9% 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 Rochester'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 comparison shortlist to climate and hazard context to schools and households to work and mobility to reported crime to within-city variation to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Rochester, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Rochester?
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 5.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Rochester?
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 Bloomington (88,838 residents, $90,677 income); Duluth (86,863 residents, $66,263 income); Brooklyn Park (84,349 residents, $85,964 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Lafayette, LA (121,537 residents); Independence, MO (121,944 residents); Ann Arbor, MI (121,179 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.
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 44.8°F, with 34.7 inches of precipitation and 53.1 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.
What can 35 Census tracts reveal inside Rochester?
PlainCities matches 35 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.
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 Rochester?
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 48 public schools within the city match. 50.1% 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
5.6%
Bachelor's degree+
50.1%
Matched public schools
48
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in Rochester?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 65.5%. The reported mean trip to work is 15.0 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
65.5%
Work from home
12.9%
Public transit
4.1%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 63,906 workers age 16+.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Rochester?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1522.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 33% 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
1522.5
Violent rate
154.0
Property rate
1368.4
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Is Rochester growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +2,701 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +2.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 1,118 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.
2020 estimate
121,591
2025 estimate
124,292
Period change
+2.2%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Above median income · poverty 5.6% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
98.6 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Minnesota average
C+
City profile score · Rochester, MN
62/100
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-
50.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income B-
$87,767
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate C+
5.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime C
154 /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.
Rochester profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 84/100 (A-) · 50.1%
Household income: 67/100 (B-) · $87,767
Poverty rate: 62/100 (C+) · 5.6%
Violent crime: 57/100 (C) · 154 /100k
Cost of living: 46/100 (D) · 98.6 index
Where Rochester sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Rochester'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 - Rochester highlighted among 13 peers.Read the chart values
Rochester, MN (this city): home $287,500, crime 1,523/100k
Lafayette, LA : home $251,300, crime 5,414/100k
Independence, MO : home $166,400, crime 4,095/100k
Ann Arbor, MI : home $435,100, crime 2,018/100k
College Station, TX : home $326,500, crime 1,273/100k
Clovis, CA : home $453,300, crime 1,911/100k
Arvada, CO : home $600,800, crime 2,765/100k
Bloomington, MN : home $346,200, crime 3,776/100k
Duluth, MN : home $225,700, crime 3,174/100k
Brooklyn Park, MN : home $313,500, crime 2,770/100k
Plymouth, MN : home $474,700, crime 1,075/100k
Woodbury, MN : home $434,900, crime 1,279/100k
Lakeville, MN : home $425,200, crime 648/100k
How does Rochester compare to other US cities?
Where Rochester sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income69% higher than other cities
Home value63% pricier than other cities
Median rent36% pricier than other cities
Safety45% 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, Rochester ranks #161 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 Rochester 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 Rochester near the bottom of Minnesota's cities
Among the 785 Minnesota cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Rochester ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Rochester only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#199 of 775
74th percentile in Minnesota
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 785
0th percentile in Minnesota
Median Home Value
#160 of 774
79th percentile in Minnesota
Poverty Rate
#378 of 785
51st percentile in Minnesota
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#61 of 784
92nd 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
69th percentile nationally for median household income · 45th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Rochester's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Rochester'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 Rochester's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$287,50037th percentilemore affordable than 37% 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
Rochester'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
#8,005 of 15,516
More affordable than 48% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#161 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 3.3×, Rochester sits in the moderate band:
national rank #8,005 of 15,516 and #161 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
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
$87,767Rochester, MN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Rochester, 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 Rochester, MN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)50.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)5.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)67.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
121,638
Median Income
$87,767
Median Home Value
$287,500
Median Age
36.4
Poverty Rate
5.6%
Labor force participation
67.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
50.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1522.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
154.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1368.4
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
44.8°F
Annual Precipitation
34.7"
Annual Snowfall
53.1"
Schools
Total Schools
48
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Rochester's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
121,591 residents
2021
121,808 residents
2022
121,797 residents
2023
122,506 residents
2024
123,209 residents
2025
124,292 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Rapid Growth
Total Permits (2024)
1,118
housing units authorized
Single-Family
193
detached homes
Multifamily
925
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
9.2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
774
296
478
$133.9M
2020
425
296
129
$97.4M
2021
625
251
374
$137.5M
2022
1,081
234
847
$195.3M
2023
792
241
551
$176.7M
2024
1,118
193
925
$251.5M
Permit volume increased 44% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
15.0 minutes
Drive Alone
65.5%
Carpool
11.1%
Public Transit
4.1%
Walk
4.3%
Work from Home
12.9%
Other
2.1%
Based on 63,906 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 Rochester. 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 Rochester 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 Rochester sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Rochester 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.