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Place dossier plate
SheetMN-SLEEPY-EYE-MN · Sleepy Eye, MN 3,438 pop · income 43rd pct · 8 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 Sleepy Eye
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Sleepy Eye on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Somerville · lowest
31,063
Somerville · lowest
31,063 median HH income
15.8% of the leader · rank #1
Preston · near
64,803
Preston · near
64,803 median HH income
32.9% of the leader · rank #2
Heidelberg · near
64,804
Heidelberg · near
64,804 median HH income
32.9% of the leader · rank #3
Sleepy Eye · this city
64,811
Sleepy Eye · this city
64,811 median HH income
32.9% of the leader · rank #4
Harwich Port · near
64,813
Harwich Port · near
64,813 median HH income
32.9% of the leader · rank #5
Greenehaven · near
64,818
Greenehaven · near
64,818 median HH income
32.9% of the leader · rank #6
Tashua · highest
197,000
Tashua · highest
197,000 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 Sleepy Eye 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: 3,438.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Sleepy Eye - the verdict
Sleepy Eye ranks in the 43rd percentile for household income and the 79th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
43rd
percentile, household income
23rd
percentile, home value
36th
percentile, median rent
79th
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: Sleepy Eye, MN
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 3,438 residents in Sleepy Eye, a small town within Minnesota. Households in Sleepy Eye report a median income of $64,811 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 6.3%. Sleepy Eye's housing stock carries a median value of $138,500, and the median resident age is 41.7 years. 21.0% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 65.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 3 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 50% from five years earlier. Sleepy Eye reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 658.1 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as 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). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,125 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Minnesota run around $225, per EIA 2023 residential energy 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 Sleepy Eye'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 comparison shortlist to within-city variation to population change to schools and households to housing and income to work and mobility to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Sleepy Eye, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Sleepy Eye?
Within Minnesota, the closest population matches are Benson (3,449 residents, $51,124 income); Eveleth (3,470 residents, $47,721 income); Hanover (3,495 residents, $147,944 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Wallace, NC (3,438 residents); Dennis Port, MA (3,439 residents); West Nyack, NY (3,437 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.
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.
What can 8 Census tracts reveal inside Sleepy Eye?
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.
Is Sleepy Eye growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +18 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 3 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
What does the education layer cover for Sleepy Eye?
The NCES join finds 2 public schools within the city match. 21.0% 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.
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.
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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Sleepy Eye?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 2.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 6.3%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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.
Household income
$64,811
Home value
$138,500
Value / income
2.1×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What does the journey to work look like in Sleepy Eye?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. The profile is strongly car-oriented, so a relocation comparison should put trip distance, vehicle access, and household fuel costs ahead of a citywide commute average. The same-state peer links offer a more relevant benchmark than a national label.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 87.0%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
1.1%
Work from home
5.0%
Drive alone
87.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 1,790 workers age 16+.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Sleepy Eye?
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.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 658.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 71% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
543.6
Violent rate
114.4
Total reported rate
658.1
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Below median income · poverty 6.3% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
98.6 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Minnesota average
C-
City profile score · Sleepy Eye, MN
50/100
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 B-
114 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate C
6.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better 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.
Household income D
$64,811
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
21.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Sleepy Eye profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 67/100 (B-) · 114 /100k
Poverty rate: 57/100 (C) · 6.3%
Cost of living: 46/100 (D) · 98.6 index
Household income: 42/100 (D) · $64,811
Bachelor's+ share: 37/100 (F) · 21.0%
Where Sleepy Eye sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Sleepy Eye'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 - Sleepy Eye highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Sleepy Eye, MN (this city): home $138,500, crime 658/100k
Wallace, NC : home $192,800, crime 3,608/100k
Somerville, TN : home $301,400, crime 1,461/100k
West Point, VA : home $256,600, crime 867/100k
Benson, MN : home $146,100, crime 263/100k
Eveleth, MN : home $91,800, crime 2,517/100k
Plainview, MN : home $230,600, crime 226/100k
Breckenridge, MN : home $142,000, crime 879/100k
Montgomery, MN : home $218,900, crime 28/100k
How does Sleepy Eye compare to other US cities?
Here's how Sleepy Eye stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income43% higher than other cities
Home value23% pricier than other cities
Median rent36% pricier than other cities
Safety79% 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, Sleepy Eye ranks #94 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 Sleepy Eye 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 Sleepy Eye near the bottom of Minnesota's cities
Among the 785 Minnesota cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Sleepy Eye ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Sleepy Eye only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#440 of 775
43rd percentile in Minnesota
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 785
0th percentile in Minnesota
Median Home Value
#497 of 774
36th percentile in Minnesota
Poverty Rate
#342 of 785
56th percentile in Minnesota
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#372 of 784
52nd 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
43rd percentile nationally for median household income · 79th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Sleepy Eye's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Sleepy Eye'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 Sleepy Eye's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$138,500Among the most affordablemore affordable than 77% 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
Sleepy Eye's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#2,171 of 15,516
More affordable than 86% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,053 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.1×, Sleepy Eye sits in the affordable band:
national rank #2,171 of 15,516 and #2,053 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
$64,811Sleepy Eye, MN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Sleepy Eye, 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 Sleepy Eye, MN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)21.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)6.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)65.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
3,438
Median Income
$64,811
Median Home Value
$138,500
Median Age
41.7
Poverty Rate
6.3%
Labor force participation
65.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
21.0%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
658.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
114.4
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
543.6
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
Sleepy Eye's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
3,443 residents
2021
3,435 residents
2022
3,416 residents
2023
3,482 residents
2024
3,474 residents
2025
3,461 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
3
housing units authorized
Single-Family
3
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.9
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
2
2
0
$0.5M
2020
2
2
0
$0.7M
2021
2
2
0
$0.6M
2022
44
0
44
$5.7M
2023
3
3
0
$0.8M
2024
3
3
0
$1.0M
Permit volume increased 50% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
87.0%
Carpool
2.8%
Public Transit
1.1%
Walk
3.0%
Work from Home
5.0%
Other
1.1%
Based on 1,790 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 Sleepy Eye. 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 Sleepy Eye 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 Sleepy Eye sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Sleepy Eye 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.