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Place dossier plate
SheetMN-WAITE-PARK-MN · Waite Park, MN 8,341 pop · income 30th 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 Waite Park
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Waite Park on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Houghton · lowest
35,417
Houghton · lowest
35,417 median HH income
19.5% of the leader · rank #1
Grants Pass · near
56,877
Grants Pass · near
56,877 median HH income
31.3% of the leader · rank #2
Sturgeon Bay · near
56,882
Sturgeon Bay · near
56,882 median HH income
31.3% of the leader · rank #3
Waite Park · this city
56,884
Waite Park · this city
56,884 median HH income
31.3% of the leader · rank #4
Bellair-Meado… · near
56,887
Bellair-Meado… · near
56,887 median HH income
31.3% of the leader · rank #5
Orono · near
56,890
Orono · near
56,890 median HH income
31.3% of the leader · rank #6
Orono · highest
181,875
Orono · highest
181,875 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 Waite Park 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: 8,341.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Waite Park - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Waite Park places in the 30th percentile for household income and the 6th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
30th
percentile, household income
48th
percentile, home value
36th
percentile, median rent
6th
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: Waite Park, MN
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 8,341 residents in Waite Park, a small town within Minnesota. Waite Park households earn a median of $56,884 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 15.1%. Typical homes in Waite Park are valued around $217,000, and the median resident age is 39.3 years. Educational attainment runs 17.6% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 58.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 4 residential building permits were authorized in Waite Park (Slowing), down 20% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Waite Park's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 4231.5 incidents per 100,000 residents, above the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects 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). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,125 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Minnesota's average monthly utility costs around $225 (state average). 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 Waite Park'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 reported crime to housing and income to work and mobility to schools and households to population change to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Waite Park, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits.
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.
Question 1
What can the FBI record say about safety in Waite Park?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 4231.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 86% higher 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Waite Park?
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 3.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 15.1%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What does the journey to work look like in Waite Park?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 80.6%. 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Waite Park?
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 Virginia (8,362 residents, $48,321 income); Dayton (8,381 residents, $137,383 income); St. Francis (8,279 residents, $101,875 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Houghton, MI (8,341 residents); Fort Stockton, TX (8,340 residents); Kenilworth, NJ (8,339 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 Waite Park?
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. 17.6% 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
15.1%
Bachelor's degree+
17.6%
Matched public schools
4
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Is Waite Park growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +112 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.3% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 4 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
8,338
2025 estimate
8,450
Period change
+1.3%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Below median income · poverty 15.1% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
98.6 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Minnesota average
F
City profile score · Waite Park, MN
38/100
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 C+
131 /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.
Household income F
$56,884
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
17.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
15.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Waite Park profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 63/100 (C+) · 131 /100k
Cost of living: 46/100 (D) · 98.6 index
Household income: 30/100 (F) · $56,884
Bachelor's+ share: 27/100 (F) · 17.6%
Poverty rate: 22/100 (F) · 15.1%
Where Waite Park sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Waite Park'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 - Waite Park highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Waite Park, MN (this city): home $217,000, crime 4,232/100k
Houghton, MI : home $233,700, crime 794/100k
Fort Stockton, TX : home $176,600, crime 413/100k
Kenilworth, NJ : home $521,100, crime 870/100k
Newton, NJ : home $282,300, crime 890/100k
Clinton, NC : home $185,600, crime 3,843/100k
Virginia, MN : home $117,500, crime 2,557/100k
Dayton, MN : home $510,600, crime 435/100k
St. Francis, MN : home $297,800, crime 1,031/100k
Orono, MN : home $952,400, crime 544/100k
New Prague, MN : home $323,500, crime 677/100k
Minnetrista, MN : home $624,600, crime 388/100k
How does Waite Park compare to other US cities?
Where Waite Park sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income30% higher than other cities
Home value48% pricier than other cities
Median rent36% pricier than other cities
Safety6% 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, Waite Park ranks #224 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 Waite Park 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 Waite Park near the bottom of Minnesota's cities
Among the 785 Minnesota cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Waite Park ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Waite Park only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#573 of 775
26th percentile in Minnesota
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 785
0th percentile in Minnesota
Median Home Value
#284 of 774
63rd percentile in Minnesota
Poverty Rate
#83 of 785
89th percentile in Minnesota
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#486 of 784
37th 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
30th percentile nationally for median household income · 6th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Waite Park's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Waite Park'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 Waite Park's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$217,000Among the most affordablemore affordable than 52% 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
Waite Park's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,114 of 15,516
More affordable than 35% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#7,984 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.8×, Waite Park sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,114 of 15,516 and #7,984 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
$56,884Waite Park, MN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Waite Park, 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 Waite Park, MN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)17.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)15.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)58.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
8,341
Median Income
$56,884
Median Home Value
$217,000
Median Age
39.3
Poverty Rate
15.1%
Labor force participation
58.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
17.6%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
4231.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
130.8
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
4100.8
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
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Waite Park's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
8,338 residents
2021
8,336 residents
2022
8,367 residents
2023
8,435 residents
2024
8,444 residents
2025
8,450 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Slowing
Total Permits (2024)
4
housing units authorized
Single-Family
4
detached homes
Multifamily
0
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
5
5
0
$1.0M
2020
5
5
0
$1.0M
2021
6
6
0
$1.2M
2022
18
2
16
$1.9M
2023
6
6
0
$0.5M
2024
4
4
0
$1.2M
Permit volume decreased 20% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
80.6%
Carpool
8.0%
Public Transit
1.8%
Walk
3.7%
Work from Home
4.5%
Other
1.4%
Based on 3,693 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 Waite Park. 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 Waite Park 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 Waite Park sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Waite Park 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.