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Place dossier plate
SheetNC-LOWELL-NC · Lowell, NC 3,711 pop · income 22nd 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 Lowell
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Lowell on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Tabor City · lowest
37,014
Tabor City · lowest
37,014 median HH income
23.0% of the leader · rank #1
Dobbins · near
51,827
Dobbins · near
51,827 median HH income
32.2% of the leader · rank #2
South Bay · near
51,827
South Bay · near
51,827 median HH income
32.2% of the leader · rank #3
Lowell · this city
51,829
Lowell · this city
51,829 median HH income
32.2% of the leader · rank #4
Pleasanton · near
51,830
Pleasanton · near
51,830 median HH income
32.2% of the leader · rank #5
Luna Pier · near
51,830
Luna Pier · near
51,830 median HH income
32.2% of the leader · rank #6
Deer Park · highest
160,750
Deer Park · highest
160,750 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 Lowell 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: 3,711.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Lowell - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Lowell places in the 22nd percentile for household income and the 43rd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
22nd
percentile, household income
27th
percentile, home value
48th
percentile, median rent
43rd
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: Lowell, NC
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 3,711 residents in Lowell, a small town within North Carolina. Lowell households earn a median of $51,829 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 14.5%. Lowell's housing stock carries a median value of $152,200, and the median resident age is 41.4 years. Educational attainment runs 16.9% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 61.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Lowell reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1589.0 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Living costs in North Carolina run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts North Carolina at 94.3 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Below Average). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,161 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $215 across North Carolina, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 66.7 out of 100 (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Lowell'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 work and mobility to comparison shortlist to population change to reported crime to schools and households to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Lowell, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Lowell?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 73.9%. 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. 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Lowell?
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 North Carolina, the closest population matches are Gamewell (3,701 residents, $55,977 income); Kitty Hawk (3,721 residents, $88,811 income); Landis (3,726 residents, $82,645 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Deer Park, IL (3,711 residents); Richfield, OH (3,711 residents); Grand Mound, WA (3,711 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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +277 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +7.6% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. 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 Lowell?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1589.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 30% 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.
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 Lowell?
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.
The NCES join finds 2 public schools within the city match. 16.9% 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+
16.9%
Matched public schools
2
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
How far does income reach against housing in Lowell?
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 2.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 14.5%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
2.9×
Home value
$152,200
Household income
$51,829
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, North Carolina average
D
City profile score · Lowell, NC
40/100
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.
Cost of living B-
94.3 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Violent crime C+
130 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
16.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
14.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$51,829
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Lowell profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 67/100 (B-) · 94.3 index
Violent crime: 63/100 (C+) · 130 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 25/100 (F) · 16.9%
Poverty rate: 24/100 (F) · 14.5%
Household income: 23/100 (F) · $51,829
Where Lowell sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Lowell'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 - Lowell highlighted among 25 peers.Read the chart values
Lowell, NC (this city): home $152,200, crime 1,589/100k
Elkins, AR : home $190,100, crime 1,132/100k
Plain City, OH : home $325,400, crime 136/100k
Kitty Hawk, NC : home $494,200, crime 1,885/100k
Tabor City, NC : home $109,600, crime 1,843/100k
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 Lowell compare to other US cities?
Lowell measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income22% higher than other cities
Home value27% pricier than other cities
Median rent48% pricier than other cities
Safety43% 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 North Carolina, Lowell ranks #51 of 195 North Carolina 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 Lowell against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to North Carolina only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
North Carolina-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Lowell near the bottom of North Carolina's cities
Among the 746 North Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Lowell ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Lowell only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#442 of 700
37th percentile in North Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 746
0th percentile in North Carolina
Median Home Value
#476 of 708
33rd percentile in North Carolina
Poverty Rate
#251 of 746
66th percentile in North Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#490 of 746
34th percentile in North Carolina
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 North Carolina only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
22nd percentile nationally for median household income · 43rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Lowell's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Lowell'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 Lowell's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$152,200Among the most affordablemore affordable than 73% 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
Lowell's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#6,342 of 15,516
More affordable than 59% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#5,408 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.9×, Lowell sits in the affordable band:
national rank #6,342 of 15,516 and #5,408 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
$51,829Lowell, NC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Lowell, NC median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Lowell, NC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)16.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)14.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)61.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
3,711
Median Income
$51,829
Median Home Value
$152,200
Median Age
41.4
Poverty Rate
14.5%
Labor force participation
61.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
16.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1589.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
130.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1458.7
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
Lowell's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
3,662 residents
2021
3,727 residents
2022
3,751 residents
2023
3,808 residents
2024
3,883 residents
2025
3,939 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
73.9%
Carpool
10.0%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.2%
Work from Home
15.3%
Other
0.6%
Based on 1,754 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
North Carolina statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $215
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across North Carolina at $215 (electricity about $115 , water and sewer about $45 ).
These are North Carolina statewide averages, not a meter reading for Lowell. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
North Carolina's BEA cost-of-living index is 94.3 (Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Lowell is $1,161/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to North Carolina statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 66.7 / 100 (Moderate).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a North Carolina statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Lowell sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Lowell compares to similar-size North Carolina 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 ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.