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Place dossier plate
SheetND-BOWMAN-ND · Bowman, ND 1,523 pop · income 51st pct · 2 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 Bowman
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Bowman on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Newark · lowest
34,770
Newark · lowest
34,770 median HH income
33.1% of the leader · rank #1
Coeur d'Alene · near
70,845
Coeur d'Alene · near
70,845 median HH income
67.4% of the leader · rank #2
Stony Point · near
70,846
Stony Point · near
70,846 median HH income
67.4% of the leader · rank #3
Bowman · this city
70,859
Bowman · this city
70,859 median HH income
67.4% of the leader · rank #4
Blacklick Est… · near
70,869
Blacklick Est… · near
70,869 median HH income
67.4% of the leader · rank #5
Silver Bay · near
70,870
Silver Bay · near
70,870 median HH income
67.4% of the leader · rank #6
Surrey · highest
105,125
Surrey · highest
105,125 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 Bowman 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: 1,523.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Bowman - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Bowman lands in the 51st percentile for household income and the 76th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
51st
percentile, household income
37th
percentile, home value
7th
percentile, median rent
76th
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: Bowman, ND
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 1,523 residents in Bowman, a small town within North Dakota. Households in Bowman report a median income of $70,859 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 11.0%. Typical homes in Bowman are valued around $181,300, and the median resident age is 41.0 years. Educational attainment runs 32.3% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 64.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 1 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Stable), up 0% from five years earlier. Bowman reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 717.4 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). NOAA puts Bowman's yearly average temperature at 42.3°F with 17.1 inches of precipitation per year and 48.2 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in North Dakota run below the national norm: the state registers 89.0 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Well Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $965 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $200 across North Dakota, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Natural-hazard exposure scores 22.2 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Bowman'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 climate and hazard context to schools and households to within-city variation to reported crime to comparison shortlist to population change to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Bowman, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, annual population history, local building permits.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Bowman?
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 2.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 11.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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 42.3°F, with 17.1 inches of precipitation and 48.2 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for North Dakota is 22.2 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.
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 Bowman?
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 Dakota, the closest population matches are Tioga (1,525 residents, $62,315 income); Park River (1,483 residents, $76,080 income); Garrison (1,456 residents, $68,646 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Nederland, CO (1,523 residents); Douglass, KS (1,523 residents); Ronceverte, WV (1,523 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 Bowman?
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 3 public schools within the city match. 32.3% 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
11.0%
Bachelor's degree+
32.3%
Matched public schools
3
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Bowman?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 717.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 69% 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
717.4
Violent rate
71.7
Property rate
645.6
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -107 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -7.3% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 1 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 downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
2020 estimate
1,464
2025 estimate
1,357
Period change
-7.3%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the journey to work look like in Bowman?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 77.7%. 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
77.7%
Work from home
2.3%
Public transit
1.2%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 771 workers age 16+.
Above median income · poverty 11.0% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
89.0 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, North Dakota average
C+
City profile score · Bowman, ND
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.
Cost of living A
89.0 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 B+
72 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share C+
32.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income C-
$70,859
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
11.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bowman profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 89/100 (A) · 89.0 index
Violent crime: 78/100 (B+) · 72 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 62/100 (C+) · 32.3%
Household income: 50/100 (C-) · $70,859
Poverty rate: 36/100 (F) · 11.0%
Where Bowman sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Bowman'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 - Bowman highlighted among 24 peers.Read the chart values
Bowman, ND (this city): home $181,300, crime 717/100k
Ronceverte, WV : home $117,500, crime 329/100k
Lee, MA : home $265,900, crime 1,183/100k
Tioga, ND : home $196,800, crime 922/100k
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 Bowman compare to other US cities?
Where Bowman sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income51% higher than other cities
Home value37% pricier than other cities
Median rent7% pricier than other cities
Safety76% 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 Dakota, Bowman ranks #5 of 21 North Dakota 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 Bowman against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to North Dakota only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
North Dakota-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Bowman near the bottom of North Dakota's cities
Among the 246 North Dakota cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Bowman ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Bowman only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#105 of 227
54th percentile in North Dakota
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 246
0th percentile in North Dakota
Median Home Value
#64 of 226
71st percentile in North Dakota
Poverty Rate
#59 of 246
76th percentile in North Dakota
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#40 of 246
84th percentile in North Dakota
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 Dakota only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
51st percentile nationally for median household income · 76th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Bowman's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Bowman'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 Bowman's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$181,300Among the most affordablemore affordable than 63% 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
Bowman's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,309 of 15,516
More affordable than 72% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,857 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.6×, Bowman sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,309 of 15,516 and #3,857 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
$70,859Bowman, ND median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Bowman, ND median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Bowman, ND.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)32.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)11.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)64.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,523
Median Income
$70,859
Median Home Value
$181,300
Median Age
41.0
Poverty Rate
11.0%
Labor force participation
64.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
32.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
717.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
71.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
645.6
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
42.3°F
Annual Precipitation
17.1"
Annual Snowfall
48.2"
Schools
Total Schools
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Bowman's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
1,464 residents
2021
1,424 residents
2022
1,420 residents
2023
1,405 residents
2024
1,397 residents
2025
1,357 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Stable
Total Permits (2024)
1
housing units authorized
Single-Family
1
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
1
1
0
$0.1M
2020
1
1
0
$0.1M
2021
3
3
0
$1.5M
2022
1
1
0
$0.7M
2023
0
0
0
-
2024
1
1
0
$0.5M
Permit volume increased 0% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
77.7%
Carpool
6.6%
Public Transit
1.2%
Walk
9.7%
Work from Home
2.3%
Other
2.5%
Based on 771 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
North Dakota statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $200
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across North Dakota at $200 (electricity about $90 , water and sewer about $40 ).
These are North Dakota statewide averages, not a meter reading for Bowman. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
North Dakota's BEA cost-of-living index is 89.0 (Well Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Bowman is $965/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to North Dakota statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 22.2 / 100 (Very Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a North Dakota statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Bowman sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Bowman compares to similar-size North Dakota 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.