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Place dossier plate
SheetNE-BEATRICE-NE · Beatrice, NE 12,233 pop · income 27th pct · 7 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 Beatrice
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Beatrice on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Scottsbluff · lowest
53,448
Scottsbluff · lowest
53,448 median HH income
38.2% of the leader · rank #1
Beatrice · this city
54,583
Beatrice · this city
54,583 median HH income
39.0% of the leader · rank #2
Godley · near
54,583
Godley · near
54,583 median HH income
39.0% of the leader · rank #3
Sibley · near
54,583
Sibley · near
54,583 median HH income
39.0% of the leader · rank #4
Wolcottville · near
54,583
Wolcottville · near
54,583 median HH income
39.0% of the leader · rank #5
Goessel · near
54,583
Goessel · near
54,583 median HH income
39.0% of the leader · rank #6
East Renton H… · highest
140,048
East Renton H… · highest
140,048 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 Beatrice 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: 12,233.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Beatrice - the verdict
Beatrice ranks in the 27th percentile for household income and the 68th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
27th
percentile, household income
28th
percentile, home value
15th
percentile, median rent
68th
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: Beatrice, NE
Nebraska's Beatrice is a small town, with 12,233 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. The typical household in Beatrice brings in $54,583 a year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 14.3%. Home values in Beatrice run a median of $152,900, and the median resident age is 43.1 years. About 19.9% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 60.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 27 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Rapid Growth), up 35% from five years earlier. Beatrice reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 904.5 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). NOAA puts Beatrice's yearly average temperature at 51.4°F with 31.3 inches of precipitation per year and 18.8 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in Nebraska run below the national norm: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Nebraska scores 90.1 (Well Below Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,001 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $207 across Nebraska, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Commute times here average 16.6 minutes, with 86.1% driving alone and 3.4% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. Natural-hazard exposure scores 25.8 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Beatrice'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 housing and income to schools and households to population change to within-city variation to climate and hazard context 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 Beatrice, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, annual population history.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Comparison shortlist
Which cities make useful reference points for Beatrice?
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 Nebraska, the closest population matches are Lexington (10,693 residents, $62,364 income); Chalco (10,625 residents, $81,427 income); South Sioux City (13,871 residents, $68,397 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Maili, HI (12,236 residents); Pennsville, NJ (12,238 residents); Newcastle, OK (12,238 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Beatrice?
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 2.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 14.3%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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 6 public schools within the city match. 19.9% 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.
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.
Population change
Is Beatrice growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +90 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 27 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
2020 estimate
12,228
2025 estimate
12,318
Period change
+0.7%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
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 51.4°F, with 31.3 inches of precipitation and 18.8 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Nebraska is 25.8 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.
FEMA risk index (state avg)
25.8
Annual precipitation
31.3 in
Mean temperature
51.4°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
What does the journey to work look like in Beatrice?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 86.1%. The reported mean trip to work is 16.6 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. 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.
Drive alone
86.1%
Work from home
3.4%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 5,685 workers age 16+.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Beatrice?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 904.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 60% 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
904.5
Violent rate
81.5
Property rate
823.0
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Below median income · poverty 14.3% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
90.1 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Nebraska average
D
City profile score · Beatrice, NE
49/100
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
90.1 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+
82 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
19.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$54,583
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
14.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Beatrice profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 85/100 (A) · 90.1 index
Violent crime: 75/100 (B+) · 82 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 34/100 (F) · 19.9%
Household income: 27/100 (F) · $54,583
Poverty rate: 24/100 (F) · 14.3%
Where Beatrice sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Beatrice'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 - Beatrice highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Beatrice, NE (this city): home $152,900, crime 905/100k
Newcastle, OK : home $255,100, crime 961/100k
Leeds, AL : home $220,400, crime 2,909/100k
El Campo, TX : home $183,400, crime 2,314/100k
Lexington, NE : home $155,200, crime 1,482/100k
South Sioux City, NE : home $160,900, crime 2,833/100k
Scottsbluff, NE : home $141,300, crime 3,371/100k
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 Beatrice compare to other US cities?
Where Beatrice sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income27% higher than other cities
Home value28% pricier than other cities
Median rent15% pricier than other cities
Safety68% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Nebraska and the picture shifts: Beatrice ranks #18 of 44 Nebraska cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Beatrice against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Nebraska only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Nebraska-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Beatrice near the bottom of Nebraska's cities
Among the 450 Nebraska cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Beatrice ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Beatrice only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#324 of 439
26th percentile in Nebraska
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 450
0th percentile in Nebraska
Median Home Value
#138 of 438
68th percentile in Nebraska
Poverty Rate
#56 of 450
87th percentile in Nebraska
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#233 of 450
48th percentile in Nebraska
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 Nebraska only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
27th percentile nationally for median household income · 68th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Beatrice's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Beatrice'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 Beatrice's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$152,900Among the most affordablemore affordable than 72% 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
Beatrice's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,601 of 15,516
More affordable than 64% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#659 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.8×, Beatrice sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,601 of 15,516 and #659 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$54,583Beatrice, NE median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Beatrice, NE median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Beatrice, NE.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)19.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)14.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)60.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
12,233
Median Income
$54,583
Median Home Value
$152,900
Median Age
43.1
Poverty Rate
14.3%
Labor force participation
60.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
19.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
904.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
81.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
823.0
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
51.4°F
Annual Precipitation
31.3"
Annual Snowfall
18.8"
Schools
Total Schools
6
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Beatrice's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
12,228 residents
2021
12,200 residents
2022
12,206 residents
2023
12,260 residents
2024
12,290 residents
2025
12,318 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Rapid Growth
Total Permits (2024)
27
housing units authorized
Single-Family
11
detached homes
Multifamily
16
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2.2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
20
17
3
$4.0M
2020
10
8
2
$2.1M
2021
96
18
78
$11.7M
2022
28
18
10
$6.0M
2023
20
9
11
$4.5M
2024
27
11
16
$5.9M
Permit volume increased 35% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
16.6 minutes
Drive Alone
86.1%
Carpool
6.6%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
2.6%
Work from Home
3.4%
Other
1.3%
Based on 5,685 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Nebraska statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $207
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Nebraska at $207 (electricity about $100 , water and sewer about $42 ).
These are Nebraska statewide averages, not a meter reading for Beatrice. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Nebraska's BEA cost-of-living index is 90.1 (Well Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Beatrice is $1,001/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Nebraska statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 25.8 / 100 (Very Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Nebraska statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Beatrice sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Beatrice compares to similar-size Nebraska 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.