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Place dossier plate
SheetNE-BENNINGTON-NE · Bennington, NE 2,417 pop · income 77th 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 Bennington
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Bennington on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Fruitland · lowest
46,113
Fruitland · lowest
46,113 median HH income
18.4% of the leader · rank #1
Bennington · this city
98,375
Bennington · this city
98,375 median HH income
39.3% of the leader · rank #2
Medford · near
98,375
Medford · near
98,375 median HH income
39.3% of the leader · rank #3
Sumner · near
98,376
Sumner · near
98,376 median HH income
39.4% of the leader · rank #4
Roaming Shores · near
98,393
Roaming Shores · near
98,393 median HH income
39.4% of the leader · rank #5
Willow Grove · near
98,402
Willow Grove · near
98,402 median HH income
39.4% of the leader · rank #6
Belvedere · highest
250,001
Belvedere · highest
250,001 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Bennington on ACS population and median household income
. 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: 2,417.
Nationally, Bennington sits in the 77th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
77th
percentile, household income
70th
percentile, home value
15th
percentile, median rent
📝 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: Bennington, NE
2,417 people live in Bennington, Nebraska - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Bennington brings in $98,375 a year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 3.2%. Bennington's housing stock carries a median value of $337,600, and the median resident age is 38.5 years. About 41.8% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 69.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 9 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
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. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,001 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Nebraska's average monthly utility costs around $207 (state average). 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 Bennington'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 housing and income to population change to comparison shortlist to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Bennington, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Bennington?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 82.2%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
How far does income reach against housing in Bennington?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.2%, 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. 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.
Is Bennington growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -52 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.6% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Bennington?
Within Nebraska, the closest population matches are St. Paul (2,574 residents, $58,493 income); Geneva (2,214 residents, $79,750 income); Valentine (2,632 residents, $53,438 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Fruitland, NC (2,417 residents); Vista Santa Rosa, CA (2,418 residents); Aberdeen, ID (2,418 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.
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 Bennington?
The NCES join finds 9 public schools within the city match. 41.8% 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 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.
Matched public schools
9
Bachelor's degree+
41.8%
Poverty estimate
3.2%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
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.
Poverty rate B+
3.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share B+
41.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income B+
$98,375
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Bennington profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 85/100 (A) · 90.1 index
Poverty rate: 77/100 (B+) · 3.2%
Bachelor's+ share: 77/100 (B+) · 41.8%
Household income: 76/100 (B+) · $98,375
How does Bennington compare to other US cities?
Bennington measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income77% higher than other cities
Home value70% pricier than other cities
Median rent15% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Bennington 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 Bennington near the bottom of Nebraska's cities
Among the 450 Nebraska cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Bennington ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Bennington only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#21 of 439
95th percentile in Nebraska
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 450
0th percentile in Nebraska
Median Home Value
#8 of 438
98th percentile in Nebraska
Poverty Rate
#313 of 450
29th percentile in Nebraska
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#14 of 450
97th 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
77th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Bennington's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$337,60030th percentilemore affordable than 30% 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
Bennington's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#8,703 of 15,516
More affordable than 44% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#7,053 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.4×, Bennington sits in the moderate band:
national rank #8,703 of 15,516 and #7,053 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
$98,375Bennington, NE median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Bennington, 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 Bennington, NE.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)41.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)69.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,417
Median Income
$98,375
Median Home Value
$337,600
Median Age
38.5
Poverty Rate
3.2%
Labor force participation
69.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
41.8%
Schools
Total Schools
9
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Bennington's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,020 residents
2021
2,003 residents
2022
1,985 residents
2023
1,975 residents
2024
1,981 residents
2025
1,968 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
82.2%
Carpool
6.2%
Public Transit
0.2%
Walk
1.5%
Work from Home
9.9%
Based on 1,220 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 Bennington. 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 Bennington 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 Bennington sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Bennington 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, 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.