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Place dossier plate
SheetNE-HOLDREGE-NE · Holdrege, NE 5,503 pop · income 28th pct · 3 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 Holdrege
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Holdrege on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Marlin · lowest
38,000
Marlin · lowest
38,000 median HH income
32.7% of the leader · rank #1
Crooked Lake… · near
55,260
Crooked Lake… · near
55,260 median HH income
47.6% of the leader · rank #2
Holdrege · this city
55,263
Holdrege · this city
55,263 median HH income
47.6% of the leader · rank #3
Fussels Corner · near
55,263
Fussels Corner · near
55,263 median HH income
47.6% of the leader · rank #4
Milford · near
55,265
Milford · near
55,265 median HH income
47.6% of the leader · rank #5
Fort Bliss · near
55,267
Fort Bliss · near
55,267 median HH income
47.6% of the leader · rank #6
Mead · highest
116,074
Mead · highest
116,074 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 Holdrege 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: 5,503.
Holdrege ranks in the 28th percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
28th
percentile, household income
32nd
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: Holdrege, NE
Holdrege is a small town in Nebraska, home to 5,503 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Holdrege households earn a median of $55,263 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 15.2%. Typical homes in Holdrege are valued around $166,600, and the median resident age is 40.8 years. About 25.2% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 63.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 9 residential building permits were authorized in Holdrege (Construction Slowdown), down 44% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. NOAA puts Holdrege's yearly average temperature at 49.9°F with 27.6 inches of precipitation per year and 25.4 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in Nebraska run below the national norm: the state registers 90.1 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Well Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,001 per month. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Nebraska's average monthly utility costs around $207 (state average). The average commute for Holdrege workers runs 13.1 minutes, with 83.7% driving alone and 4.9% working from home. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 25.8 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Holdrege'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 schools and households to population change to housing and income to within-city variation to work and mobility to comparison shortlist to climate and hazard context; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Holdrege, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, annual population history, matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Holdrege?
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 25.2% 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.
Is Holdrege growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +3 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 9 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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 Holdrege?
Within Nebraska, the closest population matches are Offutt AFB (5,663 residents, $67,803 income); Chadron (5,207 residents, $54,026 income); Wayne (6,055 residents, $52,804 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Mead, CO (5,503 residents); Monticello, IN (5,504 residents); Verdigris, OK (5,502 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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Holdrege?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 15.2%, 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.
Household income
$55,263
Home value
$166,600
Value / income
3.0×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What does the journey to work look like in Holdrege?
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 83.7%. The reported mean trip to work is 13.1 minutes.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
4.9%
Drive alone
83.7%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 2,786 workers age 16+.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 49.9°F, with 27.6 inches of precipitation and 25.4 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.
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.
Mean temperature
49.9°F
Annual precipitation
27.6 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
25.8
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
Below median income · poverty 15.2% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
90.1 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Nebraska average
D
City profile score · Holdrege, NE
45/100
4 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.
Bachelor's+ share D
25.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$55,263
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
15.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Holdrege profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 85/100 (A) · 90.1 index
Bachelor's+ share: 49/100 (D) · 25.2%
Household income: 28/100 (F) · $55,263
Poverty rate: 22/100 (F) · 15.2%
How does Holdrege compare to other US cities?
Here's how Holdrege stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income28% higher than other cities
Home value32% 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 Holdrege 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 Holdrege near the bottom of Nebraska's cities
Among the 450 Nebraska cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Holdrege ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Holdrege only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#316 of 439
28th percentile in Nebraska
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 450
0th percentile in Nebraska
Median Home Value
#105 of 438
76th percentile in Nebraska
Poverty Rate
#48 of 450
89th percentile in Nebraska
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#134 of 450
70th 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
28th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Holdrege's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$166,600Among the most affordablemore affordable than 68% 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
Holdrege's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#6,771 of 15,516
More affordable than 56% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#5,712 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.0×, Holdrege sits in the moderate band:
national rank #6,771 of 15,516 and #5,712 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
$55,263Holdrege, NE median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Holdrege, 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 Holdrege, NE.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)25.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)15.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)63.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
5,503
Median Income
$55,263
Median Home Value
$166,600
Median Age
40.8
Poverty Rate
15.2%
Labor force participation
63.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
25.2%
Climate
Avg Temperature
49.9°F
Annual Precipitation
27.6"
Annual Snowfall
25.4"
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
Holdrege's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
5,552 residents
2021
5,510 residents
2022
5,550 residents
2023
5,604 residents
2024
5,565 residents
2025
5,555 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
9
housing units authorized
Single-Family
7
detached homes
Multifamily
2
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.6
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
16
2
14
$3.2M
2020
8
2
6
$1.5M
2021
14
14
0
$1.8M
2022
5
3
2
$1.7M
2023
8
8
0
$3.1M
2024
9
7
2
$9.2M
Permit volume decreased 44% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
13.1 minutes
Drive Alone
83.7%
Carpool
6.5%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
3.8%
Work from Home
4.9%
Other
1.1%
Based on 2,786 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 Holdrege. 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 Holdrege 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 Holdrege sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Holdrege 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, 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.