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Place dossier plate
SheetNE-MCCOOK-NE · McCook, NE 7,360 pop · income 22nd 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 McCook
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest McCook on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Forest City · lowest
35,897
Forest City · lowest
35,897 median HH income
20.3% of the leader · rank #1
Frankfort · near
51,813
Frankfort · near
51,813 median HH income
29.3% of the leader · rank #2
Peebles · near
51,813
Peebles · near
51,813 median HH income
29.3% of the leader · rank #3
McCook · this city
51,815
McCook · this city
51,815 median HH income
29.3% of the leader · rank #4
Virginia · near
51,818
Virginia · near
51,818 median HH income
29.3% of the leader · rank #5
Elida · near
51,818
Elida · near
51,818 median HH income
29.3% of the leader · rank #6
Cos Cob · highest
176,602
Cos Cob · highest
176,602 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 McCook 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: 7,360.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
McCook - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, McCook places in the 22nd percentile for household income and the 61st percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
22nd
percentile, household income
23rd
percentile, home value
15th
percentile, median rent
61st
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: McCook, NE
McCook is a small town in Nebraska, home to 7,360 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in McCook report a median income of $51,815 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 11.4%. McCook's housing stock carries a median value of $137,400, and the median resident age is 40.7 years. About 26.8% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 62.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 17 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 325% from five years earlier. McCook reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 1083.3 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 McCook's yearly average temperature at 52.2°F with 20.1 inches of precipitation per year.
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. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Nebraska's average monthly utility costs around $207 (state average). FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 25.8 out of 100 (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of McCook'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 population change to housing and income to within-city variation to work and mobility to reported crime to climate and hazard context to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For McCook, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history, local building permits.
No matched row is reported here for matched public-school count; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Population change
Is McCook 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 -257 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -3.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 17 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
How far does income reach against housing in McCook?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 11.4%, 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.
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 McCook?
Within Nebraska, the closest population matches are Nebraska City (7,287 residents, $67,993 income); Crete (7,521 residents, $76,258 income); Seward (7,665 residents, $70,000 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Bremen, GA (7,364 residents); Gorham, ME (7,365 residents); Cos Cob, CT (7,354 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. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in McCook?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 86.6%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
6.1%
Drive alone
86.6%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 3,665 workers age 16+.
What can the FBI record say about safety in McCook?
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.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1083.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 52% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1041.7
Violent rate
41.7
Total reported rate
1083.3
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 52.2°F, with 20.1 inches of precipitation. 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
52.2°F
Annual precipitation
20.1 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.
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.
Violent crime A
42 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
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 C-
26.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
11.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$51,815
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
McCook profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 86/100 (A) · 42 /100k
Cost of living: 85/100 (A) · 90.1 index
Bachelor's+ share: 52/100 (C-) · 26.8%
Poverty rate: 34/100 (F) · 11.4%
Household income: 23/100 (F) · $51,815
Where McCook sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
McCook'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 - McCook highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
McCook, NE (this city): home $137,400, crime 1,083/100k
Bremen, GA : home $264,000, crime 1,942/100k
Gorham, ME : home $459,000, crime 420/100k
Forest City, NC : home $142,100, crime 5,818/100k
Pea Ridge, AR : home $255,600, crime 960/100k
Nebraska City, NE : home $147,800, crime 1,123/100k
Crete, NE : home $203,900, crime 2,734/100k
Seward, NE : home $232,500, crime 731/100k
Blair, NE : home $211,000, crime 848/100k
Plattsmouth, NE : home $171,900, crime 771/100k
Alliance, NE : home $156,300, crime 1,122/100k
How does McCook compare to other US cities?
Here's how McCook stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income22% higher than other cities
Home value23% pricier than other cities
Median rent15% pricier than other cities
Safety61% 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: McCook ranks #21 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 McCook 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 McCook near the bottom of Nebraska's cities
Among the 450 Nebraska cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, McCook ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares McCook only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#353 of 439
20th percentile in Nebraska
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 450
0th percentile in Nebraska
Median Home Value
#168 of 438
62nd percentile in Nebraska
Poverty Rate
#95 of 450
78th percentile in Nebraska
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#99 of 450
78th 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
22nd percentile nationally for median household income · 61st percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
McCook's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
McCook'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 McCook's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$137,400Among the most affordablemore affordable than 77% 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
McCook's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,775 of 15,516
More affordable than 69% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,217 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.7×, McCook sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,775 of 15,516 and #4,217 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
$51,815McCook, NE median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context McCook, 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 McCook, NE.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)26.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)11.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)62.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
7,360
Median Income
$51,815
Median Home Value
$137,400
Median Age
40.7
Poverty Rate
11.4%
Labor force participation
62.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
26.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1083.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
41.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1041.7
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
52.2°F
Annual Precipitation
20.1"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
McCook's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
7,414 residents
2021
7,374 residents
2022
7,305 residents
2023
7,278 residents
2024
7,213 residents
2025
7,157 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
17
housing units authorized
Single-Family
11
detached homes
Multifamily
6
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
4
4
0
$1.6M
2020
5
5
0
$1.0M
2021
6
6
0
$2.0M
2022
5
3
2
$1.4M
2023
5
5
0
$1.7M
2024
17
11
6
$4.2M
Permit volume increased 325% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
86.6%
Carpool
3.7%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
2.6%
Work from Home
6.1%
Other
1.0%
Based on 3,665 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 McCook. 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 McCook 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 McCook sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How McCook 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, 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.