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Place dossier plate
SheetNM-SILVER-CITY-NM · Silver City, NM 9,574 pop · income 7th pct · 10 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 Silver City
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Silver City on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Anthony · lowest
33,141
Anthony · lowest
33,141 median HH income
21.1% of the leader · rank #1
Donovan Estat… · near
39,018
Donovan Estat… · near
39,018 median HH income
24.8% of the leader · rank #2
Silver City · this city
39,025
Silver City · this city
39,025 median HH income
24.8% of the leader · rank #3
Crump · near
39,032
Crump · near
39,032 median HH income
24.8% of the leader · rank #4
Arroyo Gardens · near
39,038
Arroyo Gardens · near
39,038 median HH income
24.8% of the leader · rank #5
Winnebago · near
39,044
Winnebago · near
39,044 median HH income
24.8% of the leader · rank #6
Greenville CD… · highest
157,159
Greenville CD… · highest
157,159 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 Silver City 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: 9,574.
Nationally, Silver City sits in the 7th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
7th
percentile, household income
30th
percentile, home value
39th
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: Silver City, NM
New Mexico's Silver City is a small town, with 9,574 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $39,025 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 14.9%. Home values in Silver City run a median of $160,900, and the median resident age is 40.2 years. Educational attainment runs 32.4% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 45.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 0 residential units authorized here in 2024 (No Permits), down 100% from five years earlier.
Living costs in New Mexico run below the national norm: the state registers 92.2 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,129 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in New Mexico run around $167, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Natural-hazard exposure scores 58.9 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Silver City'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 housing and income to work and mobility to comparison shortlist to population change to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Silver City, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history.
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.
1. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Silver City?
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 8 public schools within the city match. 32.4% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Silver City?
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. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 14.9%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Silver City?
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.
Within New Mexico, the closest population matches are Grants (9,106 residents, $49,286 income); Bernalillo (9,068 residents, $61,624 income); Anthony (8,701 residents, $33,141 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Country Club Estates, GA (9,575 residents); Greenwood, AR (9,570 residents); Middletown, PA (9,567 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.
What can 10 Census tracts reveal inside Silver City?
PlainCities matches 10 Census tracts to this city.
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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Silver City?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 66.6%. 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
66.6%
Work from home
13.2%
Public transit
0.3%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 3,503 workers age 16+.
Is Silver City growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -434 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -4.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 0 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
9,718
2025 estimate
9,284
Period change
-4.5%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 14.9% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
92.2 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, New Mexico average
F
City profile score · Silver City, NM
38/100
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 B+
92.2 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+
32.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
14.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$39,025
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).
Silver City profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 77/100 (B+) · 92.2 index
Bachelor's+ share: 62/100 (C+) · 32.4%
Poverty rate: 23/100 (F) · 14.9%
Household income: 5/100 (F) · $39,025
How does Silver City compare to other US cities?
Here's how Silver City stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income7% higher than other cities
Home value30% pricier than other cities
Median rent39% 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 Silver City against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to New Mexico only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
New Mexico-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Silver City near the bottom of New Mexico's cities
Among the 409 New Mexico cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Silver City ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Silver City only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#257 of 324
21st percentile in New Mexico
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 409
0th percentile in New Mexico
Median Home Value
#191 of 324
41st percentile in New Mexico
Poverty Rate
#177 of 408
56th percentile in New Mexico
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#96 of 409
76th percentile in New Mexico
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 New Mexico only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
7th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Silver City's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$160,900Among the most affordablemore affordable than 70% 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
Silver City's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,034 of 15,516
More affordable than 29% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#8,579 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.1×, Silver City sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,034 of 15,516 and #8,579 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
$39,025Silver City, NM median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Silver City, NM median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Silver City, NM.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)32.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)14.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)45.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
9,574
Median Income
$39,025
Median Home Value
$160,900
Median Age
40.2
Poverty Rate
14.9%
Labor force participation
45.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
32.4%
Schools
Total Schools
8
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Silver City's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
9,718 residents
2021
9,607 residents
2022
9,519 residents
2023
9,379 residents
2024
9,374 residents
2025
9,284 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
Total Permits (2024)
0
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
10
10
0
$1.6M
2020
10
10
0
$1.6M
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
3
3
0
$0.5M
2023
0
0
0
-
Permit volume decreased 100% from 2019 to 2023.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
66.6%
Carpool
15.7%
Public Transit
0.3%
Walk
4.2%
Work from Home
13.2%
Based on 3,503 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
New Mexico statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $167
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across New Mexico at $167 (electricity about $85 , water and sewer about $42 ).
These are New Mexico statewide averages, not a meter reading for Silver City. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
New Mexico's BEA cost-of-living index is 92.2 (Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Silver City is $1,129/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to New Mexico statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 58.9 / 100 (Moderate).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a New Mexico statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Silver City sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Silver City compares to similar-size New Mexico 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 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.