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Place dossier plate
SheetNY-BLACK-RIVER-NY · Black River, NY 1,880 pop · income 63rd 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 Black River
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Black River on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Linden · lowest
30,313
Linden · lowest
30,313 median HH income
12.1% of the leader · rank #1
Yankee Hill · near
81,107
Yankee Hill · near
81,107 median HH income
32.4% of the leader · rank #2
Black River · this city
81,111
Black River · this city
81,111 median HH income
32.4% of the leader · rank #3
Elkins · near
81,111
Elkins · near
81,111 median HH income
32.4% of the leader · rank #4
West Concord · near
81,111
West Concord · near
81,111 median HH income
32.4% of the leader · rank #5
Oronogo · near
81,111
Oronogo · near
81,111 median HH income
32.4% of the leader · rank #6
Laurel Hollow · highest
250,001
Laurel Hollow · 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, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Black River 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: 1,880.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Black River - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Black River lands in the 63rd percentile for household income and the 98th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
63rd
percentile, household income
46th
percentile, home value
78th
percentile, median rent
98th
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: Black River, NY
New York's Black River is a small town, with 1,880 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $81,111 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 14.6%. Black River's housing stock carries a median value of $211,000, and the median resident age is 38.1 years. About 34.0% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 46.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 0 residential units authorized here in 2024 (No Permits). Black River reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 81.4 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).
New York carries a cost-of-living premium: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts New York at 107.9 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Above Average). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,579 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $285 across New York, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 69.4 out of 100 (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Black River'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 comparison shortlist to reported crime to work and mobility to housing and income to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Black River, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Black River?
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 34.0% 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 matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
Which cities make useful reference points for Black River?
Within New York, the closest population matches are Great River (1,880 residents, $133,385 income); Laurel Hollow (1,880 residents, $250,000+ income); Peru (1,880 residents, $69,671 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are White Island Shores, MA (1,880 residents); Fennville, MI (1,880 residents); Lake Bryan, TX (1,880 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Black River?
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 81.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 96% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
What does the journey to work look like in Black River?
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 90.4%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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 Black River?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 14.6%, 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
$81,111
Home value
$211,000
Value / income
2.6×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Is Black River 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 -53 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -4.2% 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.
Period change
-4.2%
2025 estimate
1,208
2020 estimate
1,261
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Above median income · poverty 14.6% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
107.9 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, New York average
C-
City profile score · Black River, NY
51/100
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.
Violent crime A+
0 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share B-
34.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income C+
$81,111
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
14.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Cost of living F
107.9 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Black River profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 97/100 (A+) · 0 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 65/100 (B-) · 34.0%
Household income: 60/100 (C+) · $81,111
Poverty rate: 23/100 (F) · 14.6%
Cost of living: 12/100 (F) · 107.9 index
Where Black River sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Black River'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 - Black River highlighted among 22 peers.Read the chart values
Black River, NY (this city): home $211,000, crime 81/100k
Linden, AL : home $94,700, crime 165/100k
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 Black River compare to other US cities?
Black River measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income63% higher than other cities
Home value46% pricier than other cities
Median rent78% pricier than other cities
Safety98% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at New York, Black River ranks #1 of 55 New York cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Black River against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to New York only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
New York-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Black River near the bottom of New York's cities
Among the 1,256 New York cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Black River ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Black River only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#616 of 1,205
49th percentile in New York
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,256
0th percentile in New York
Median Home Value
#647 of 1,202
46th percentile in New York
Poverty Rate
#184 of 1,246
85th percentile in New York
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#608 of 1,254
52nd percentile in New York
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 York only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
63rd percentile nationally for median household income · 98th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Black River's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Black River'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 Black River's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$211,000Among the most affordablemore affordable than 54% 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
Black River's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,511 of 15,516
More affordable than 71% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,015 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.6×, Black River sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,511 of 15,516 and #4,015 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
$81,111Black River, NY median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Black River, NY median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Black River, NY.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)34.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)14.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)46.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,880
Median Income
$81,111
Median Home Value
$211,000
Median Age
38.1
Poverty Rate
14.6%
Labor force participation
46.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
34.0%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
81.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
81.4
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.
Schools
Total Schools
1
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Black River's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
1,261 residents
2021
1,265 residents
2022
1,251 residents
2023
1,236 residents
2024
1,225 residents
2025
1,208 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
0
0
0
-
2020
0
0
0
-
2021
1
1
0
$0.3M
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
1
1
0
$0.5M
2024
0
0
0
-
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
90.4%
Carpool
4.8%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.2%
Work from Home
3.6%
Other
1.0%
Based on 813 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
New York statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $285
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across New York at $285 (electricity about $130 , water and sewer about $65 ).
These are New York statewide averages, not a meter reading for Black River. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
New York's BEA cost-of-living index is 107.9 (Above Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Black River is $1,579/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to New York statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 69.4 / 100 (Moderate).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a New York statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Black River sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Black River compares to similar-size New York 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, 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.