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Place dossier plate
SheetNY-CENTRAL-SQUARE-NY · Central Square, NY 2,136 pop · income 46th 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 Central Square
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Central Square on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Smackover · lowest
53,105
Smackover · lowest
53,105 median HH income
21.2% of the leader · rank #1
Asheville · near
67,221
Asheville · near
67,221 median HH income
26.9% of the leader · rank #2
Mount Eagle · near
67,222
Mount Eagle · near
67,222 median HH income
26.9% of the leader · rank #3
Raytown · near
67,227
Raytown · near
67,227 median HH income
26.9% of the leader · rank #4
Central Square · this city
67,232
Central Square · this city
67,232 median HH income
26.9% of the leader · rank #5
DeMotte · near
67,244
DeMotte · near
67,244 median HH income
26.9% of the leader · rank #6
Bedford · highest
250,001
Bedford · 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 Central Square 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: 2,136.
Central Square ranks in the 46th percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
46th
percentile, household income
40th
percentile, home value
78th
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: Central Square, NY
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 2,136 residents in Central Square, a small town within New York. Median household income here is $67,232 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 12.2%. Typical homes in Central Square are valued around $191,000, and the median resident age is 44.0 years. 26.9% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 63.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 6 residential building permits were authorized in Central Square (Low Activity), per Census BPS data.
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). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,579 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in New York run around $285, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Natural-hazard exposure scores 69.4 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Central Square'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 comparison shortlist to schools and households to work and mobility to population change to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Central Square, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, annual population history, commute-mode shares, local building permits.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Comparison shortlist
Which cities make useful reference points for Central Square?
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 York, the closest population matches are Crompond (2,144 residents, $203,080 income); Clifton Springs (2,124 residents, $62,500 income); Washington Mills (2,148 residents, $128,571 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Richgrove, CA (2,136 residents); Bokeelia, FL (2,136 residents); Sorrento, LA (2,136 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 does the education layer cover for Central Square?
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 4 public schools within the city match. 26.9% 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Central Square?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 86.1%. 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. 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.
Is Central Square growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -5 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.3% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 6 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
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 Central Square?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 12.2%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
2.8×
Home value
$191,000
Household income
$67,232
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Below median income · poverty 12.2% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
107.9 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, New York average
F
City profile score · Central Square, NY
35/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share C-
26.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income D
$67,232
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
12.2%
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.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Central Square profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 53/100 (C-) · 26.9%
Household income: 45/100 (D) · $67,232
Poverty rate: 31/100 (F) · 12.2%
Cost of living: 12/100 (F) · 107.9 index
How does Central Square compare to other US cities?
Here's how Central Square stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income46% higher than other cities
Home value40% pricier than other cities
Median rent78% 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 Central Square 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 Central Square near the bottom of New York's cities
Among the 1,256 New York cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Central Square ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Central Square only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#813 of 1,205
33rd percentile in New York
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,256
0th percentile in New York
Median Home Value
#697 of 1,202
42nd percentile in New York
Poverty Rate
#250 of 1,246
80th percentile in New York
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#781 of 1,254
38th 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
46th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Central Square's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$191,000Among the most affordablemore affordable than 60% 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
Central Square's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,812 of 15,516
More affordable than 63% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#5,022 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.8×, Central Square sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,812 of 15,516 and #5,022 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
$67,232Central Square, NY median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Central Square, 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 Central Square, NY.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)26.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)12.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)63.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,136
Median Income
$67,232
Median Home Value
$191,000
Median Age
44.0
Poverty Rate
12.2%
Labor force participation
63.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
26.9%
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
Central Square's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
1,857 residents
2021
1,850 residents
2022
1,841 residents
2023
1,834 residents
2024
1,842 residents
2025
1,852 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Low Activity
Total Permits (2024)
6
housing units authorized
Single-Family
2
detached homes
Multifamily
4
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2.8
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
0
0
0
-
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
4
0
4
$0.7M
2024
6
2
4
$1.4M
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
86.1%
Carpool
2.1%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
11.7%
Based on 1,090 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 Central Square. 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 Central Square 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 Central Square sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Central Square 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, 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.