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Place dossier plate
SheetNY-CORTLAND-NY · Cortland, NY 17,465 pop · income 28th pct · 13 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 Cortland
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Cortland on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Selma · lowest
32,184
Selma · lowest
32,184 median HH income
17.5% of the leader · rank #1
Waldorf · near
55,357
Waldorf · near
55,357 median HH income
30.1% of the leader · rank #2
Cortland · this city
55,368
Cortland · this city
55,368 median HH income
30.1% of the leader · rank #3
Bushnell · near
55,368
Bushnell · near
55,368 median HH income
30.1% of the leader · rank #4
Robertsville · near
55,370
Robertsville · near
55,370 median HH income
30.1% of the leader · rank #5
Bell Gardens · near
55,372
Bell Gardens · near
55,372 median HH income
30.1% of the leader · rank #6
Port Washingt… · highest
183,964
Port Washingt… · highest
183,964 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 Cortland 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: 17,465.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Cortland - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Cortland places in the 28th percentile for household income and the 14th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
28th
percentile, household income
25th
percentile, home value
78th
percentile, median rent
14th
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: Cortland, NY
Cortland is a small town in New York, home to 17,465 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $55,368 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 10.0%. Cortland's housing stock carries a median value of $143,800, and the median resident age is 27.2 years. 26.1% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 57.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 3 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Low Activity). Cortland's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 3180.8 incidents per 100,000 residents, above the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
New York carries a cost-of-living premium: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, New York scores 107.9 (Above Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,579 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $285 across New York, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. The average commute for Cortland workers runs 15.0 minutes, with 64.7% driving alone and 6.9% working from home. 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 Cortland'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 work and mobility to within-city variation to comparison shortlist to housing and income to schools and households to reported crime to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Cortland, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, annual population history.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Cortland?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 64.7%. The reported mean trip to work is 15.0 minutes.
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.
PlainCities matches 13 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Cortland?
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.
Within New York, the closest population matches are Bethpage (17,334 residents, $132,832 income); Port Washington (17,613 residents, $183,964 income); Islip (17,224 residents, $122,596 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Gretna, LA (17,468 residents); Idylwood, VA (17,469 residents); South San Jose Hills, CA (17,451 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Cortland?
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 2.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 10.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Cortland?
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 5 public schools within the city match. 26.1% 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.
Poverty estimate
10.0%
Bachelor's degree+
26.1%
Matched public schools
5
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Cortland?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 3180.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 39% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
Total reported rate
3180.8
Violent rate
226.8
Property rate
2954.0
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Is Cortland growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -110 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.6% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 3 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.
2020 estimate
17,504
2025 estimate
17,394
Period change
-0.6%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Below median income · poverty 10.0% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
107.9 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, New York average
F
City profile score · Cortland, NY
34/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share C-
26.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime D
227 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate D
10.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$55,368
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
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.
Cortland profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 51/100 (C-) · 26.1%
Violent crime: 44/100 (D) · 227 /100k
Poverty rate: 40/100 (D) · 10.0%
Household income: 28/100 (F) · $55,368
Cost of living: 12/100 (F) · 107.9 index
Where Cortland sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Cortland'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 - Cortland highlighted among 25 peers.Read the chart values
Cortland, NY (this city): home $143,800, crime 3,181/100k
Gretna, LA : home $242,600, crime 4,229/100k
Selma, AL : home $102,500, crime 3,092/100k
Jacksonville, IL : home $128,300, crime 2,406/100k
Port Washington, NY : home $976,200, crime 935/100k
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 Cortland compare to other US cities?
Here's how Cortland 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 value25% pricier than other cities
Median rent78% pricier than other cities
Safety14% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just New York and the picture shifts: Cortland ranks #40 of 55 New York cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Cortland 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 Cortland near the bottom of New York's cities
Among the 1,256 New York cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Cortland ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Cortland only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,000 of 1,205
17th percentile in New York
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,256
0th percentile in New York
Median Home Value
#896 of 1,202
25th percentile in New York
Poverty Rate
#306 of 1,246
75th percentile in New York
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#806 of 1,254
36th 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
28th percentile nationally for median household income · 14th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Cortland's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Cortland'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 Cortland's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$143,800Among the most affordablemore affordable than 75% 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
Cortland's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,490 of 15,516
More affordable than 71% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#441 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.6×, Cortland sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,490 of 15,516 and #441 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$55,368Cortland, NY median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Cortland, 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 Cortland, NY.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)26.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)10.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)57.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
17,465
Median Income
$55,368
Median Home Value
$143,800
Median Age
27.2
Poverty Rate
10.0%
Labor force participation
57.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
26.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3180.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
226.8
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2954.0
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
5
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Cortland's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
17,504 residents
2021
17,460 residents
2022
17,380 residents
2023
17,408 residents
2024
17,488 residents
2025
17,394 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Low Activity
Total Permits (2024)
3
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
3
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
1
1
0
$0.3M
2021
3
1
2
$0.3M
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
18
1
17
$2.8M
2024
3
0
3
$0.5M
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
15.0 minutes
Drive Alone
64.7%
Carpool
14.2%
Public Transit
1.8%
Walk
10.1%
Work from Home
6.9%
Other
2.3%
Based on 8,424 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 Cortland. 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 Cortland 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 Cortland sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Cortland 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.