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Place dossier plate
SheetNY-ELMIRA-NY · Elmira, NY 26,349 pop · income 11th pct · 25 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 Elmira
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Elmira on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Arma · lowest
43,073
Arma · lowest
43,073 median HH income
23.2% of the leader · rank #1
Minor Hill · near
43,077
Minor Hill · near
43,077 median HH income
23.2% of the leader · rank #2
Elmira · this city
43,089
Elmira · this city
43,089 median HH income
23.2% of the leader · rank #3
Madison · near
43,095
Madison · near
43,095 median HH income
23.2% of the leader · rank #4
Punxsutawney · near
43,097
Punxsutawney · near
43,097 median HH income
23.2% of the leader · rank #5
Plainview · highest
185,531
Plainview · highest
185,531 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #6
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 Elmira 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: 26,349.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Elmira - the verdict
Nationally, Elmira sits in the 11th percentile for household income and the 4th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
11th
percentile, household income
6th
percentile, home value
78th
percentile, median rent
4th
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: Elmira, NY
New York's Elmira is a small city, with 26,349 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $43,089 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 21.0%. Home values in Elmira run a median of $88,200, and the median resident age is 36.5 years. About 18.7% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 48.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 63 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 68% from five years earlier. Elmira's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 4684.3 crimes per 100,000 residents, above the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Elmira's yearly average temperature at 48.2°F with 38.1 inches of precipitation per year and 41.8 inches of snowfall.
New York carries a cost-of-living premium: the state registers 107.9 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Above Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. 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. Workers in Elmira report an average commute of 17.9 minutes, with 67.7% driving alone and 8.9% 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 Elmira'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 work and mobility to population change to climate and hazard context to schools and households to reported crime to housing and income to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Elmira, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Elmira?
Within New York, the closest population matches are Holbrook (26,256 residents, $139,116 income); Plainview (26,251 residents, $185,531 income); Auburn (26,475 residents, $49,377 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Elk River, MN (26,367 residents); Carolina Forest, SC (26,373 residents); Woodstock, IL (26,316 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 does the journey to work look like in Elmira?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 67.7%. The reported mean trip to work is 17.9 minutes.
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -209 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 63 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
PlainCities matches 25 Census tracts to this city.
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.
Climate and hazard context
What physical conditions frame life in Elmira?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 48.2°F, with 38.1 inches of precipitation and 41.8 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for New York is 69.4 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
48.2°F
Annual precipitation
38.1 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
69.4
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
The NCES join finds 12 public schools within the city match. 18.7% 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 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.
Matched public schools
12
Bachelor's degree+
18.7%
Poverty estimate
21.0%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Elmira?
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 4684.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 105% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
4137.0
Violent rate
547.3
Total reported rate
4684.3
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
How far does income reach against housing in Elmira?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 2.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 21.0%, 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. The ratio makes housing the clearest place to start this profile, but a low multiple can coexist with slow demand, older stock, or household-level hardship. Compare the home-value distribution and same-state peer table before treating it as an advantage.
Household income
$43,089
Home value
$88,200
Value / income
2.0×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
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 F
18.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime F
547 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger 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.
Household income F
$43,089
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
21.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Elmira profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 31/100 (F) · 18.7%
Violent crime: 13/100 (F) · 547 /100k
Cost of living: 12/100 (F) · 107.9 index
Household income: 11/100 (F) · $43,089
Poverty rate: 11/100 (F) · 21.0%
Where Elmira sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Elmira'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 - Elmira highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Elmira, NY (this city): home $88,200, crime 4,684/100k
Elk River, MN : home $338,300, crime 1,096/100k
Woodstock, IL : home $231,100, crime 637/100k
Leland, NC : home $358,800, crime 1,080/100k
Eureka, CA : home $375,800, crime 4,187/100k
South Pasadena, CA : home $1,545,100, crime 2,723/100k
Auburn, NY : home $143,600, crime 1,588/100k
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 Elmira compare to other US cities?
Elmira measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income11% higher than other cities
Home value6% pricier than other cities
Median rent78% pricier than other cities
Safety4% 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, Elmira ranks #53 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 Elmira 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 Elmira near the bottom of New York's cities
Among the 1,256 New York cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Elmira ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Elmira only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,167 of 1,205
3rd percentile in New York
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,256
0th percentile in New York
Median Home Value
#1,156 of 1,202
4th percentile in New York
Poverty Rate
#80 of 1,246
94th percentile in New York
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,037 of 1,254
17th 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
11th percentile nationally for median household income · 4th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Elmira's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Elmira'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 Elmira's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$88,200Among the most affordablemore affordable than 94% 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
Elmira's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#1,803 of 15,516
More affordable than 88% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#78 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.0×, Elmira sits in the affordable band:
national rank #1,803 of 15,516 and #78 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
$43,089Elmira, NY median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Elmira, 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 Elmira, NY.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)18.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)21.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)48.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
26,349
Median Income
$43,089
Median Home Value
$88,200
Median Age
36.5
Poverty Rate
21.0%
Labor force participation
48.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
18.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
4684.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
547.3
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
4137.0
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
48.2°F
Annual Precipitation
38.1"
Annual Snowfall
41.8"
Schools
Total Schools
12
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Elmira's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
26,298 residents
2021
26,419 residents
2022
26,077 residents
2023
26,071 residents
2024
26,130 residents
2025
26,089 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
63
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
63
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
194
0
194
$30.1M
2020
156
0
156
$24.2M
2021
116
0
116
$13.0M
2022
51
0
51
$5.7M
2023
54
0
54
$6.1M
2024
63
0
63
$7.1M
Permit volume decreased 68% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
17.9 minutes
Drive Alone
67.7%
Carpool
8.3%
Public Transit
3.9%
Walk
6.6%
Work from Home
8.9%
Other
4.6%
Based on 9,929 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 Elmira. 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 Elmira 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 Elmira sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Elmira 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, NOAA Climate Normals, 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.