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Place dossier plate
SheetNY-HORNELL-NY · Hornell, NY 8,173 pop · income 14th pct · 31 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 Hornell
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Hornell on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Tacoma · lowest
46,313
Tacoma · lowest
46,313 median HH income
24.9% of the leader · rank #1
Silver Grove · near
46,315
Silver Grove · near
46,315 median HH income
24.9% of the leader · rank #2
Kinsman Center · near
46,318
Kinsman Center · near
46,318 median HH income
24.9% of the leader · rank #3
Hornell · this city
46,321
Hornell · this city
46,321 median HH income
24.9% of the leader · rank #4
Bremen · near
46,324
Bremen · near
46,324 median HH income
24.9% of the leader · rank #5
Croton-on-Hud… · highest
185,718
Croton-on-Hud… · highest
185,718 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Hornell 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: 8,173.
Nationally, Hornell sits in the 14th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
14th
percentile, household income
5th
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: Hornell, NY
Hornell is a small town in New York, home to 8,173 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Hornell brings in $46,321 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 16.6%. Hornell's housing stock carries a median value of $86,600, and the median resident age is 40.2 years. 19.0% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 49.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 1 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Stable), up 0% from five years earlier.
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. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts New York's average monthly utility costs around $285 (state average). On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 69.4 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Hornell'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 population change to schools and households to work and mobility to comparison shortlist to within-city variation to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Hornell, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, local building permits, 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. Population change
Is Hornell 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 -230 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 1 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 19.0% 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 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Hornell?
Within New York, the closest population matches are Garden City Park (8,176 residents, $135,208 income); Center Moriches (8,155 residents, $152,500 income); Johnstown (8,153 residents, $62,333 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Richfield, UT (8,173 residents); Los Fresnos, TX (8,174 residents); Odessa, FL (8,170 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.
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 31 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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Hornell?
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 72.3%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
1.4%
Work from home
5.1%
Drive alone
72.3%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 3,356 workers age 16+.
How far does income reach against housing in Hornell?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 1.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 16.6%, 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. 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
$46,321
Home value
$86,600
Value / income
1.9×
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
19.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
16.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$46,321
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.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Hornell profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 31/100 (F) · 19.0%
Poverty rate: 20/100 (F) · 16.6%
Household income: 15/100 (F) · $46,321
Cost of living: 12/100 (F) · 107.9 index
How does Hornell compare to other US cities?
Here's how Hornell stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income14% higher than other cities
Home value5% 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 Hornell 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 Hornell near the bottom of New York's cities
Among the 1,256 New York cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Hornell ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Hornell only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,137 of 1,205
6th percentile in New York
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,256
0th percentile in New York
Median Home Value
#1,159 of 1,202
4th percentile in New York
Poverty Rate
#148 of 1,246
88th percentile in New York
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,031 of 1,254
18th 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
14th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Hornell's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$86,600Among the most affordablemore affordable than 95% 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
Hornell's home-value-to-income ratio: 1.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#1,201 of 15,516
More affordable than 92% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,159 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 1.9×, Hornell sits in the affordable band:
national rank #1,201 of 15,516 and #1,159 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
$46,321Hornell, NY median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Hornell, 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 Hornell, NY.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)19.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)16.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)49.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
8,173
Median Income
$46,321
Median Home Value
$86,600
Median Age
40.2
Poverty Rate
16.6%
Labor force participation
49.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
19.0%
Schools
Total Schools
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Hornell's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
8,254 residents
2021
8,187 residents
2022
8,104 residents
2023
8,075 residents
2024
8,059 residents
2025
8,024 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Stable
Total Permits (2024)
1
housing units authorized
Single-Family
1
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
1
1
0
$0.1M
2020
0
0
0
-
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
1
1
0
$0.3M
2023
1
1
0
$0.3M
2024
1
1
0
$0.3M
Permit volume increased 0% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
72.3%
Carpool
8.4%
Public Transit
1.4%
Walk
8.0%
Work from Home
5.1%
Other
4.8%
Based on 3,356 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 Hornell. 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 Hornell 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 Hornell sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Hornell 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.