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Place dossier plate
SheetNY-OLEAN-NY · Olean, NY 13,798 pop · income 16th pct · 24 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 Olean
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Olean on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Waycross · lowest
37,398
Waycross · lowest
37,398 median HH income
20.8% of the leader · rank #1
Oceana · near
47,548
Oceana · near
47,548 median HH income
26.4% of the leader · rank #2
Rockdale · near
47,550
Rockdale · near
47,550 median HH income
26.4% of the leader · rank #3
Pinewood · near
47,551
Pinewood · near
47,551 median HH income
26.4% of the leader · rank #4
Olean · this city
47,553
Olean · this city
47,553 median HH income
26.4% of the leader · rank #5
Cave Spring · near
47,560
Cave Spring · near
47,560 median HH income
26.4% of the leader · rank #6
Jericho · highest
180,072
Jericho · highest
180,072 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 Olean 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: 13,798.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Olean - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Olean places in the 16th percentile for household income and the 7th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
16th
percentile, household income
6th
percentile, home value
78th
percentile, median rent
7th
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: Olean, NY
13,798 people live in Olean, New York - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Olean report a median income of $47,553 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 19.9%. Typical homes in Olean are valued around $90,500, and the median resident age is 38.7 years. Educational attainment runs 29.1% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 57.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 3 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Low Activity). Olean's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 4135.9 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). The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 46.3°F with 40.7 inches of precipitation per year and 64.7 inches of snowfall.
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. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts New York's average monthly utility costs around $285 (state average). Commute times here average 15.0 minutes, with 74.7% driving alone and 8.5% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. 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 Olean'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 reported crime to housing and income to comparison shortlist to climate and hazard context to population change to schools and households to work and mobility to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Olean, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What can the FBI record say about safety in Olean?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 4135.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 81% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Olean?
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.
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 19.9%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Olean?
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 East Islip (13,687 residents, $146,890 income); St. James (13,680 residents, $130,556 income); Rocky Point (13,931 residents, $124,615 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Lumberton, TX (13,803 residents); Worthington, MN (13,792 residents); Broussard, LA (13,791 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.
PlainCities matches 24 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.
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 Olean?
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.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 46.3°F, with 40.7 inches of precipitation and 64.7 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.
FEMA risk index (state avg)
69.4
Annual precipitation
40.7 in
Mean temperature
46.3°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -393 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.8% 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.
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.
2020 estimate
13,901
2025 estimate
13,508
Period change
-2.8%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
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. 29.1% 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
19.9%
Bachelor's degree+
29.1%
Matched public schools
5
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 74.7%. 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.
Drive alone
74.7%
Work from home
8.5%
Public transit
1.6%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 6,068 workers age 16+.
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
29.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime F
347 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income F
$47,553
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
19.9%
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.
Olean profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 56/100 (C) · 29.1%
Violent crime: 26/100 (F) · 347 /100k
Household income: 17/100 (F) · $47,553
Poverty rate: 14/100 (F) · 19.9%
Cost of living: 12/100 (F) · 107.9 index
Where Olean sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Olean'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 - Olean highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Olean, NY (this city): home $90,500, crime 4,136/100k
Lumberton, TX : home $271,500, crime 538/100k
Worthington, MN : home $184,200, crime 1,205/100k
Broussard, LA : home $301,000, crime 2,348/100k
Waycross, GA : home $88,600, crime 6,061/100k
Hawaiian Gardens, CA : home $509,600, crime 2,839/100k
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 Olean compare to other US cities?
Olean measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income16% higher than other cities
Home value6% pricier than other cities
Median rent78% pricier than other cities
Safety7% 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, Olean ranks #50 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 Olean 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 Olean near the bottom of New York's cities
Among the 1,256 New York cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Olean ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Olean only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,122 of 1,205
7th percentile in New York
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,256
0th percentile in New York
Median Home Value
#1,143 of 1,202
5th percentile in New York
Poverty Rate
#90 of 1,246
93rd percentile in New York
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#711 of 1,254
43rd 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
16th percentile nationally for median household income · 7th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Olean's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Olean'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 Olean's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$90,500Among 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
Olean's home-value-to-income ratio: 1.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#1,321 of 15,516
More affordable than 91% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#45 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 1.9×, Olean sits in the affordable band:
national rank #1,321 of 15,516 and #45 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
$47,553Olean, NY median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Olean, 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 Olean, NY.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)29.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)19.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)57.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
13,798
Median Income
$47,553
Median Home Value
$90,500
Median Age
38.7
Poverty Rate
19.9%
Labor force participation
57.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
29.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
4135.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
346.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3789.4
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
46.3°F
Annual Precipitation
40.7"
Annual Snowfall
64.7"
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
Olean's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
13,901 residents
2021
13,785 residents
2022
13,672 residents
2023
13,637 residents
2024
13,572 residents
2025
13,508 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
3
detached homes
Multifamily
0
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
0
0
0
-
2021
14
0
14
$7.1M
2022
42
0
42
$10.0M
2023
16
0
16
$3.0M
2024
3
3
0
$0.3M
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
15.0 minutes
Drive Alone
74.7%
Carpool
8.2%
Public Transit
1.6%
Walk
5.1%
Work from Home
8.5%
Other
1.9%
Based on 6,068 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 Olean. 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 Olean 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 Olean sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Olean 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.