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Place dossier plate
SheetNY-ROCHESTER-NY · Rochester, NY 209,720 pop · income 15th pct · 211 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 Rochester
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Rochester on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Syracuse · lowest
45,845
Syracuse · lowest
45,845 median HH income
31.4% of the leader · rank #1
Loogootee · near
46,625
Loogootee · near
46,625 median HH income
31.9% of the leader · rank #2
Mexico · near
46,625
Mexico · near
46,625 median HH income
31.9% of the leader · rank #3
Skowhegan · near
46,625
Skowhegan · near
46,625 median HH income
31.9% of the leader · rank #4
Rochester · this city
46,628
Rochester · this city
46,628 median HH income
31.9% of the leader · rank #5
Johnston City · near
46,629
Johnston City · near
46,629 median HH income
31.9% of the leader · rank #6
Frisco · highest
146,158
Frisco · highest
146,158 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 Rochester 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: 209,720.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Rochester - the verdict
Rochester ranks in the 15th percentile for household income and the 8th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
15th
percentile, household income
18th
percentile, home value
78th
percentile, median rent
8th
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: Rochester, NY
New York's Rochester is a mid-sized U.S. city, with 209,720 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. The typical household in Rochester brings in $46,628 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 22.5%. Home values in Rochester run a median of $120,600, and the median resident age is 33.5 years. About 29.9% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 57.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 487 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Rapid Growth), up 41% from five years earlier. Rochester's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 3871.6 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).
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. 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). 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 Rochester'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 within-city variation to work and mobility to reported crime 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 Rochester, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, local building permits, commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Comparison shortlist
Which cities make useful reference points for Rochester?
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 Yonkers (209,529 residents, $81,816 income); Syracuse (146,211 residents, $45,845 income); Buffalo (276,397 residents, $48,050 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Fayetteville, NC (209,692 residents); Frisco, TX (210,238 residents); Moreno Valley, CA (210,378 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 Rochester?
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 111 public schools within the city match. 29.9% 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 can 211 Census tracts reveal inside Rochester?
PlainCities matches 211 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Rochester?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 65.8%. 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. 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.
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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Rochester?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 3871.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 70% 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
3871.6
Violent rate
582.3
Property rate
3289.3
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Is Rochester growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -4,673 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 487 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
210,781
2025 estimate
206,108
Period change
-2.2%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
How far does income reach against housing in Rochester?
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 22.5%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
2.6×
Home value
$120,600
Household income
$46,628
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Low income · poverty 22.5% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
107.9 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, New York average
F
City profile score · Rochester, NY
19/100
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
29.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$46,628
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 F
582 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate F
22.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Rochester profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 58/100 (C) · 29.9%
Household income: 16/100 (F) · $46,628
Cost of living: 12/100 (F) · 107.9 index
Violent crime: 11/100 (F) · 582 /100k
Poverty rate: 9/100 (F) · 22.5%
Where Rochester sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Rochester'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 - Rochester highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Rochester, NY (this city): home $120,600, crime 3,872/100k
Fayetteville, NC : home $171,900, crime 3,755/100k
Frisco, TX : home $595,400, crime 1,104/100k
Moreno Valley, CA : home $461,400, crime 1,938/100k
Fontana, CA : home $558,500, crime 1,487/100k
Des Moines, IA : home $183,700, crime 3,830/100k
Yonkers, NY : home $478,000, crime 1,327/100k
Syracuse, NY : home $125,100, crime 5,000/100k
Buffalo, NY : home $152,300, crime 4,516/100k
Albany, NY : home $223,000, crime 3,665/100k
New Rochelle, NY : home $667,300, crime 1,239/100k
How does Rochester compare to other US cities?
Here's how Rochester stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income15% higher than other cities
Home value18% pricier than other cities
Median rent78% pricier than other cities
Safety8% 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, Rochester ranks #47 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 Rochester 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 Rochester near the bottom of New York's cities
Among the 1,256 New York cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Rochester ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Rochester only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,133 of 1,205
6th percentile in New York
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,256
0th percentile in New York
Median Home Value
#1,005 of 1,202
16th percentile in New York
Poverty Rate
#59 of 1,246
95th percentile in New York
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#694 of 1,254
44th 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
15th percentile nationally for median household income · 8th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Rochester's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Rochester'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 Rochester's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$120,600Among the most affordablemore affordable than 82% 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
Rochester's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,437 of 15,516
More affordable than 71% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4 of 117
Large cities (200,000–999,999)
At 2.6×, Rochester sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,437 of 15,516 and #4 of 117large cities (200,000–999,999).
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
$46,628Rochester, NY median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Rochester, 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 Rochester, NY.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)29.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)22.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)57.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
209,720
Median Income
$46,628
Median Home Value
$120,600
Median Age
33.5
Poverty Rate
22.5%
Labor force participation
57.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
29.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3871.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
582.3
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3289.3
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
111
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Rochester's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
210,781 residents
2021
210,255 residents
2022
208,102 residents
2023
206,673 residents
2024
206,080 residents
2025
206,108 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Rapid Growth
Total Permits (2024)
487
housing units authorized
Single-Family
29
detached homes
Multifamily
458
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
346
9
337
$51.2M
2020
799
58
741
$99.0M
2021
45
45
0
$6.5M
2022
275
10
265
$62.5M
2023
205
47
158
$15.1M
2024
487
29
458
$65.1M
Permit volume increased 41% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
65.8%
Carpool
10.6%
Public Transit
5.4%
Walk
4.1%
Work from Home
10.8%
Other
3.3%
Based on 94,802 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 Rochester. 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 Rochester 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 Rochester sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Rochester 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.