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Place dossier plate
SheetOH-ASHTABULA-OH · Ashtabula, OH 17,919 pop · income 11th pct · 29 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 Ashtabula
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Ashtabula on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Portsmouth · lowest
35,319
Portsmouth · lowest
35,319 median HH income
29.5% of the leader · rank #1
Biscoe · near
43,773
Biscoe · near
43,773 median HH income
36.6% of the leader · rank #2
Ashtabula · this city
43,782
Ashtabula · this city
43,782 median HH income
36.6% of the leader · rank #3
St. Bernice · near
43,788
St. Bernice · near
43,788 median HH income
36.6% of the leader · rank #4
Crosby · near
43,795
Crosby · near
43,795 median HH income
36.6% of the leader · rank #5
Flora Vista · near
43,799
Flora Vista · near
43,799 median HH income
36.6% of the leader · rank #6
Parole · highest
119,591
Parole · highest
119,591 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 Ashtabula 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: 17,919.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Ashtabula - the verdict
Nationally, Ashtabula sits in the 11th percentile for household income and the 60th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
11th
percentile, household income
9th
percentile, home value
22nd
percentile, median rent
60th
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: Ashtabula, OH
Ohio's Ashtabula is a small town, with 17,919 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $43,782 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 26.4%. Ashtabula's housing stock carries a median value of $99,200, and the median resident age is 40.1 years. Educational attainment runs 12.8% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 52.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Ashtabula reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 1105.9 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Living costs in Ohio run below the national norm: the state registers 92.8 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,092 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Ohio's average monthly utility costs around $228 (state average). The average commute for Ashtabula workers runs 19.0 minutes, with 81.9% driving alone and 2.0% working from home. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 55.0 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Ashtabula'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 schools and households to population change to housing and income to within-city variation to comparison shortlist to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Ashtabula, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What can the FBI record say about safety in Ashtabula?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1105.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 52% lower 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.
What does the education layer cover for Ashtabula?
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 10 public schools within the city match. 12.8% 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 29 Census tracts reveal inside Ashtabula?
PlainCities matches 29 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 Ashtabula?
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 Ohio, the closest population matches are Portsmouth (17,919 residents, $35,319 income); Tiffin (17,814 residents, $55,700 income); Pataskala (18,049 residents, $90,513 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are El Reno, OK (17,919 residents); Conyers, GA (17,916 residents); Parole, MD (17,910 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.
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.
Population change
Is Ashtabula growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -482 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.7% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. 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
17,956
2025 estimate
17,474
Period change
-2.7%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
How far does income reach against housing in Ashtabula?
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 2.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 26.4%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
2.3×
Home value
$99,200
Household income
$43,782
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What does the journey to work look like in Ashtabula?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 81.9%. The reported mean trip to work is 19.0 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
81.9%
Work from home
2.0%
Public transit
1.2%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 7,342 workers age 16+.
Low income · poverty 26.4% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
92.8 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Ohio average
F
City profile score · Ashtabula, OH
31/100
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.
Cost of living B+
92.8 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 C-
186 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
12.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$43,782
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
26.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Ashtabula profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 75/100 (B+) · 92.8 index
Violent crime: 50/100 (C-) · 186 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 14/100 (F) · 12.8%
Household income: 12/100 (F) · $43,782
Poverty rate: 4/100 (F) · 26.4%
Where Ashtabula sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Ashtabula'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 - Ashtabula highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Ashtabula, OH (this city): home $99,200, crime 1,106/100k
El Reno, OK : home $157,000, crime 1,563/100k
Conyers, GA : home $218,000, crime 2,851/100k
Mount Holly, NC : home $286,400, crime 1,755/100k
Los Lunas, NM : home $232,700, crime 3,496/100k
Anoka, MN : home $292,900, crime 1,432/100k
Portsmouth, OH : home $95,000, crime 4,572/100k
North Canton, OH : home $194,200, crime 1,149/100k
Steubenville, OH : home $128,000, crime 2,999/100k
New Philadelphia, OH : home $164,600, crime 628/100k
How does Ashtabula compare to other US cities?
Here's how Ashtabula stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income11% higher than other cities
Home value9% pricier than other cities
Median rent22% pricier than other cities
Safety60% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Ohio and the picture shifts: Ashtabula ranks #129 of 281 Ohio cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Ashtabula against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Ohio only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Ohio-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Ashtabula near the bottom of Ohio's cities
Among the 1,196 Ohio cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Ashtabula ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Ashtabula only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,034 of 1,145
10th percentile in Ohio
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,196
0th percentile in Ohio
Median Home Value
#972 of 1,164
16th percentile in Ohio
Poverty Rate
#78 of 1,196
93rd percentile in Ohio
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#818 of 1,196
31st percentile in Ohio
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 Ohio only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
11th percentile nationally for median household income · 60th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Ashtabula's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Ashtabula'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 Ashtabula's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$99,200Among the most affordablemore affordable than 91% 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
Ashtabula's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#2,792 of 15,516
More affordable than 82% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#191 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.3×, Ashtabula sits in the affordable band:
national rank #2,792 of 15,516 and #191 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
$43,782Ashtabula, OH median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Ashtabula, OH median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Ashtabula, OH.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)12.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)26.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)52.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
17,919
Median Income
$43,782
Median Home Value
$99,200
Median Age
40.1
Poverty Rate
26.4%
Labor force participation
52.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
12.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1105.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
186.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
919.7
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
10
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Ashtabula's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
17,956 residents
2021
17,856 residents
2022
17,703 residents
2023
17,619 residents
2024
17,527 residents
2025
17,474 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
19.0 minutes
Drive Alone
81.9%
Carpool
10.3%
Public Transit
1.2%
Walk
1.3%
Work from Home
2.0%
Other
3.3%
Based on 7,342 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Ohio statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $228
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Ohio at $228 (electricity about $105 , water and sewer about $45 ).
These are Ohio statewide averages, not a meter reading for Ashtabula. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Ohio's BEA cost-of-living index is 92.8 (Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Ashtabula is $1,092/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Ohio statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 55.0 / 100 (Moderate).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Ohio statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Ashtabula sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Ashtabula compares to similar-size Ohio 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 ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.