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Place dossier plate
SheetOH-BETHEL-OH · Bethel, OH 2,639 pop · income 11th pct
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 Bethel
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Bethel on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Silver Springs · lowest
32,228
Silver Springs · lowest
32,228 median HH income
20.8% of the leader · rank #1
Kalkaska · near
42,955
Kalkaska · near
42,955 median HH income
27.7% of the leader · rank #2
Bethel · this city
42,961
Bethel · this city
42,961 median HH income
27.7% of the leader · rank #3
Lake Linden · near
42,961
Lake Linden · near
42,961 median HH income
27.7% of the leader · rank #4
Trion · near
42,969
Trion · near
42,969 median HH income
27.7% of the leader · rank #5
Kellnersville · near
42,969
Kellnersville · near
42,969 median HH income
27.7% of the leader · rank #6
Evendale · highest
154,896
Evendale · highest
154,896 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 Bethel 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: 2,639.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Bethel - the verdict
Nationally, Bethel 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
24th
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: Bethel, OH
Bethel is a small town in Ohio, home to 2,639 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $42,961 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 14.1%. Home values in Bethel run a median of $142,700, and the median resident age is 42.3 years. About 10.1% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 49.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Bethel reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 1085.7 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: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Ohio at 92.8 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Below Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,092 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $228 across Ohio, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Natural-hazard exposure scores 55.0 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Bethel'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 housing and income to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Bethel, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Population change
Is Bethel growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +91 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +3.5% 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.
The NCES join finds 5 public schools within the city match. 10.1% 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.
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.
What does the journey to work look like in Bethel?
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 77.0%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Which cities make useful reference points for Bethel?
Within Ohio, the closest population matches are Fredericktown (2,634 residents, $64,668 income); New Bremen (2,650 residents, $81,250 income); New Concord (2,623 residents, $72,120 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Casa Conejo, CA (2,640 residents); Silver Springs, FL (2,640 residents); Brookville, IN (2,640 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.
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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Bethel?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 14.1%, 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. 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.
Household income
$42,961
Home value
$142,700
Value / income
3.3×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Bethel?
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 1085.7 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.
Property rate
1048.3
Violent rate
37.4
Total reported rate
1085.7
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
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.
Violent crime A
37 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
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.
Poverty rate F
14.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$42,961
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
10.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Bethel profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 87/100 (A) · 37 /100k
Cost of living: 75/100 (B+) · 92.8 index
Poverty rate: 24/100 (F) · 14.1%
Household income: 11/100 (F) · $42,961
Bachelor's+ share: 7/100 (F) · 10.1%
Where Bethel sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Bethel'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 - Bethel highlighted among 24 peers.Read the chart values
Bethel, OH (this city): home $142,700, crime 1,086/100k
Brookville, IN : home $172,100, crime 226/100k
Fredericktown, OH : home $164,500, crime 422/100k
Evendale, OH : home $385,500, crime 5,655/100k
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 Bethel compare to other US cities?
Where Bethel sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income11% higher than other cities
Home value24% 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.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at Ohio, Bethel ranks #128 of 281 Ohio 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 Bethel 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 Bethel near the bottom of Ohio's cities
Among the 1,196 Ohio cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Bethel ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Bethel only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,050 of 1,145
8th percentile in Ohio
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,196
0th percentile in Ohio
Median Home Value
#598 of 1,164
49th percentile in Ohio
Poverty Rate
#278 of 1,196
77th percentile in Ohio
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#931 of 1,196
22nd 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.
Bethel's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Bethel'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 Bethel's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$142,700Among the most affordablemore affordable than 76% 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
Bethel's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#8,216 of 15,516
More affordable than 47% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#6,711 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.3×, Bethel sits in the moderate band:
national rank #8,216 of 15,516 and #6,711 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
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
$42,961Bethel, OH median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Bethel, 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 Bethel, OH.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)10.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)14.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)49.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,639
Median Income
$42,961
Median Home Value
$142,700
Median Age
42.3
Poverty Rate
14.1%
Labor force participation
49.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
10.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1085.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
37.4
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1048.3
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
5
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Bethel's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,617 residents
2021
2,630 residents
2022
2,638 residents
2023
2,654 residents
2024
2,679 residents
2025
2,708 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
77.0%
Carpool
16.2%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.7%
Work from Home
6.2%
Based on 908 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 Bethel. 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 Bethel 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 Bethel sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Bethel 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.