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Place dossier plate
SheetOH-CORTLAND-OH · Cortland, OH 7,091 pop · income 38th 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 Cortland
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Cortland on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
River Rouge · lowest
32,568
River Rouge · lowest
32,568 median HH income
33.8% of the leader · rank #1
Chatsworth · near
61,731
Chatsworth · near
61,731 median HH income
64.0% of the leader · rank #2
Elkland · near
61,731
Elkland · near
61,731 median HH income
64.0% of the leader · rank #3
Cortland · this city
61,740
Cortland · this city
61,740 median HH income
64.1% of the leader · rank #4
Athol · near
61,742
Athol · near
61,742 median HH income
64.1% of the leader · rank #5
North Fond du… · near
61,744
North Fond du… · near
61,744 median HH income
64.1% of the leader · rank #6
Lionville · highest
96,381
Lionville · highest
96,381 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 Cortland 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: 7,091.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Cortland - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Cortland places in the 38th percentile for household income and the 83rd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
38th
percentile, household income
43rd
percentile, home value
22nd
percentile, median rent
83rd
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: Cortland, OH
7,091 people live in Cortland, Ohio - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Cortland brings in $61,740 a year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 9.5%. Typical homes in Cortland are valued around $199,300, and the median resident age is 50.3 years. Educational attainment runs 37.3% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 55.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Cortland reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 538.9 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects 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. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,092 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Ohio run around $228, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 55.0 out of 100 (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Cortland'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 housing and income to schools and households to reported crime to work and mobility to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Cortland, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, 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. Comparison shortlist
Which cities make useful reference points for Cortland?
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 Logan (7,077 residents, $52,680 income); Mentor-on-the-Lake (7,117 residents, $61,320 income); Delphos (7,063 residents, $58,359 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Lionville, PA (7,091 residents); River Rouge, MI (7,092 residents); Decatur, TX (7,087 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Cortland?
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 3.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 9.5%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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 6 public schools within the city match. 37.3% 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 the FBI record say about safety in Cortland?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 538.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 76% 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.
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 Cortland?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 81.0%. 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.
Drive alone
81.0%
Work from home
10.4%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 3,228 workers age 16+.
Is Cortland growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -73 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.0% 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
7,097
2025 estimate
7,024
Period change
-1.0%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Below median income · poverty 9.5% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
92.8 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Ohio average
C+
City profile score · Cortland, OH
60/100
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.
Violent crime A-
57 /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.
Bachelor's+ share B
37.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate D
9.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$61,740
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Cortland profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 82/100 (A-) · 57 /100k
Cost of living: 75/100 (B+) · 92.8 index
Bachelor's+ share: 71/100 (B) · 37.3%
Poverty rate: 42/100 (D) · 9.5%
Household income: 37/100 (F) · $61,740
Where Cortland sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Cortland'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 - Cortland highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Cortland, OH (this city): home $199,300, crime 539/100k
Decatur, TX : home $242,200, crime 1,946/100k
Milton-Freewater, OR : home $209,800, crime 1,994/100k
Seminole, TX : home $151,000, crime 1,043/100k
Mentor-on-the-Lake, OH : home $171,200, crime 679/100k
Delphos, OH : home $125,400, crime 710/100k
Mount Healthy, OH : home $126,200, crime 2,893/100k
Union, OH : home $138,800, crime 1,204/100k
How does Cortland compare to other US cities?
Where Cortland sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income38% higher than other cities
Home value43% pricier than other cities
Median rent22% pricier than other cities
Safety83% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Ohio alone, Cortland ranks #51 of 281 Ohio cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Cortland 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 Cortland near the bottom of Ohio's cities
Among the 1,196 Ohio cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Cortland ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Cortland only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#657 of 1,145
43rd percentile in Ohio
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,196
0th percentile in Ohio
Median Home Value
#305 of 1,164
74th percentile in Ohio
Poverty Rate
#454 of 1,196
62nd percentile in Ohio
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#194 of 1,196
84th 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
38th percentile nationally for median household income · 83rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Cortland's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Cortland'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 Cortland's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$199,300Among the most affordablemore affordable than 57% 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
Cortland's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#7,817 of 15,516
More affordable than 50% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#6,438 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.2×, Cortland sits in the moderate band:
national rank #7,817 of 15,516 and #6,438 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
$61,740Cortland, OH median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Cortland, 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 Cortland, OH.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)37.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)9.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)55.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
7,091
Median Income
$61,740
Median Home Value
$199,300
Median Age
50.3
Poverty Rate
9.5%
Labor force participation
55.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
37.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
538.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
56.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
482.2
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
6
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Cortland's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
7,097 residents
2021
7,086 residents
2022
7,055 residents
2023
7,048 residents
2024
7,031 residents
2025
7,024 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
81.0%
Carpool
8.3%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
10.4%
Based on 3,228 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 Cortland. 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 Cortland 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 Cortland sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Cortland 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.