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Place dossier plate
SheetOH-LORAIN-OH · Lorain, OH 65,207 pop · income 14th pct · 80 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 Lorain
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Lorain on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Youngstown · lowest
34,746
Youngstown · lowest
34,746 median HH income
25.2% of the leader · rank #1
Lancaster · near
45,795
Lancaster · near
45,795 median HH income
33.2% of the leader · rank #2
Lorain · this city
45,799
Lorain · this city
45,799 median HH income
33.2% of the leader · rank #3
Nevada · near
45,799
Nevada · near
45,799 median HH income
33.2% of the leader · rank #4
Park Rapids · near
45,800
Park Rapids · near
45,800 median HH income
33.2% of the leader · rank #5
Lexa · near
45,804
Lexa · near
45,804 median HH income
33.2% of the leader · rank #6
Castro Valley · highest
138,069
Castro Valley · highest
138,069 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 Lorain 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: 65,207.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Lorain - the verdict
Nationally, Lorain sits in the 14th percentile for household income and the 29th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
14th
percentile, household income
19th
percentile, home value
22nd
percentile, median rent
29th
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: Lorain, OH
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 65,207 residents in Lorain, a small city within Ohio. The typical household in Lorain brings in $45,799 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 21.0%. Lorain's housing stock carries a median value of $123,500, and the median resident age is 39.3 years. 14.3% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 52.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 54 residential building permits were authorized in Lorain (Construction Slowdown), down 38% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 2132.3 in FBI UCR data, near 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). 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. The average commute for Lorain workers runs 23.3 minutes, with 78.5% driving alone and 5.0% working from home. 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 Lorain'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 within-city variation to work and mobility to population change to housing and income to comparison shortlist to schools and households to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Lorain, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, matched public-school count.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What can 80 Census tracts reveal inside Lorain?
PlainCities matches 80 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 Lorain?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 78.5%. The reported mean trip to work is 23.3 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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +167 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.3% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 54 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Which cities make useful reference points for Lorain?
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 Hamilton (63,124 residents, $54,293 income); Canton (70,105 residents, $39,754 income); Youngstown (59,605 residents, $34,746 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Pflugerville, TX (65,162 residents); Lynwood, CA (65,291 residents); Kenner, LA (65,113 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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Lorain?
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 2.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 21.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
2.7×
Home value
$123,500
Household income
$45,799
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
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 27 public schools within the city match. 14.3% 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.
Poverty estimate
21.0%
Bachelor's degree+
14.3%
Matched public schools
27
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Lorain?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2132.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 6% 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.
Total reported rate
2132.3
Violent rate
581.3
Property rate
1551.1
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.
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 F
14.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$45,799
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
21.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
581 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Lorain profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 75/100 (B+) · 92.8 index
Bachelor's+ share: 18/100 (F) · 14.3%
Household income: 15/100 (F) · $45,799
Poverty rate: 11/100 (F) · 21.0%
Violent crime: 11/100 (F) · 581 /100k
Where Lorain sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Lorain'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 - Lorain highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Lorain, OH (this city): home $123,500, crime 2,132/100k
Pflugerville, TX : home $354,900, crime 1,809/100k
Lynwood, CA : home $569,400, crime 4,118/100k
Kenner, LA : home $241,800, crime 3,178/100k
Cheyenne, WY : home $311,200, crime 3,317/100k
Hamilton, OH : home $152,300, crime 2,370/100k
Canton, OH : home $94,400, crime 4,576/100k
Youngstown, OH : home $58,400, crime 3,441/100k
Springfield, OH : home $107,600, crime 5,887/100k
Kettering, OH : home $192,500, crime 1,543/100k
Elyria, OH : home $142,800, crime 1,771/100k
How does Lorain compare to other US cities?
Here's how Lorain stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income14% higher than other cities
Home value19% pricier than other cities
Median rent22% pricier than other cities
Safety29% 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, Lorain ranks #219 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 Lorain 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 Lorain near the bottom of Ohio's cities
Among the 1,196 Ohio cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Lorain ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Lorain only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,007 of 1,145
12th percentile in Ohio
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,196
0th percentile in Ohio
Median Home Value
#741 of 1,164
36th percentile in Ohio
Poverty Rate
#127 of 1,196
89th percentile in Ohio
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#742 of 1,196
37th 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
14th percentile nationally for median household income · 29th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Lorain's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Lorain'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 Lorain's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$123,500Among the most affordablemore affordable than 81% 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
Lorain's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,017 of 15,516
More affordable than 68% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#66 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 2.7×, Lorain sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,017 of 15,516 and #66 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
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
$45,799Lorain, OH median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Lorain, 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 Lorain, OH.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)14.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)21.0%
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
65,207
Median Income
$45,799
Median Home Value
$123,500
Median Age
39.3
Poverty Rate
21.0%
Labor force participation
52.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
14.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2132.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
581.3
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1551.1
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
27
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Lorain's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
65,199 residents
2021
65,322 residents
2022
65,260 residents
2023
65,279 residents
2024
65,476 residents
2025
65,366 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
54
housing units authorized
Single-Family
54
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.8
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
87
87
0
$10.5M
2020
132
132
0
$16.7M
2021
119
119
0
$18.5M
2022
96
96
0
$16.5M
2023
104
104
0
$22.0M
2024
54
54
0
$10.5M
Permit volume decreased 38% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
23.3 minutes
Drive Alone
78.5%
Carpool
13.1%
Public Transit
0.3%
Walk
0.7%
Work from Home
5.0%
Other
2.4%
Based on 26,108 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 Lorain. 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 Lorain 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 Lorain sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Lorain 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 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.