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Place dossier plate
SheetOH-MECHANICSBURG-OH · Mechanicsburg, OH 1,853 pop · income 28th 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 Mechanicsburg
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Mechanicsburg on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Wilkinson Hei… · lowest
22,714
Wilkinson Hei… · lowest
22,714 median HH income
9.1% of the leader · rank #1
Mechanicsburg · this city
55,556
Mechanicsburg · this city
55,556 median HH income
22.2% of the leader · rank #2
Dixon Lane-Me… · near
55,556
Dixon Lane-Me… · near
55,556 median HH income
22.2% of the leader · rank #3
Finger · near
55,556
Finger · near
55,556 median HH income
22.2% of the leader · rank #4
Fords Prairie · near
55,556
Fords Prairie · near
55,556 median HH income
22.2% of the leader · rank #5
Homestead Mea… · near
55,559
Homestead Mea… · near
55,559 median HH income
22.2% of the leader · rank #6
Huntington Bay · highest
250,001
Huntington Bay · highest
250,001 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 Mechanicsburg 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: 1,853.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Mechanicsburg - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Mechanicsburg places in the 28th percentile for household income and the 91st percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
28th
percentile, household income
26th
percentile, home value
22nd
percentile, median rent
91st
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: Mechanicsburg, OH
Mechanicsburg is a small town in Ohio, home to 1,853 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Mechanicsburg brings in $55,556 a year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 13.3%. Home values in Mechanicsburg run a median of $145,800, and the median resident age is 32.4 years. Educational attainment runs 13.0% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 55.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Mechanicsburg reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 356.9 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: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Ohio scores 92.8 (Below Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. 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. 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 Mechanicsburg'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 comparison shortlist to reported crime to schools and households to housing and income to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Mechanicsburg, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, 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.
Question 1
Is Mechanicsburg growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +3 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.2% 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 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 Mechanicsburg?
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 Orwell (1,854 residents, $43,670 income); Roseland (1,859 residents, $45,833 income); Navarre (1,861 residents, $56,715 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Huntington Bay, NY (1,853 residents); Manteo, NC (1,853 residents); Keno, OR (1,853 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 can the FBI record say about safety in Mechanicsburg?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 356.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 84% 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 Mechanicsburg?
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 3 public schools within the city match. 13.0% 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.
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 Mechanicsburg?
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 13.3%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
2.6×
Home value
$145,800
Household income
$55,556
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 Mechanicsburg?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 64.5%. 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
64.5%
Work from home
9.7%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 795 workers age 16+.
Below median income · poverty 13.3% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
92.8 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Ohio average
D
City profile score · Mechanicsburg, OH
49/100
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+
0 /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.
Household income F
$55,556
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
13.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
13.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Mechanicsburg profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 97/100 (A+) · 0 /100k
Cost of living: 75/100 (B+) · 92.8 index
Household income: 28/100 (F) · $55,556
Poverty rate: 27/100 (F) · 13.3%
Bachelor's+ share: 15/100 (F) · 13.0%
Where Mechanicsburg sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Mechanicsburg'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 - Mechanicsburg highlighted among 23 peers.Read the chart values
Mechanicsburg, OH (this city): home $145,800, crime 357/100k
Weston, MO : home $246,000, crime 1,203/100k
Navarre, OH : home $128,300, crime 724/100k
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 Mechanicsburg compare to other US cities?
Mechanicsburg measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income28% higher than other cities
Home value26% pricier than other cities
Median rent22% pricier than other cities
Safety91% 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, Mechanicsburg ranks #23 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 Mechanicsburg 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 Mechanicsburg near the bottom of Ohio's cities
Among the 1,196 Ohio cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Mechanicsburg ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Mechanicsburg only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#790 of 1,145
31st percentile in Ohio
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,196
0th percentile in Ohio
Median Home Value
#577 of 1,164
50th percentile in Ohio
Poverty Rate
#307 of 1,196
74th percentile in Ohio
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#812 of 1,196
32nd 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
28th percentile nationally for median household income · 91st percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Mechanicsburg's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Mechanicsburg'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 Mechanicsburg's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$145,800Among the most affordablemore affordable than 74% 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
Mechanicsburg's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,643 of 15,516
More affordable than 70% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,116 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.6×, Mechanicsburg sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,643 of 15,516 and #4,116 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$55,556Mechanicsburg, OH median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Mechanicsburg, 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 Mechanicsburg, OH.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)13.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)13.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)55.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,853
Median Income
$55,556
Median Home Value
$145,800
Median Age
32.4
Poverty Rate
13.3%
Labor force participation
55.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
13.0%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
356.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
356.9
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
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Mechanicsburg's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
1,678 residents
2021
1,679 residents
2022
1,675 residents
2023
1,680 residents
2024
1,676 residents
2025
1,681 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
64.5%
Carpool
20.4%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
3.3%
Work from Home
9.7%
Other
2.1%
Based on 795 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 Mechanicsburg. 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 Mechanicsburg 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 Mechanicsburg sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Mechanicsburg 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.