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Place dossier plate
SheetOH-NELSONVILLE-OH · Nelsonville, OH 3,816 pop · income 10th 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 Nelsonville
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Nelsonville on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Bellaire · lowest
35,000
Bellaire · lowest
35,000 median HH income
24.4% of the leader · rank #1
Nelsonville · this city
42,281
Nelsonville · this city
42,281 median HH income
29.5% of the leader · rank #2
Carl · near
42,281
Carl · near
42,281 median HH income
29.5% of the leader · rank #3
Forest Park · near
42,286
Forest Park · near
42,286 median HH income
29.5% of the leader · rank #4
Earl · near
42,287
Earl · near
42,287 median HH income
29.5% of the leader · rank #5
Alderson · near
42,292
Alderson · near
42,292 median HH income
29.5% of the leader · rank #6
Amberley · highest
143,289
Amberley · highest
143,289 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 Nelsonville 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: 3,816.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Nelsonville - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Nelsonville places in the 10th percentile for household income and the 19th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
10th
percentile, household income
7th
percentile, home value
22nd
percentile, median rent
19th
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: Nelsonville, OH
3,816 people live in Nelsonville, Ohio - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Nelsonville brings in $42,281 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 12.8%. Home values in Nelsonville run a median of $90,700, and the median resident age is 29.4 years. 13.4% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 47.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Crime here tracks close to the national norm: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 2715.9 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, near the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures 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). 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 Nelsonville'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 work and mobility to reported crime to schools and households to comparison shortlist to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Nelsonville, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, annual population history, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates.
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 Nelsonville growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -104 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.3% 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Nelsonville?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 81.6%. 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Nelsonville?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2715.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 19% higher 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Nelsonville?
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 Fort McKinley (3,832 residents, $47,176 income); Bluffton (3,799 residents, $77,382 income); Wintersville (3,835 residents, $74,648 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Merchantville, NJ (3,815 residents); Unicoi, TN (3,815 residents); Booneville, AR (3,814 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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Nelsonville?
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 4 public schools within the city match. 13.4% 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
12.8%
Bachelor's degree+
13.4%
Matched public schools
4
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
How far does income reach against housing in Nelsonville?
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 2.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 12.8%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
2.1×
Home value
$90,700
Household income
$42,281
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 12.8% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
92.8 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Ohio average
F
City profile score · Nelsonville, OH
37/100
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
156 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate F
12.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
13.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$42,281
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Nelsonville profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 75/100 (B+) · 92.8 index
Violent crime: 57/100 (C) · 156 /100k
Poverty rate: 29/100 (F) · 12.8%
Bachelor's+ share: 16/100 (F) · 13.4%
Household income: 10/100 (F) · $42,281
Where Nelsonville sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Nelsonville'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 - Nelsonville highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Nelsonville, OH (this city): home $90,700, crime 2,716/100k
Merchantville, NJ : home $316,300, crime 1,919/100k
Unicoi, TN : home $196,500, crime 812/100k
Booneville, AR : home $91,800, crime 2,431/100k
St. Anthony, ID : home $199,600, crime 629/100k
Malden, MO : home $88,900, crime 2,278/100k
Troutman, NC : home $349,100, crime 3,500/100k
Wintersville, OH : home $134,200, crime 1,179/100k
Bellaire, OH : home $85,800, crime 1,072/100k
How does Nelsonville compare to other US cities?
Here's how Nelsonville stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income10% higher than other cities
Home value7% pricier than other cities
Median rent22% pricier than other cities
Safety19% 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, Nelsonville ranks #241 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 Nelsonville 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 Nelsonville near the bottom of Ohio's cities
Among the 1,196 Ohio cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Nelsonville ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Nelsonville only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,059 of 1,145
8th percentile in Ohio
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,196
0th percentile in Ohio
Median Home Value
#1,033 of 1,164
11th percentile in Ohio
Poverty Rate
#330 of 1,196
72nd percentile in Ohio
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#792 of 1,196
33rd 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
10th percentile nationally for median household income · 19th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Nelsonville's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Nelsonville'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 Nelsonville's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$90,700Among the most affordablemore affordable than 93% 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
Nelsonville's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#2,204 of 15,516
More affordable than 86% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,082 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.1×, Nelsonville sits in the affordable band:
national rank #2,204 of 15,516 and #2,082 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
$42,281Nelsonville, OH median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Nelsonville, 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 Nelsonville, OH.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)13.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)12.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)47.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
3,816
Median Income
$42,281
Median Home Value
$90,700
Median Age
29.4
Poverty Rate
12.8%
Labor force participation
47.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
13.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2715.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
155.8
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2560.1
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
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Nelsonville's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
4,592 residents
2021
4,568 residents
2022
4,544 residents
2023
4,521 residents
2024
4,513 residents
2025
4,488 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
81.6%
Carpool
7.0%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
6.7%
Work from Home
3.6%
Other
1.1%
Based on 1,410 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 Nelsonville. 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 Nelsonville 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 Nelsonville sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Nelsonville 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.