Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetOH-OBERLIN-OH · Oberlin, OH 8,054 pop · income 55th 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 Oberlin
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Oberlin on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Campbell · lowest
41,368
Campbell · lowest
41,368 median HH income
21.3% of the leader · rank #1
Oberlin · this city
73,775
Oberlin · this city
73,775 median HH income
38.1% of the leader · rank #2
East Bernard · near
73,775
East Bernard · near
73,775 median HH income
38.1% of the leader · rank #3
Arcola · near
73,778
Arcola · near
73,778 median HH income
38.1% of the leader · rank #4
Loma Grande · near
73,787
Loma Grande · near
73,787 median HH income
38.1% of the leader · rank #5
Stroh · near
73,788
Stroh · near
73,788 median HH income
38.1% of the leader · rank #6
South Kensing… · highest
193,793
South Kensing… · highest
193,793 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 Oberlin 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: 8,054.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Oberlin - the verdict
Oberlin ranks in the 55th percentile for household income and the 45th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
55th
percentile, household income
45th
percentile, home value
22nd
percentile, median rent
45th
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: Oberlin, OH
8,054 people live in Oberlin, Ohio - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Oberlin brings in $73,775 a year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 6.1%. Oberlin's housing stock carries a median value of $207,500, and the median resident age is 24.2 years. Educational attainment runs 54.6% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 50.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 5 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 67% from five years earlier. Oberlin reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1519.2 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Oberlin's yearly average temperature at 50.1°F with 40.0 inches of precipitation per year and 47.0 inches of snowfall.
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. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,092 per month statewide. 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 Oberlin'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 housing and income to reported crime to climate and hazard context to comparison shortlist to schools and households 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 Oberlin, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, local building permits, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Oberlin?
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 2.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 6.1%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Oberlin?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1519.2 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 33% 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.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 50.1°F, with 40.0 inches of precipitation and 47.0 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Ohio is 55.0 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
Which cities make useful reference points for Oberlin?
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 Landen (8,041 residents, $105,948 income); Groesbeck (8,036 residents, $59,886 income); Bellevue (8,201 residents, $57,534 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Fort Polk South, LA (8,056 residents); South Kensington, MD (8,057 residents); Oak Hill, WV (8,057 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 Oberlin?
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 7 public schools within the city match. 54.6% 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
6.1%
Bachelor's degree+
54.6%
Matched public schools
7
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in Oberlin?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 45.8%. 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
45.8%
Work from home
11.2%
Public transit
1.9%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 3,492 workers age 16+.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -5 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 5 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.
2020 estimate
8,608
2025 estimate
8,603
Period change
-0.1%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Above median income · poverty 6.1% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
92.8 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Ohio average
C+
City profile score · Oberlin, OH
64/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share A
54.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
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 C
6.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime C
161 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income C-
$73,775
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Oberlin profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 88/100 (A) · 54.6%
Cost of living: 75/100 (B+) · 92.8 index
Poverty rate: 58/100 (C) · 6.1%
Violent crime: 56/100 (C) · 161 /100k
Household income: 53/100 (C-) · $73,775
Where Oberlin sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Oberlin'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 - Oberlin highlighted among 24 peers.Read the chart values
Oberlin, OH (this city): home $207,500, crime 1,519/100k
Oak Hill, WV : home $110,400, crime 2,220/100k
Antigo, WI : home $94,700, crime 1,436/100k
Stuttgart, AR : home $150,600, crime 3,599/100k
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 Oberlin compare to other US cities?
Oberlin measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income55% higher than other cities
Home value45% pricier than other cities
Median rent22% pricier than other cities
Safety45% 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, Oberlin ranks #177 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 Oberlin 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 Oberlin near the bottom of Ohio's cities
Among the 1,196 Ohio cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Oberlin ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Oberlin only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#400 of 1,145
65th percentile in Ohio
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,196
0th percentile in Ohio
Median Home Value
#289 of 1,164
75th percentile in Ohio
Poverty Rate
#628 of 1,196
47th percentile in Ohio
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#88 of 1,196
93rd 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
55th percentile nationally for median household income · 45th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Oberlin's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Oberlin'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 Oberlin's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$207,500Among the most affordablemore affordable than 55% 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
Oberlin's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,653 of 15,516
More affordable than 64% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,901 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.8×, Oberlin sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,653 of 15,516 and #4,901 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
$73,775Oberlin, OH median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Oberlin, 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 Oberlin, OH.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)54.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)6.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)50.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
8,054
Median Income
$73,775
Median Home Value
$207,500
Median Age
24.2
Poverty Rate
6.1%
Labor force participation
50.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
54.6%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1519.2
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
161.3
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1357.9
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
50.1°F
Annual Precipitation
40.0"
Annual Snowfall
47.0"
Schools
Total Schools
7
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Oberlin's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
8,608 residents
2021
7,758 residents
2022
8,190 residents
2023
8,617 residents
2024
8,625 residents
2025
8,603 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
5
housing units authorized
Single-Family
5
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.6
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
3
3
0
$0.9M
2020
3
3
0
$0.8M
2021
6
6
0
$1.8M
2022
1
1
0
$0.8M
2023
2
2
0
$0.8M
2024
5
5
0
$0.9M
Permit volume increased 67% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
45.8%
Carpool
6.3%
Public Transit
1.9%
Walk
30.1%
Work from Home
11.2%
Other
4.7%
Based on 3,492 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 Oberlin. 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 Oberlin 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 Oberlin sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Oberlin 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, NOAA Climate Normals, 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.