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-SHAKER-HEIGHTS-OH · Shaker Heights, OH 29,004 pop · income 76th 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 Shaker Heights
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Shaker Heights on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Kent · lowest
42,524
Kent · lowest
42,524 median HH income
32.5% of the leader · rank #1
Drasco · near
97,708
Drasco · near
97,708 median HH income
74.7% of the leader · rank #2
Artesia · near
97,712
Artesia · near
97,712 median HH income
74.7% of the leader · rank #3
Hilldale · near
97,713
Hilldale · near
97,713 median HH income
74.7% of the leader · rank #4
Shaker Heights · this city
97,721
Shaker Heights · this city
97,721 median HH income
74.7% of the leader · rank #5
Masthope · near
97,723
Masthope · near
97,723 median HH income
74.7% of the leader · rank #6
Sachse · highest
130,839
Sachse · highest
130,839 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Shaker Heights on ACS population and median household income
. 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: 29,004.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Shaker Heights lands in the 76th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
76th
percentile, household income
63rd
percentile, home value
22nd
percentile, median rent
📝 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: Shaker Heights, OH
Ohio's Shaker Heights is a small city, with 29,004 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in Shaker Heights report a median income of $97,721 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 5.2%. Typical homes in Shaker Heights are valued around $288,000, and the median resident age is 42.0 years. 69.7% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 63.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 9 residential building permits were authorized in Shaker Heights (Low Activity), per Census BPS data.
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. Monthly utility costs average around $228 across Ohio, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Shaker Heights'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 schools and households to comparison shortlist to population change to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Shaker Heights, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, local building permits, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, 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 Shaker Heights?
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 2.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 5.2%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What does the education layer cover for Shaker Heights?
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 8 public schools within the city match. 69.7% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Shaker Heights?
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.
Within Ohio, the closest population matches are Garfield Heights (29,369 residents, $52,006 income); Bowling Green (30,051 residents, $46,719 income); Austintown (30,215 residents, $50,855 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Enterprise, AL (28,990 residents); Jeffersontown, KY (28,988 residents); Independence, KY (29,024 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.
Is Shaker Heights growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -940 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -3.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 9 housing units authorized in 2024. 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.
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 Shaker Heights?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 68.8%. 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. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Drive alone
68.8%
Work from home
18.0%
Public transit
4.3%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 14,255 workers age 16+.
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+
69.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income B+
$97,721
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); 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+
5.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Shaker Heights profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 97/100 (A+) · 69.7%
Household income: 76/100 (B+) · $97,721
Cost of living: 75/100 (B+) · 92.8 index
Poverty rate: 64/100 (C+) · 5.2%
How does Shaker Heights compare to other US cities?
Shaker Heights measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income76% higher than other cities
Home value63% pricier than other cities
Median rent22% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Shaker Heights 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 Shaker Heights near the bottom of Ohio's cities
Among the 1,196 Ohio cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Shaker Heights ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Shaker Heights only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#160 of 1,145
86th percentile in Ohio
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,196
0th percentile in Ohio
Median Home Value
#126 of 1,164
89th percentile in Ohio
Poverty Rate
#681 of 1,196
43rd percentile in Ohio
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#39 of 1,196
97th 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
76th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Shaker Heights's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$288,00037th percentilemore affordable than 37% 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
Shaker Heights's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#6,415 of 15,516
More affordable than 59% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#830 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.9×, Shaker Heights sits in the affordable band:
national rank #6,415 of 15,516 and #830 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$97,721Shaker Heights, OH median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Shaker Heights, 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 Shaker Heights, OH.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)69.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)5.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)63.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
29,004
Median Income
$97,721
Median Home Value
$288,000
Median Age
42.0
Poverty Rate
5.2%
Labor force participation
63.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
69.7%
Schools
Total Schools
8
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Shaker Heights's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
29,406 residents
2021
29,085 residents
2022
28,788 residents
2023
28,641 residents
2024
28,566 residents
2025
28,466 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Low Activity
Total Permits (2024)
9
housing units authorized
Single-Family
9
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
1
1
0
$0.4M
2021
6
6
0
$2.0M
2022
3
3
0
$3.0M
2023
16
7
9
$8.6M
2024
9
9
0
$2.6M
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
68.8%
Carpool
6.1%
Public Transit
4.3%
Walk
1.3%
Work from Home
18.0%
Other
1.5%
Based on 14,255 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 Shaker Heights. 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 Shaker Heights 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 Shaker Heights sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Shaker Heights 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, 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.