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Place dossier plate
SheetOH-UPPER-SANDUSKY-OH · Upper Sandusky, OH 6,580 pop · income 53rd pct · 6 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 Upper Sandusky
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Upper Sandusky on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Hillsboro · lowest
45,197
Hillsboro · lowest
45,197 median HH income
28.4% of the leader · rank #1
Dennis · near
72,375
Dennis · near
72,375 median HH income
45.5% of the leader · rank #2
Upper Sandusky · this city
72,379
Upper Sandusky · this city
72,379 median HH income
45.5% of the leader · rank #3
Portland · near
72,380
Portland · near
72,380 median HH income
45.5% of the leader · rank #4
Le Mars · near
72,381
Le Mars · near
72,381 median HH income
45.5% of the leader · rank #5
Woods Hole · near
72,386
Woods Hole · near
72,386 median HH income
45.5% of the leader · rank #6
Pelican Bay · highest
159,187
Pelican Bay · highest
159,187 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 Upper Sandusky 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: 6,580.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Upper Sandusky - the verdict
Nationally, Upper Sandusky sits in the 53rd percentile for household income and the 27th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
53rd
percentile, household income
27th
percentile, home value
22nd
percentile, median rent
27th
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: Upper Sandusky, OH
Ohio's Upper Sandusky is a small town, with 6,580 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in Upper Sandusky report a median income of $72,379 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 3.8%. Home values in Upper Sandusky run a median of $151,300, and the median resident age is 38.9 years. 26.6% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 63.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 10 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Rapid Growth), up 25% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 2261.8 crimes per 100,000 residents, near the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score). The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 50.1°F with 40.2 inches of precipitation per year.
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. 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 Upper Sandusky'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 population change to schools and households to reported crime to housing and income to work and mobility to climate and hazard context to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Upper Sandusky, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares, annual population history, matched public-school count, local building permits.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What can 6 Census tracts reveal inside Upper Sandusky?
PlainCities matches 6 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.
Is Upper Sandusky growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -43 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.6% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 10 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.
What does the education layer cover for Upper Sandusky?
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 5 public schools within the city match. 26.6% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Upper Sandusky?
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 Northgate (6,585 residents, $75,423 income); Howland Center (6,564 residents, $84,306 income); South Lebanon (6,552 residents, $110,729 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Milton, PA (6,582 residents); West View, PA (6,582 residents); Geneseo, IL (6,577 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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Upper Sandusky?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2261.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 1% 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
2261.8
Violent rate
150.8
Property rate
2111.0
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
How far does income reach against housing in Upper Sandusky?
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 3.8%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
2.1×
Home value
$151,300
Household income
$72,379
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 Upper Sandusky?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 87.4%. 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. The profile is strongly car-oriented, so a relocation comparison should put trip distance, vehicle access, and household fuel costs ahead of a citywide commute average. The same-state peer links offer a more relevant benchmark than a national label.
Drive alone
87.4%
Work from home
3.4%
Public transit
0.5%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 3,275 workers age 16+.
What physical conditions frame life in Upper Sandusky?
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 40.2 inches of precipitation. 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.
FEMA risk index (state avg)
55.0
Annual precipitation
40.2 in
Mean temperature
50.1°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
Above median income · poverty 3.8% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
92.8 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Ohio average
C+
City profile score · Upper Sandusky, OH
62/100
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.
Poverty rate B
3.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime C
151 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income C-
$72,379
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share C-
26.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Upper Sandusky profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 75/100 (B+) · 92.8 index
Poverty rate: 73/100 (B) · 3.8%
Violent crime: 58/100 (C) · 151 /100k
Household income: 52/100 (C-) · $72,379
Bachelor's+ share: 52/100 (C-) · 26.6%
Where Upper Sandusky sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Upper Sandusky'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 - Upper Sandusky highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Upper Sandusky, OH (this city): home $151,300, crime 2,262/100k
Milton, PA : home $172,100, crime 1,549/100k
West View, PA : home $209,800, crime 991/100k
Geneseo, IL : home $196,400, crime 951/100k
Iowa Park, TX : home $121,800, crime 789/100k
Keene, TX : home $219,900, crime 642/100k
Hillsboro, OH : home $136,900, crime 1,396/100k
Milford, OH : home $228,200, crime 984/100k
Ontario, OH : home $163,300, crime 3,609/100k
How does Upper Sandusky compare to other US cities?
Upper Sandusky measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income53% higher than other cities
Home value27% pricier than other cities
Median rent22% pricier than other cities
Safety27% 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, Upper Sandusky ranks #223 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 Upper Sandusky 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 Upper Sandusky near the bottom of Ohio's cities
Among the 1,196 Ohio cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Upper Sandusky ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Upper Sandusky only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#426 of 1,145
63rd percentile in Ohio
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,196
0th percentile in Ohio
Median Home Value
#544 of 1,164
53rd percentile in Ohio
Poverty Rate
#792 of 1,196
33rd percentile in Ohio
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#360 of 1,196
70th 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
53rd percentile nationally for median household income · 27th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Upper Sandusky's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Upper Sandusky'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 Upper Sandusky's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$151,300Among the most affordablemore affordable than 73% 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
Upper Sandusky's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#1,963 of 15,516
More affordable than 87% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,861 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.1×, Upper Sandusky sits in the affordable band:
national rank #1,963 of 15,516 and #1,861 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
$72,379Upper Sandusky, OH median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Upper Sandusky, 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 Upper Sandusky, OH.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)26.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)63.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
6,580
Median Income
$72,379
Median Home Value
$151,300
Median Age
38.9
Poverty Rate
3.8%
Labor force participation
63.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
26.6%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2261.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
150.8
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2111.0
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
40.2"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
5
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Upper Sandusky's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
6,704 residents
2021
6,634 residents
2022
6,672 residents
2023
6,622 residents
2024
6,642 residents
2025
6,661 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Rapid Growth
Total Permits (2024)
10
housing units authorized
Single-Family
10
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.5
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
8
8
0
$1.4M
2020
5
5
0
$1.3M
2021
59
9
50
$12.2M
2022
6
6
0
$1.2M
2023
5
5
0
$1.5M
2024
10
10
0
$3.2M
Permit volume increased 25% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
87.4%
Carpool
6.9%
Public Transit
0.5%
Walk
1.6%
Work from Home
3.4%
Based on 3,275 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 Upper Sandusky. 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 Upper Sandusky 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 Upper Sandusky sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Upper Sandusky 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.