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Place dossier plate
SheetPA-BENTON-PA · Benton, PA 494 pop · income 5th 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 Benton
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Benton on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Arivaca · lowest
31,791
Arivaca · lowest
31,791 median HH income
25.8% of the leader · rank #1
South Henders… · near
36,417
South Henders… · near
36,417 median HH income
29.6% of the leader · rank #2
Benton · this city
36,429
Benton · this city
36,429 median HH income
29.6% of the leader · rank #3
Fort Washakie · near
36,429
Fort Washakie · near
36,429 median HH income
29.6% of the leader · rank #4
Eagletown · near
36,442
Eagletown · near
36,442 median HH income
29.6% of the leader · rank #5
Hardwick · near
36,447
Hardwick · near
36,447 median HH income
29.6% of the leader · rank #6
Between · highest
123,125
Between · highest
123,125 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 Benton 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: 494.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Benton - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Benton lands in the 5th percentile for household income and the 97th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
5th
percentile, household income
29th
percentile, home value
54th
percentile, median rent
97th
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: Benton, PA
Benton is a small town in Pennsylvania, home to 494 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $36,429 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 16.0%. Benton's housing stock carries a median value of $155,800, and the median resident age is 45.5 years. Educational attainment runs 10.1% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 42.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 0 residential building permits were authorized in Benton (No Permits), per Census BPS data. Benton reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 121.7 crimes per 100,000 residents, below 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 47.6°F with 48.4 inches of precipitation per year and 46.0 inches of snowfall.
Pennsylvania tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Pennsylvania scores 97.6 (Near Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,225 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Pennsylvania run around $260, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Natural-hazard exposure scores 67.4 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Benton'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 reported crime to schools and households to housing and income to comparison shortlist to climate and hazard context 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 Benton, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, annual population history, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates.
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. Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Benton?
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 joined FBI UCR record reports 121.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 95% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 10.1% 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.
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.
How far does income reach against housing in Benton?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 16.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
Which cities make useful reference points for Benton?
Within Pennsylvania, the closest population matches are Colver (494 residents, $82,442 income); McKean (494 residents, $69,583 income); Arnot (493 residents, $92,750 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Arivaca, AZ (494 residents); El Paso, AR (494 residents); Henderson, AR (494 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.
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.
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.
Climate and hazard context
What physical conditions frame life in Benton?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 47.6°F, with 48.4 inches of precipitation and 46.0 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Pennsylvania is 67.4 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.
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.
Mean temperature
47.6°F
Annual precipitation
48.4 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
67.4
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
What does the journey to work look like in Benton?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 69.3%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
22.3%
Drive alone
69.3%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 166 workers age 16+.
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -3 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 0 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
-0.4%
2025 estimate
819
2020 estimate
822
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 16.0% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.6 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Pennsylvania average
F
City profile score · Benton, PA
35/100
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 C-
97.6 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 F
16.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
10.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$36,429
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Benton profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 97/100 (A+) · 0 /100k
Cost of living: 50/100 (C-) · 97.6 index
Poverty rate: 21/100 (F) · 16.0%
Bachelor's+ share: 7/100 (F) · 10.1%
Household income: 2/100 (F) · $36,429
Where Benton sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Benton'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 - Benton highlighted among 22 peers.Read the chart values
Benton, PA (this city): home $155,800, crime 122/100k
Rose Bud, AR : home $157,500, crime 2,008/100k
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 Benton compare to other US cities?
Here's how Benton stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income5% higher than other cities
Home value29% pricier than other cities
Median rent54% pricier than other cities
Safety97% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Pennsylvania alone, Benton ranks #43 of 402 Pennsylvania cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Benton against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Pennsylvania only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Pennsylvania-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Benton near the bottom of Pennsylvania's cities
Among the 1,865 Pennsylvania cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Benton ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Benton only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,720 of 1,765
2nd percentile in Pennsylvania
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,865
0th percentile in Pennsylvania
Median Home Value
#1,013 of 1,790
43rd percentile in Pennsylvania
Poverty Rate
#293 of 1,856
84th percentile in Pennsylvania
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,626 of 1,861
12th percentile in Pennsylvania
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 Pennsylvania only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
5th percentile nationally for median household income · 97th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Benton's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Benton'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 Benton's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$155,800Among the most affordablemore affordable than 71% 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
Benton's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,461 of 15,516
More affordable than 26% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#8,847 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.3×, Benton sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,461 of 15,516 and #8,847 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
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
$36,429Benton, PA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Benton, PA median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Benton, PA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)10.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)16.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)42.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
494
Median Income
$36,429
Median Home Value
$155,800
Median Age
45.5
Poverty Rate
16.0%
Labor force participation
42.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
10.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
121.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
121.7
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
47.6°F
Annual Precipitation
48.4"
Annual Snowfall
46.0"
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
Benton's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
822 residents
2021
824 residents
2022
820 residents
2023
821 residents
2024
819 residents
2025
819 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
Total Permits (2024)
0
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
0
0
0
-
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
0
0
0
-
2024
0
0
0
-
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
69.3%
Carpool
6.6%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
1.8%
Work from Home
22.3%
Based on 166 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Pennsylvania statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $260
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Pennsylvania at $260 (electricity about $120 , water and sewer about $52 ).
These are Pennsylvania statewide averages, not a meter reading for Benton. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Pennsylvania's BEA cost-of-living index is 97.6 (Near Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Benton is $1,225/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Pennsylvania statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 67.4 / 100 (Moderate).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Pennsylvania statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Benton sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Benton compares to similar-size Pennsylvania 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.