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Place dossier plate
SheetPA-JOHNSTOWN-PA · Johnstown, PA 18,245 pop · income 4th pct · 42 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 Johnstown
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Johnstown on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
McKeesport · lowest
31,854
McKeesport · lowest
31,854 median HH income
28.5% of the leader · rank #1
Johnstown · this city
34,784
Johnstown · this city
34,784 median HH income
31.1% of the leader · rank #2
McNeil · near
34,792
McNeil · near
34,792 median HH income
31.1% of the leader · rank #3
Hopkins Park · near
34,792
Hopkins Park · near
34,792 median HH income
31.1% of the leader · rank #4
Holly Hill · near
34,792
Holly Hill · near
34,792 median HH income
31.1% of the leader · rank #5
Nordheim · near
34,795
Nordheim · near
34,795 median HH income
31.1% of the leader · rank #6
Somerset · highest
111,720
Somerset · highest
111,720 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 Johnstown 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: 18,245.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Johnstown - the verdict
Johnstown ranks in the 4th percentile for household income and the 13th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
4th
percentile, household income
0th
percentile, home value
54th
percentile, median rent
13th
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: Johnstown, PA
18,245 people live in Johnstown, Pennsylvania - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Johnstown brings in $34,784 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 26.1%. Typical homes in Johnstown are valued around $42,100, and the median resident age is 45.4 years. About 14.9% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 49.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 0 residential units authorized here in 2024 (No Permits). Johnstown's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 3220.7 crimes per 100,000 residents, above the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score).
Pennsylvania tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: the state registers 97.6 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Near Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,225 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $260 across Pennsylvania, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Commute times here average 19.7 minutes, with 68.5% driving alone and 9.2% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 67.4 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Johnstown'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 work and mobility to population change to schools and households to housing and income to comparison shortlist to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Johnstown, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Johnstown?
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 3220.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 41% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
What does the journey to work look like in Johnstown?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 68.5%. The reported mean trip to work is 19.7 minutes.
Which cities make useful reference points for Johnstown?
Within Pennsylvania, the closest population matches are Colonial Park (18,125 residents, $69,804 income); Lansdale (18,865 residents, $86,460 income); McKeesport (17,520 residents, $31,854 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Somerset, MA (18,246 residents); Sycamore, IL (18,243 residents); Trenton, MI (18,242 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.
What can 42 Census tracts reveal inside Johnstown?
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.
PlainCities matches 42 Census tracts to this city.
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.
Population change
Is Johnstown growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -714 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -3.9% 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
-3.9%
2025 estimate
17,654
2020 estimate
18,368
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the education layer cover for Johnstown?
The NCES join finds 15 public schools within the city match. 14.9% 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.
Matched public schools
15
Bachelor's degree+
14.9%
Poverty estimate
26.1%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
How far does income reach against housing in Johnstown?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 1.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 26.1%, 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. 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.
Household income
$34,784
Home value
$42,100
Value / income
1.2×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 26.1% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.6 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Pennsylvania average
F
City profile score · Johnstown, PA
16/100
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 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.
Bachelor's+ share F
14.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime F
587 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate F
26.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$34,784
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Johnstown profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 50/100 (C-) · 97.6 index
Bachelor's+ share: 20/100 (F) · 14.9%
Violent crime: 11/100 (F) · 587 /100k
Poverty rate: 5/100 (F) · 26.1%
Household income: 0/100 (F) · $34,784
Where Johnstown sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Johnstown'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 - Johnstown highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Johnstown, PA (this city): home $42,100, crime 3,221/100k
Somerset, MA : home $389,400, crime 718/100k
Sycamore, IL : home $254,200, crime 1,053/100k
Trenton, MI : home $202,400, crime 576/100k
Franklin Park, IL : home $261,700, crime 1,576/100k
Lansdale, PA : home $319,000, crime 1,104/100k
McKeesport, PA : home $69,800, crime 4,259/100k
Phoenixville, PA : home $348,200, crime 527/100k
West Chester, PA : home $481,300, crime 1,465/100k
West Mifflin, PA : home $131,400, crime 3,021/100k
How does Johnstown compare to other US cities?
Where Johnstown sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income4% higher than other cities
Home value0% pricier than other cities
Median rent54% pricier than other cities
Safety13% 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, Johnstown ranks #386 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 Johnstown 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 Johnstown near the bottom of Pennsylvania's cities
Among the 1,865 Pennsylvania cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Johnstown ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Johnstown only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,732 of 1,765
2nd percentile in Pennsylvania
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,865
0th percentile in Pennsylvania
Median Home Value
#1,781 of 1,790
1st percentile in Pennsylvania
Poverty Rate
#84 of 1,856
95th percentile in Pennsylvania
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,344 of 1,861
27th 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
4th percentile nationally for median household income · 13th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Johnstown's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Johnstown'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 Johnstown's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$42,100Among the most affordablemore affordable than 100% 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
Johnstown's home-value-to-income ratio: 1.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#124 of 15,516
More affordable than 99% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 1.2×, Johnstown sits in the affordable band:
national rank #124 of 15,516 and #2 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
$34,784Johnstown, PA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Johnstown, 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 Johnstown, PA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)14.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)26.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)49.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
18,245
Median Income
$34,784
Median Home Value
$42,100
Median Age
45.4
Poverty Rate
26.1%
Labor force participation
49.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
14.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3220.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
586.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2634.2
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
15
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Johnstown's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
18,368 residents
2021
18,230 residents
2022
18,074 residents
2023
17,930 residents
2024
17,809 residents
2025
17,654 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
Average Commute Time
19.7 minutes
Drive Alone
68.5%
Carpool
7.4%
Public Transit
4.9%
Walk
7.2%
Work from Home
9.2%
Other
2.8%
Based on 7,071 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 Johnstown. 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 Johnstown 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 Johnstown sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Johnstown 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, 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.