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Place dossier plate
SheetPA-LEHIGHTON-PA · Lehighton, PA 5,268 pop · income 38th 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 Lehighton
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Lehighton on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Titusville · lowest
36,055
Titusville · lowest
36,055 median HH income
14.4% of the leader · rank #1
Lehighton · this city
62,083
Lehighton · this city
62,083 median HH income
24.8% of the leader · rank #2
Nuiqsut · near
62,083
Nuiqsut · near
62,083 median HH income
24.8% of the leader · rank #3
Shishmaref · near
62,083
Shishmaref · near
62,083 median HH income
24.8% of the leader · rank #4
Congress · near
62,083
Congress · near
62,083 median HH income
24.8% of the leader · rank #5
Peoria Heights · near
62,083
Peoria Heights · near
62,083 median HH income
24.8% of the leader · rank #6
Fox Chapel · highest
250,001
Fox Chapel · highest
250,001 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 Lehighton 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: 5,268.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Lehighton - the verdict
Lehighton ranks in the 38th percentile for household income and the 52nd percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
38th
percentile, household income
42nd
percentile, home value
54th
percentile, median rent
52nd
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: Lehighton, PA
Lehighton is a small town in Pennsylvania, home to 5,268 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Lehighton brings in $62,083 a year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 9.8%. Home values in Lehighton run a median of $198,600, and the median resident age is 41.1 years. Educational attainment runs 15.7% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 58.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 1 residential building permits were authorized in Lehighton (Low Activity), per Census BPS data. Lehighton reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 1312.0 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 50.0°F with 51.9 inches of precipitation per year and 27.3 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. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,225 per month. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Pennsylvania's average monthly utility costs around $260 (state average). FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 67.4 out of 100 (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Lehighton'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 climate and hazard context to work and mobility to schools and households to comparison shortlist to reported crime to housing and income to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Lehighton, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, annual population history, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, 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.
Question 1
What physical conditions frame life in Lehighton?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 50.0°F, with 51.9 inches of precipitation and 27.3 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Lehighton?
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 66.5%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
What does the education layer cover for Lehighton?
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 15.7% 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.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Lehighton?
Within Pennsylvania, the closest population matches are Fox Chapel (5,264 residents, $250,000+ income); Lewisburg (5,247 residents, $51,674 income); Schuylkill Haven (5,247 residents, $55,682 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Peppermill, MD (5,268 residents); Firthcliffe, NY (5,268 residents); Medina, TN (5,268 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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Lehighton?
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 1312.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 42% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1159.9
Violent rate
152.1
Total reported rate
1312.0
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
How far does income reach against housing in Lehighton?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 9.8%, 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. 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.
Household income
$62,083
Home value
$198,600
Value / income
3.2×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Is Lehighton growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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 -8 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 1 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
-0.2%
2025 estimate
5,232
2020 estimate
5,240
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Below median income · poverty 9.8% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.6 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Pennsylvania average
D
City profile score · Lehighton, PA
42/100
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 C
152 /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 D
9.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$62,083
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
15.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Lehighton profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 58/100 (C) · 152 /100k
Cost of living: 50/100 (C-) · 97.6 index
Poverty rate: 40/100 (D) · 9.8%
Household income: 38/100 (F) · $62,083
Bachelor's+ share: 22/100 (F) · 15.7%
Where Lehighton sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Lehighton'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 - Lehighton highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Lehighton, PA (this city): home $198,600, crime 1,312/100k
Medina, TN : home $261,400, crime 407/100k
West Salem, WI : home $269,300, crime 1,244/100k
La Crescent, MN : home $244,500, crime 512/100k
Fox Chapel, PA : home $880,100, crime 293/100k
Schuylkill Haven, PA : home $122,600, crime 950/100k
Edinboro, PA : home $211,300, crime 890/100k
Titusville, PA : home $79,400, crime 585/100k
Collegeville, PA : home $431,200, crime 696/100k
How does Lehighton compare to other US cities?
Lehighton measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income38% higher than other cities
Home value42% pricier than other cities
Median rent54% pricier than other cities
Safety52% 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, Lehighton ranks #278 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 Lehighton 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 Lehighton near the bottom of Pennsylvania's cities
Among the 1,865 Pennsylvania cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Lehighton ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Lehighton only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,050 of 1,765
40th percentile in Pennsylvania
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,865
0th percentile in Pennsylvania
Median Home Value
#653 of 1,790
63rd percentile in Pennsylvania
Poverty Rate
#562 of 1,856
69th percentile in Pennsylvania
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,293 of 1,861
30th 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
38th percentile nationally for median household income · 52nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Lehighton's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Lehighton'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 Lehighton's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$198,600Among the most affordablemore affordable than 58% 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
Lehighton's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#7,694 of 15,516
More affordable than 50% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#6,357 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.2×, Lehighton sits in the moderate band:
national rank #7,694 of 15,516 and #6,357 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
$62,083Lehighton, PA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Lehighton, 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 Lehighton, PA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)15.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)9.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)58.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
5,268
Median Income
$62,083
Median Home Value
$198,600
Median Age
41.1
Poverty Rate
9.8%
Labor force participation
58.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
15.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1312.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
152.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1159.9
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
50.0°F
Annual Precipitation
51.9"
Annual Snowfall
27.3"
Schools
Total Schools
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Lehighton's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
5,240 residents
2021
5,288 residents
2022
5,262 residents
2023
5,243 residents
2024
5,242 residents
2025
5,232 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Low Activity
Total Permits (2024)
1
housing units authorized
Single-Family
1
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.2
permits per 1,000 residents
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
2
2
0
$0.6M
2023
1
1
0
$0.3M
2024
1
1
0
$0.2M
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
66.5%
Carpool
19.4%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
5.7%
Work from Home
6.4%
Other
2.0%
Based on 2,331 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 Lehighton. 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 Lehighton 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 Lehighton sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Lehighton 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.