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Place dossier plate
SheetPA-LEWISTOWN-PA · Lewistown, PA 8,505 pop · income 8th pct · 13 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 Lewistown
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Lewistown on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Potsdam · lowest
32,061
Potsdam · lowest
32,061 median HH income
12.8% of the leader · rank #1
Lewistown · this city
40,179
Lewistown · this city
40,179 median HH income
16.1% of the leader · rank #2
Big River · near
40,179
Big River · near
40,179 median HH income
16.1% of the leader · rank #3
Sebeka · near
40,179
Sebeka · near
40,179 median HH income
16.1% of the leader · rank #4
Griffith Creek · near
40,179
Griffith Creek · near
40,179 median HH income
16.1% of the leader · rank #5
Cedar Bluff · near
40,179
Cedar Bluff · near
40,179 median HH income
16.1% of the leader · rank #6
Villanova · highest
250,001
Villanova · 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Lewistown 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: 8,505.
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Lewistown places in the 8th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
8th
percentile, household income
9th
percentile, home value
54th
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: Lewistown, PA
Pennsylvania's Lewistown is a small town, with 8,505 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in Lewistown report a median income of $40,179 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 30.8%. Typical homes in Lewistown are valued around $98,600, and the median resident age is 37.1 years. 11.4% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 53.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 2 residential building permits were authorized in Lewistown (Low Activity), per Census BPS data. NOAA puts Lewistown's yearly average temperature at 51.9°F with 42.1 inches of precipitation per year and 26.2 inches of snowfall.
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. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,225 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $260 across Pennsylvania, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Commute times here average 19.7 minutes, with 71.3% driving alone and 4.7% 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 Lewistown'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 schools and households to housing and income to work and mobility to climate and hazard context to population change to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Lewistown, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Within-city variation
What can 13 Census tracts reveal inside Lewistown?
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 13 Census tracts to this city.
What does the education layer cover for Lewistown?
The NCES join finds 7 public schools within the city match. 11.4% 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 Lewistown?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 2.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 30.8%, 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. 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Lewistown?
Within Pennsylvania, the closest population matches are Swissvale (8,499 residents, $60,114 income); Old Forge (8,533 residents, $73,258 income); Villanova (8,431 residents, $250,000+ income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Beecher, MI (8,507 residents); Potsdam, NY (8,507 residents); Hondo, TX (8,508 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.
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 Lewistown?
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 71.3%. The reported mean trip to work is 19.7 minutes.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
4.7%
Drive alone
71.3%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 3,413 workers age 16+.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 51.9°F, with 42.1 inches of precipitation and 26.2 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
51.9°F
Annual precipitation
42.1 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.
Is Lewistown 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 -172 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 2 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
-2.0%
2025 estimate
8,385
2020 estimate
8,557
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 30.8% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.6 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Pennsylvania average
F
City profile score · Lewistown, PA
17/100
4 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
11.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$40,179
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
30.8%
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).
Lewistown profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 50/100 (C-) · 97.6 index
Bachelor's+ share: 10/100 (F) · 11.4%
Household income: 7/100 (F) · $40,179
Poverty rate: 0/100 (F) · 30.8%
How does Lewistown compare to other US cities?
Lewistown measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income8% higher than other cities
Home value9% pricier than other cities
Median rent54% 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 Lewistown 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 Lewistown near the bottom of Pennsylvania's cities
Among the 1,865 Pennsylvania cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Lewistown ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Lewistown only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,684 of 1,765
5th percentile in Pennsylvania
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,865
0th percentile in Pennsylvania
Median Home Value
#1,514 of 1,790
15th percentile in Pennsylvania
Poverty Rate
#56 of 1,856
97th percentile in Pennsylvania
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,566 of 1,861
15th 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
8th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Lewistown's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$98,600Among the most affordablemore affordable than 91% 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
Lewistown's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#3,767 of 15,516
More affordable than 76% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,410 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.5×, Lewistown sits in the affordable band:
national rank #3,767 of 15,516 and #3,410 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
$40,179Lewistown, PA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Lewistown, 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 Lewistown, PA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)11.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)30.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)53.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
8,505
Median Income
$40,179
Median Home Value
$98,600
Median Age
37.1
Poverty Rate
30.8%
Labor force participation
53.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
11.4%
Climate
Avg Temperature
51.9°F
Annual Precipitation
42.1"
Annual Snowfall
26.2"
Schools
Total Schools
7
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Lewistown's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
8,557 residents
2021
8,527 residents
2022
8,452 residents
2023
8,410 residents
2024
8,392 residents
2025
8,385 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Low Activity
Total Permits (2024)
2
housing units authorized
Single-Family
2
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
1
1
0
$0.2M
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
1
1
0
$0.2M
2024
2
2
0
$0.8M
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
19.7 minutes
Drive Alone
71.3%
Carpool
18.6%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
2.8%
Work from Home
4.7%
Other
2.6%
Based on 3,413 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 Lewistown. 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 Lewistown 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 Lewistown sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Lewistown 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, 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.