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Place dossier plate
SheetPA-MANCHESTER-PA · Manchester, PA 2,788 pop · income 54th 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 Manchester
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Manchester on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Ceiba comunid… · lowest
24,240
Ceiba comunid… · lowest
24,240 median HH income
14.9% of the leader · rank #1
Perry · near
73,468
Perry · near
73,468 median HH income
45.0% of the leader · rank #2
Manchester · this city
73,472
Manchester · this city
73,472 median HH income
45.0% of the leader · rank #3
Reece City · near
73,472
Reece City · near
73,472 median HH income
45.0% of the leader · rank #4
Bee Branch · near
73,472
Bee Branch · near
73,472 median HH income
45.0% of the leader · rank #5
Detroit Beach · near
73,478
Detroit Beach · near
73,478 median HH income
45.1% of the leader · rank #6
Bakerstown · highest
163,095
Bakerstown · highest
163,095 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 Manchester 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: 2,788.
Manchester ranks in the 54th percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
54th
percentile, household income
38th
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: Manchester, PA
Pennsylvania's Manchester is a small town, with 2,788 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Manchester households earn a median of $73,472 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 5.4%. Typical homes in Manchester are valued around $184,700, and the median resident age is 35.3 years. 22.5% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 64.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 0 residential building permits were authorized in Manchester (No Permits), per Census BPS data.
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. Monthly utility costs average around $260 across Pennsylvania, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Manchester'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 comparison shortlist to housing and income to work and mobility to population change to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Manchester, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, annual population history, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Manchester?
Within Pennsylvania, the closest population matches are West Grove (2,791 residents, $79,577 income); Bakerstown (2,780 residents, $163,095 income); Towanda (2,796 residents, $57,185 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Madison, IL (2,788 residents); Kemmerer, WY (2,788 residents); Postville, IA (2,787 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Manchester?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 5.4%, 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Manchester?
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 79.3%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Is Manchester 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 grew by +9 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.3% 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.
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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Manchester?
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 22.5% 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
4
Bachelor's degree+
22.5%
Poverty estimate
5.4%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Above median income · poverty 5.4% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.6 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Pennsylvania average
C-
City profile score · Manchester, PA
53/100
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.
Poverty rate C+
5.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income C-
$73,472
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
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 D
22.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Manchester profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 63/100 (C+) · 5.4%
Household income: 53/100 (C-) · $73,472
Cost of living: 50/100 (C-) · 97.6 index
Bachelor's+ share: 42/100 (D) · 22.5%
How does Manchester compare to other US cities?
Manchester measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income54% higher than other cities
Home value38% 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 Manchester 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 Manchester near the bottom of Pennsylvania's cities
Among the 1,865 Pennsylvania cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Manchester ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Manchester only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#701 of 1,765
60th percentile in Pennsylvania
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,865
0th percentile in Pennsylvania
Median Home Value
#766 of 1,790
57th percentile in Pennsylvania
Poverty Rate
#947 of 1,856
49th percentile in Pennsylvania
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#877 of 1,861
52nd 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
54th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Manchester's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$184,700Among the most affordablemore affordable than 62% 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
Manchester's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,077 of 15,516
More affordable than 74% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,670 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.5×, Manchester sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,077 of 15,516 and #3,670 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
$73,472Manchester, PA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Manchester, 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 Manchester, PA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)22.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)5.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)64.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,788
Median Income
$73,472
Median Home Value
$184,700
Median Age
35.3
Poverty Rate
5.4%
Labor force participation
64.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
22.5%
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
Manchester's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,812 residents
2021
2,813 residents
2022
2,805 residents
2023
2,815 residents
2024
2,822 residents
2025
2,821 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
79.3%
Carpool
6.7%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
10.1%
Other
3.9%
Based on 1,426 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 Manchester. 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 Manchester 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 Manchester sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Manchester 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, 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.