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Place dossier plate
SheetPA-MCKEES-ROCKS-PA · McKees Rocks, PA 5,827 pop · income 4th 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 McKees Rocks
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest McKees Rocks on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Clarendon · lowest
33,500
Clarendon · lowest
33,500 median HH income
13.4% of the leader · rank #1
McKees Rocks · this city
33,510
McKees Rocks · this city
33,510 median HH income
13.4% of the leader · rank #2
Rayville · near
33,511
Rayville · near
33,511 median HH income
13.4% of the leader · rank #3
South Alamo · near
33,516
South Alamo · near
33,516 median HH income
13.4% of the leader · rank #4
Kaibab Estate… · near
33,520
Kaibab Estate… · near
33,520 median HH income
13.4% of the leader · rank #5
Merion Station · highest
250,001
Merion Station · highest
250,001 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #6
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 McKees Rocks 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: 5,827.
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, McKees Rocks places in the 4th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
4th
percentile, household income
2nd
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: McKees Rocks, PA
Pennsylvania's McKees Rocks is a small town, with 5,827 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $33,510 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 30.6%. McKees Rocks's housing stock carries a median value of $70,400, and the median resident age is 43.5 years. Educational attainment runs 10.8% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 44.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 0 residential building permits were authorized in McKees Rocks (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. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,225 per month. 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 McKees Rocks'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 work and mobility to housing and income to comparison shortlist to schools and households to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For McKees Rocks, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, local building permits, annual population history, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in McKees Rocks?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 66.2%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
How far does income reach against housing in McKees Rocks?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 2.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 30.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for McKees Rocks?
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.
Within Pennsylvania, the closest population matches are Shippensburg (5,811 residents, $52,344 income); Merion Station (5,796 residents, $250,000+ income); Sierra View (5,795 residents, $85,250 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Attalla, AL (5,829 residents); Mulvane, KS (5,829 residents); Yarmouth Port, MA (5,825 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.
What does the education layer cover for McKees Rocks?
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.
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 10.8% 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.
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 McKees Rocks growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -280 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -4.7% 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.
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.
2020 estimate
5,904
2025 estimate
5,624
Period change
-4.7%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 30.6% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.6 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Pennsylvania average
F
City profile score · McKees Rocks, PA
14/100
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
10.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$33,510
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
30.6%
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).
McKees Rocks profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 50/100 (C-) · 97.6 index
Bachelor's+ share: 9/100 (F) · 10.8%
Household income: 0/100 (F) · $33,510
Poverty rate: 0/100 (F) · 30.6%
How does McKees Rocks compare to other US cities?
McKees Rocks measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income4% higher than other cities
Home value2% 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 McKees Rocks 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 McKees Rocks near the bottom of Pennsylvania's cities
Among the 1,865 Pennsylvania cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, McKees Rocks ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares McKees Rocks only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,737 of 1,765
2nd percentile in Pennsylvania
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,865
0th percentile in Pennsylvania
Median Home Value
#1,710 of 1,790
4th percentile in Pennsylvania
Poverty Rate
#58 of 1,856
97th percentile in Pennsylvania
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,600 of 1,861
14th 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. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How McKees Rocks's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$70,400Among the most affordablemore affordable than 98% 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
McKees Rocks's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#2,007 of 15,516
More affordable than 87% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,902 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.1×, McKees Rocks sits in the affordable band:
national rank #2,007 of 15,516 and #1,902 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
$33,510McKees Rocks, PA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context McKees Rocks, 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 McKees Rocks, PA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)10.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)30.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)44.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
5,827
Median Income
$33,510
Median Home Value
$70,400
Median Age
43.5
Poverty Rate
30.6%
Labor force participation
44.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
10.8%
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
McKees Rocks's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
5,904 residents
2021
5,842 residents
2022
5,761 residents
2023
5,707 residents
2024
5,662 residents
2025
5,624 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
66.2%
Carpool
5.8%
Public Transit
11.0%
Walk
8.9%
Work from Home
7.4%
Other
0.7%
Based on 2,103 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 McKees Rocks. 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 McKees Rocks 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 McKees Rocks sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How McKees Rocks 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.