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Place dossier plate
SheetPA-NEW-KENSINGTON-PA · New Kensington, PA 12,072 pop · income 19th 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 New Kensington
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest New Kensington on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Moss Point · lowest
46,684
Moss Point · lowest
46,684 median HH income
39.3% of the leader · rank #1
Middletown · near
49,643
Middletown · near
49,643 median HH income
41.8% of the leader · rank #2
Donalds · near
49,643
Donalds · near
49,643 median HH income
41.8% of the leader · rank #3
New Kensington · this city
49,644
New Kensington · this city
49,644 median HH income
41.8% of the leader · rank #4
Menominee · near
49,646
Menominee · near
49,646 median HH income
41.8% of the leader · rank #5
Claycomo · near
49,649
Claycomo · near
49,649 median HH income
41.8% of the leader · rank #6
Hasbrouck Hei… · highest
118,670
Hasbrouck Hei… · highest
118,670 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 New Kensington 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: 12,072.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
New Kensington - the verdict
New Kensington ranks in the 19th percentile for household income and the 17th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
19th
percentile, household income
21st
percentile, home value
54th
percentile, median rent
17th
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: New Kensington, PA
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 12,072 residents in New Kensington, a small town within Pennsylvania. Households in New Kensington report a median income of $49,644 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 6.7%. New Kensington's housing stock carries a median value of $132,400, and the median resident age is 49.5 years. About 20.1% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 54.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 1 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Low Activity). New Kensington's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 2856.7 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. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,225 monthly. 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 New Kensington'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 comparison shortlist to housing and income 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 New Kensington, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares, local building permits, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates.
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 can the FBI record say about safety in New Kensington?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2856.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 25% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
What does the journey to work look like in New Kensington?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 72.8%. 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for New Kensington?
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.
Within Pennsylvania, the closest population matches are Yeadon (12,091 residents, $57,336 income); Elizabethtown (11,857 residents, $67,770 income); Mountain Top (11,856 residents, $105,286 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Commerce, CA (12,072 residents); Key Largo, FL (12,069 residents); Hasbrouck Heights, NJ (12,067 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.
How far does income reach against housing in New Kensington?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 6.7%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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 New Kensington growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -370 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -3.1% 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.
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
12,129
2025 estimate
11,759
Period change
-3.1%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the education layer cover for New Kensington?
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 3 public schools within the city match. 20.1% 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.
Poverty estimate
6.7%
Bachelor's degree+
20.1%
Matched public schools
3
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Pennsylvania average
F
City profile score · New Kensington, PA
35/100
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.
Poverty rate C-
6.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better 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.
Bachelor's+ share F
20.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$49,644
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
456 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
New Kensington profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 54/100 (C-) · 6.7%
Cost of living: 50/100 (C-) · 97.6 index
Bachelor's+ share: 35/100 (F) · 20.1%
Household income: 20/100 (F) · $49,644
Violent crime: 19/100 (F) · 456 /100k
Where New Kensington sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
New Kensington'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 - New Kensington highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
New Kensington, PA (this city): home $132,400, crime 2,857/100k
Commerce, CA : home $583,200, crime 13,808/100k
Hasbrouck Heights, NJ : home $508,500, crime 497/100k
Yeadon, PA : home $172,500, crime 2,102/100k
Elizabethtown, PA : home $222,600, crime 727/100k
Emmaus, PA : home $244,300, crime 947/100k
Lower Burrell, PA : home $189,700, crime 322/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does New Kensington compare to other US cities?
Here's how New Kensington stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income19% higher than other cities
Home value21% pricier than other cities
Median rent54% pricier than other cities
Safety17% 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, New Kensington ranks #378 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 New Kensington 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 New Kensington near the bottom of Pennsylvania's cities
Among the 1,865 Pennsylvania cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, New Kensington ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares New Kensington only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,479 of 1,765
16th percentile in Pennsylvania
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,865
0th percentile in Pennsylvania
Median Home Value
#1,195 of 1,790
33rd percentile in Pennsylvania
Poverty Rate
#818 of 1,856
56th percentile in Pennsylvania
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,020 of 1,861
45th 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
19th percentile nationally for median household income · 17th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
New Kensington's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
New Kensington'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 New Kensington's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$132,400Among the most affordablemore affordable than 79% 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
New Kensington's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,858 of 15,516
More affordable than 69% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#515 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.7×, New Kensington sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,858 of 15,516 and #515 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
$49,644New Kensington, PA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context New Kensington, 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 New Kensington, PA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)20.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)6.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)54.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
12,072
Median Income
$49,644
Median Home Value
$132,400
Median Age
49.5
Poverty Rate
6.7%
Labor force participation
54.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
20.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2856.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
456.4
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2400.3
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
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
New Kensington's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
12,129 residents
2021
12,068 residents
2022
11,952 residents
2023
11,886 residents
2024
11,831 residents
2025
11,759 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
0.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
2
2
0
$0.2M
2021
1
1
0
$0.2M
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
0
0
0
-
2024
1
1
0
$0.4M
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
72.8%
Carpool
13.2%
Public Transit
1.2%
Walk
1.8%
Work from Home
10.3%
Other
0.7%
Based on 5,558 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 New Kensington. 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 New Kensington 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 New Kensington sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How New Kensington 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.