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Place dossier plate
SheetPA-PENN-STATE-ERIE-BEHREND-PA · Penn State Erie (Behrend), PA 1,561 pop
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.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Penn State Erie (Behrend) 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: 1,561.
Pennsylvania's Penn State Erie (Behrend) counts 1,561 residents. Source: Census ACS.
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: Penn State Erie (Behrend), PA
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 1,561 residents in Penn State Erie (Behrend), a small town within Pennsylvania. The median resident age is 19.9 years. Educational attainment runs 65.0% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 37.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
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. Monthly utility costs average around $260 across Pennsylvania, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Penn State Erie (Behrend)'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 work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Penn State Erie (Behrend), city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, local building permits, 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 Penn State Erie (Behrend)?
Within Pennsylvania, the closest population matches are Ligonier (1,562 residents, $74,420 income); Langhorne (1,564 residents, $95,568 income); Fox Chase (1,557 residents, $105,125 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are South Shore, KY (1,561 residents); Onset, MA (1,561 residents); Westwood Shores, TX (1,561 residents). 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Penn State Erie (Behrend)?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Walking is the largest reported mode at 37.5%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Pennsylvania average
B-
City profile score · Penn State Erie (Behrend), PA
69/100
2 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.
Bachelor's+ share A+
65.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; 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.
Household income N/A
N/A
No ACS median household income on file for this place.
Poverty rate N/A
N/A
No ACS poverty rate on file for this place.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
How does Penn State Erie (Behrend) compare to other US cities?
Here's how Penn State Erie (Behrend) stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
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 Penn State Erie (Behrend) 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 Penn State Erie (Behrend) near the bottom of Pennsylvania's cities
Among the 1,865 Pennsylvania cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Penn State Erie (Behrend) ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Penn State Erie (Behrend) only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,865
0th percentile in Pennsylvania
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#71 of 1,861
96th 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.
Income distribution context
Median household income is not available for Penn State Erie (Behrend) in the current Census ACS release (common for very small places).
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)65.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Labor force participation (adults 16+)37.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,561
Median Income
N/A
Median Home Value
N/A
Median Age
19.9
Poverty Rate
N/A
Labor force participation
37.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
65.0%
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
31.9%
Carpool
5.4%
Public Transit
3.5%
Walk
37.5%
Work from Home
17.5%
Other
4.2%
Based on 520 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 Penn State Erie (Behrend). 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 Penn State Erie (Behrend) 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 Penn State Erie (Behrend) sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Penn State Erie (Behrend) 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, 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.