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Place dossier plate
SheetPA-POTTSTOWN-PA · Pottstown, PA 23,392 pop · income 29th 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 Pottstown
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Pottstown on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
New Castle · lowest
41,478
New Castle · lowest
41,478 median HH income
37.2% of the leader · rank #1
Albion · near
56,172
Albion · near
56,172 median HH income
50.3% of the leader · rank #2
Pottstown · this city
56,174
Pottstown · this city
56,174 median HH income
50.3% of the leader · rank #3
Sumner · near
56,174
Sumner · near
56,174 median HH income
50.3% of the leader · rank #4
De Pue · near
56,176
De Pue · near
56,176 median HH income
50.3% of the leader · rank #5
Chambersburg · near
56,177
Chambersburg · near
56,177 median HH income
50.3% of the leader · rank #6
King of Pruss… · highest
111,600
King of Pruss… · highest
111,600 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 Pottstown 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: 23,392.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Pottstown - the verdict
Nationally, Pottstown sits in the 29th percentile for household income and the 8th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
29th
percentile, household income
34th
percentile, home value
54th
percentile, median rent
8th
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: Pottstown, PA
Pottstown is a small city in Pennsylvania, home to 23,392 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $56,174 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 15.9%. Pottstown's housing stock carries a median value of $172,300, and the median resident age is 36.1 years. Educational attainment runs 20.3% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 61.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 0 residential building permits were authorized in Pottstown (No Permits), down 100% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Pottstown's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 3841.5 in FBI UCR data, above the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
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. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Pennsylvania's average monthly utility costs around $260 (state average). 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 Pottstown'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 reported crime to comparison shortlist to housing and income 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 Pottstown, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history.
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.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Pottstown?
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 71.2%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Pottstown?
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.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 3841.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 68% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Which cities make useful reference points for Pottstown?
Within Pennsylvania, the closest population matches are Allison Park (22,108 residents, $108,669 income); Chambersburg (22,051 residents, $56,177 income); King of Prussia (25,025 residents, $111,600 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Glassboro, NJ (23,375 residents); Lisle, IL (23,413 residents); Blue Island, IL (23,416 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. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
How far does income reach against housing in Pottstown?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 15.9%, 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.
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 Pottstown?
The NCES join finds 15 public schools within the city match. 20.3% 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
15
Bachelor's degree+
20.3%
Poverty estimate
15.9%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Is Pottstown 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 declined by -97 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.4% 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.
Period change
-0.4%
2025 estimate
23,322
2020 estimate
23,419
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Below median income · poverty 15.9% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.6 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Pennsylvania average
F
City profile score · Pottstown, PA
28/100
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.
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
20.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$56,174
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
15.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
737 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Pottstown profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 50/100 (C-) · 97.6 index
Bachelor's+ share: 35/100 (F) · 20.3%
Household income: 29/100 (F) · $56,174
Poverty rate: 21/100 (F) · 15.9%
Violent crime: 4/100 (F) · 737 /100k
Where Pottstown sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Pottstown'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 - Pottstown highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Pottstown, PA (this city): home $172,300, crime 3,842/100k
Glassboro, NJ : home $276,900, crime 1,230/100k
Lisle, IL : home $407,000, crime 498/100k
Blue Island, IL : home $169,800, crime 3,121/100k
Fairhope, AL : home $406,500, crime 1,261/100k
Chambersburg, PA : home $196,200, crime 2,218/100k
New Castle, PA : home $72,000, crime 1,120/100k
Carlisle, PA : home $212,400, crime 1,314/100k
How does Pottstown compare to other US cities?
Pottstown measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income29% higher than other cities
Home value34% pricier than other cities
Median rent54% pricier than other cities
Safety8% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Pennsylvania and the picture shifts: Pottstown ranks #394 of 402 Pennsylvania cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Pottstown 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 Pottstown near the bottom of Pennsylvania's cities
Among the 1,865 Pennsylvania cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Pottstown ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Pottstown only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,263 of 1,765
28th percentile in Pennsylvania
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,865
0th percentile in Pennsylvania
Median Home Value
#857 of 1,790
52nd percentile in Pennsylvania
Poverty Rate
#295 of 1,856
84th percentile in Pennsylvania
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,009 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
29th percentile nationally for median household income · 8th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Pottstown's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Pottstown'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 Pottstown's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$172,300Among the most affordablemore affordable than 66% 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
Pottstown's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#7,041 of 15,516
More affordable than 55% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,004 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.1×, Pottstown sits in the moderate band:
national rank #7,041 of 15,516 and #1,004 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
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
$56,174Pottstown, PA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Pottstown, 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 Pottstown, PA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)20.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)15.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)61.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
23,392
Median Income
$56,174
Median Home Value
$172,300
Median Age
36.1
Poverty Rate
15.9%
Labor force participation
61.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
20.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3841.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
737.4
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3104.1
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
15
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Pottstown's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
23,419 residents
2021
23,448 residents
2022
23,392 residents
2023
23,380 residents
2024
23,421 residents
2025
23,322 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
2
2
0
$0.5M
2020
0
0
0
-
2021
1
1
0
$0.1M
2022
2
2
0
$0.4M
2023
1
1
0
$0.2M
2024
0
0
0
-
Permit volume decreased 100% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
71.2%
Carpool
7.8%
Public Transit
2.1%
Walk
4.5%
Work from Home
10.4%
Other
4.0%
Based on 10,772 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 Pottstown. 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 Pottstown 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 Pottstown sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Pottstown 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.