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Place dossier plate
SheetPA-WILKINSBURG-PA · Wilkinsburg, PA 14,165 pop · income 17th 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 Wilkinsburg
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Wilkinsburg on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Indiana · lowest
44,784
Indiana · lowest
44,784 median HH income
38.9% of the leader · rank #1
Thomaston · near
48,563
Thomaston · near
48,563 median HH income
42.1% of the leader · rank #2
Wilkinsburg · this city
48,565
Wilkinsburg · this city
48,565 median HH income
42.1% of the leader · rank #3
Mitchell · near
48,571
Mitchell · near
48,571 median HH income
42.1% of the leader · rank #4
Bancroft · near
48,571
Bancroft · near
48,571 median HH income
42.1% of the leader · rank #5
Paris · near
48,571
Paris · near
48,571 median HH income
42.1% of the leader · rank #6
Ardmore · highest
115,273
Ardmore · highest
115,273 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 Wilkinsburg 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: 14,165.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Wilkinsburg - the verdict
Nationally, Wilkinsburg sits in the 17th percentile for household income and the 15th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
17th
percentile, household income
24th
percentile, home value
54th
percentile, median rent
15th
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: Wilkinsburg, PA
14,165 people live in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Wilkinsburg households earn a median of $48,565 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 15.5%. Wilkinsburg's housing stock carries a median value of $140,300, and the median resident age is 41.7 years. About 36.8% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 57.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 0 residential building permits were authorized in Wilkinsburg (No Permits), per Census BPS data. Wilkinsburg's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 3026.5 incidents per 100,000 residents, above the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not 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. Monthly utility costs average around $260 across Pennsylvania, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Workers in Wilkinsburg report an average commute of 22.9 minutes, with 47.3% driving alone and 19.8% working from home. 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 Wilkinsburg'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 schools and households to reported crime to housing and income to work and mobility to comparison shortlist to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Wilkinsburg, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, local building permits, matched public-school count.
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. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Wilkinsburg?
The matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
The NCES join finds 2 public schools within the city match. 36.8% 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Wilkinsburg?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 3026.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 33% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Wilkinsburg?
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 2.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 15.5%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Wilkinsburg?
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 Ardmore (14,165 residents, $115,273 income); Indiana (14,170 residents, $44,784 income); Dunmore (14,123 residents, $75,632 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Collingswood, NJ (14,163 residents); Federal Heights, CO (14,160 residents); Wells Branch, TX (14,156 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.
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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Wilkinsburg?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 47.3%. The reported mean trip to work is 22.9 minutes.
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.
Drive alone
47.3%
Work from home
19.8%
Public transit
20.8%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 7,017 workers age 16+.
Is Wilkinsburg growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -675 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
14,277
2025 estimate
13,602
Period change
-4.7%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Pennsylvania average
F
City profile score · Wilkinsburg, PA
32/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share B
36.8%
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.
Poverty rate F
15.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$48,565
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
586 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Wilkinsburg profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 70/100 (B) · 36.8%
Cost of living: 50/100 (C-) · 97.6 index
Poverty rate: 22/100 (F) · 15.5%
Household income: 18/100 (F) · $48,565
Violent crime: 11/100 (F) · 586 /100k
Where Wilkinsburg sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Wilkinsburg'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 - Wilkinsburg highlighted among 25 peers.Read the chart values
Wilkinsburg, PA (this city): home $140,300, crime 3,027/100k
Collingswood, NJ : home $346,300, crime 3,159/100k
St. Helens, OR : home $350,900, crime 1,197/100k
Indiana, PA : home $123,300, crime 856/100k
Ephrata, PA : home $215,100, crime 932/100k
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 Wilkinsburg compare to other US cities?
Where Wilkinsburg sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income17% higher than other cities
Home value24% pricier than other cities
Median rent54% pricier than other cities
Safety15% 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: Wilkinsburg ranks #382 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 Wilkinsburg 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 Wilkinsburg near the bottom of Pennsylvania's cities
Among the 1,865 Pennsylvania cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Wilkinsburg ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Wilkinsburg only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,522 of 1,765
14th percentile in Pennsylvania
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,865
0th percentile in Pennsylvania
Median Home Value
#1,138 of 1,790
36th percentile in Pennsylvania
Poverty Rate
#308 of 1,856
83rd percentile in Pennsylvania
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#363 of 1,861
80th 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
17th percentile nationally for median household income · 15th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Wilkinsburg's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Wilkinsburg'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 Wilkinsburg's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$140,300Among the most affordablemore affordable than 76% 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
Wilkinsburg's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#6,051 of 15,516
More affordable than 61% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#743 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.9×, Wilkinsburg sits in the affordable band:
national rank #6,051 of 15,516 and #743 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
$48,565Wilkinsburg, PA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Wilkinsburg, 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 Wilkinsburg, PA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)36.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)15.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)57.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
14,165
Median Income
$48,565
Median Home Value
$140,300
Median Age
41.7
Poverty Rate
15.5%
Labor force participation
57.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
36.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3026.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
586.3
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2440.3
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
2
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Wilkinsburg's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
14,277 residents
2021
14,126 residents
2022
13,931 residents
2023
13,803 residents
2024
13,693 residents
2025
13,602 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
Average Commute Time
22.9 minutes
Drive Alone
47.3%
Carpool
5.8%
Public Transit
20.8%
Walk
2.7%
Work from Home
19.8%
Other
3.6%
Based on 7,017 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 Wilkinsburg. 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 Wilkinsburg 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 Wilkinsburg sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Wilkinsburg 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.