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Place dossier plate
SheetRI-CENTRAL-FALLS-RI · Central Falls, RI 22,481 pop · income 14th 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 Central Falls
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Central Falls on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Pathfork · lowest
45,913
Pathfork · lowest
45,913 median HH income
23.1% of the leader · rank #1
Hawaiian Ocea… · near
45,917
Hawaiian Ocea… · near
45,917 median HH income
23.1% of the leader · rank #2
Fox Farm-Coll… · near
45,917
Fox Farm-Coll… · near
45,917 median HH income
23.1% of the leader · rank #3
Hayfork · near
45,918
Hayfork · near
45,918 median HH income
23.1% of the leader · rank #4
Shiloh · near
45,919
Shiloh · near
45,919 median HH income
23.1% of the leader · rank #5
Central Falls · this city
45,921
Central Falls · this city
45,921 median HH income
23.1% of the leader · rank #6
Summit · highest
199,107
Summit · highest
199,107 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 Central Falls 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: 22,481.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Central Falls - the verdict
Central Falls ranks in the 14th percentile for household income and the 51st percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
14th
percentile, household income
65th
percentile, home value
86th
percentile, median rent
51st
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: Central Falls, RI
Central Falls is a small city in Rhode Island, home to 22,481 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Central Falls households earn a median of $45,921 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 17.6%. Home values in Central Falls run a median of $300,500, and the median resident age is 31.9 years. 11.5% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 55.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 27 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 238% from five years earlier. Central Falls reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 1328.6 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Rhode Island tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Rhode Island scores 102.3 (Near Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,729 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $318 across Rhode Island, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 56.6 out of 100 (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Central Falls'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 schools and households to population change to housing and income to comparison shortlist to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Central Falls, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, local building permits, annual population history, 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.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Central Falls?
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 65.0%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
What does the education layer cover for Central Falls?
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 11.5% 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 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.
Is Central Falls growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +572 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +2.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 27 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Which cities make useful reference points for Central Falls?
Within Rhode Island, the closest population matches are Newport (25,029 residents, $83,562 income); Westerly (18,528 residents, $82,333 income); Valley Falls (12,370 residents, $93,653 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are East Peoria, IL (22,485 residents); Biddeford, ME (22,463 residents); Villa Park, IL (22,456 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.
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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Central Falls?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 6.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 17.6%, 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. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
Household income
$45,921
Home value
$300,500
Value / income
6.5×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Central Falls?
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 1328.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 42% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1005.2
Violent rate
323.4
Total reported rate
1328.6
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Rhode Island average
F
City profile score · Central Falls, RI
21/100
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 F
102.3 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Violent crime F
323 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate F
17.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$45,921
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
11.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Central Falls profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 30/100 (F) · 102.3 index
Violent crime: 30/100 (F) · 323 /100k
Poverty rate: 18/100 (F) · 17.6%
Household income: 15/100 (F) · $45,921
Bachelor's+ share: 11/100 (F) · 11.5%
Where Central Falls sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Central Falls'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 - Central Falls highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Central Falls, RI (this city): home $300,500, crime 1,329/100k
East Peoria, IL : home $160,800, crime 2,629/100k
Biddeford, ME : home $349,300, crime 2,663/100k
Villa Park, IL : home $313,100, crime 1,748/100k
Roselle, NJ : home $336,500, crime 1,311/100k
Summit, NJ : home $969,900, crime 788/100k
Newport, RI : home $669,500, crime 1,667/100k
Westerly, RI : home $400,200, crime 977/100k
How does Central Falls compare to other US cities?
Here's how Central Falls stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income14% higher than other cities
Home value65% pricier than other cities
Median rent86% pricier than other cities
Safety51% 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 Rhode Island alone, Central Falls ranks #7 of 11 Rhode Island 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 Central Falls against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Rhode Island only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Rhode Island-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Central Falls near the bottom of Rhode Island's cities
Among the 36 Rhode Island cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Central Falls ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Central Falls only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#33 of 33
0th percentile in Rhode Island
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 36
0th percentile in Rhode Island
Median Home Value
#30 of 35
14th percentile in Rhode Island
Poverty Rate
#1 of 36
97th percentile in Rhode Island
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#35 of 36
3rd percentile in Rhode Island
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 Rhode Island only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
14th percentile nationally for median household income · 51st percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Central Falls's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Central Falls'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 Central Falls's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$300,50035th percentilemore affordable than 35% 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
Central Falls's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,457 of 15,516
More affordable than 7% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,053 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 6.5×, Central Falls sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,457 of 15,516 and #3,053 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median, a comparison flag, not a verdict on any household.
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
$45,921Central Falls, RI median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Central Falls, RI median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Central Falls, RI.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)11.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)17.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)55.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
22,481
Median Income
$45,921
Median Home Value
$300,500
Median Age
31.9
Poverty Rate
17.6%
Labor force participation
55.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
11.5%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1328.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
323.4
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1005.2
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
1
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Central Falls's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
22,552 residents
2021
22,545 residents
2022
22,635 residents
2023
22,712 residents
2024
22,995 residents
2025
23,124 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
27
housing units authorized
Single-Family
2
detached homes
Multifamily
25
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
8
8
0
$0.5M
2020
6
6
0
$0.4M
2021
1
1
0
$0.1M
2022
1
1
0
$0.1M
2023
2
2
0
$0.2M
2024
27
2
25
$4.0M
Permit volume increased 238% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
65.0%
Carpool
15.9%
Public Transit
4.1%
Walk
2.8%
Work from Home
4.6%
Other
7.6%
Based on 9,045 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Rhode Island statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $318
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Rhode Island at $318 (electricity about $155 , water and sewer about $58 ).
These are Rhode Island statewide averages, not a meter reading for Central Falls. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Rhode Island's BEA cost-of-living index is 102.3 (Near Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Central Falls is $1,729/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Rhode Island statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 56.6 / 100 (Moderate).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Rhode Island statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Central Falls sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Central Falls compares to similar-size Rhode Island 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.