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Place dossier plate
SheetRI-PAWTUCKET-RI · Pawtucket, RI 75,280 pop · income 46th 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 Pawtucket
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Pawtucket on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Central Falls · lowest
45,921
Central Falls · lowest
45,921 median HH income
37.9% of the leader · rank #1
Warrenton · near
67,430
Warrenton · near
67,430 median HH income
55.7% of the leader · rank #2
Taft · near
67,431
Taft · near
67,431 median HH income
55.7% of the leader · rank #3
Pawtucket · this city
67,436
Pawtucket · this city
67,436 median HH income
55.7% of the leader · rank #4
China Lake Ac… · near
67,438
China Lake Ac… · near
67,438 median HH income
55.7% of the leader · rank #5
Hoyt · near
67,438
Hoyt · near
67,438 median HH income
55.7% of the leader · rank #6
Broomfield · highest
121,025
Broomfield · highest
121,025 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 Pawtucket 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: 75,280.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Pawtucket - the verdict
Pawtucket ranks in the 46th percentile for household income and the 37th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
46th
percentile, household income
63rd
percentile, home value
86th
percentile, median rent
37th
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: Pawtucket, RI
75,280 people live in Pawtucket, Rhode Island - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $67,436 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 10.1%. Pawtucket's housing stock carries a median value of $286,200, and the median resident age is 37.4 years. About 23.5% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 65.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 2 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 85% from five years earlier. Pawtucket reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 1819.4 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: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Rhode Island at 102.3 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Near Average). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,729 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Rhode Island run around $318, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Commute times here average 23.5 minutes, with 74.9% driving alone and 8.5% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 56.6 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Pawtucket'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 housing and income to population change to reported crime to work and mobility to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Pawtucket, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, matched public-school count, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares.
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
Which cities make useful reference points for Pawtucket?
Within Rhode Island, the closest population matches are Cranston (82,632 residents, $87,716 income); Warwick (82,871 residents, $87,536 income); East Providence (46,970 residents, $79,660 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Iowa City, IA (75,264 residents); Missouri City, TX (75,234 residents); Mansfield, TX (75,398 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 Pawtucket?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 10.1%, 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.
Is Pawtucket 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 +1,551 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +2.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 2 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Pawtucket?
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 1819.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 20% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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 Pawtucket?
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 74.9%. The reported mean trip to work is 23.5 minutes.
Public transit
3.9%
Work from home
8.5%
Drive alone
74.9%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 38,594 workers age 16+.
What does the education layer cover for Pawtucket?
The NCES join finds 18 public schools within the city match. 23.5% 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 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
18
Bachelor's degree+
23.5%
Poverty estimate
10.1%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Below median income · poverty 10.1% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
102.3 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Rhode Island average
F
City profile score · Pawtucket, RI
38/100
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.
Household income D
$67,436
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share D
23.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
10.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
308 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
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.
Pawtucket profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 46/100 (D) · $67,436
Bachelor's+ share: 44/100 (D) · 23.5%
Poverty rate: 39/100 (F) · 10.1%
Violent crime: 32/100 (F) · 308 /100k
Cost of living: 30/100 (F) · 102.3 index
Where Pawtucket sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Pawtucket'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 - Pawtucket highlighted among 13 peers.Read the chart values
Pawtucket, RI (this city): home $286,200, crime 1,819/100k
Iowa City, IA : home $273,600, crime 1,995/100k
Missouri City, TX : home $281,600, crime 1,191/100k
Mansfield, TX : home $380,000, crime 1,475/100k
Broomfield, CO : home $631,600, crime 2,004/100k
Apple Valley, CA : home $377,300, crime 2,119/100k
Missoula, MT : home $427,400, crime 4,226/100k
Cranston, RI : home $348,800, crime 1,145/100k
Warwick, RI : home $322,000, crime 1,227/100k
East Providence, RI : home $322,100, crime 755/100k
Woonsocket, RI : home $268,000, crime 1,891/100k
Newport, RI : home $669,500, crime 1,667/100k
Central Falls, RI : home $300,500, crime 1,329/100k
How does Pawtucket compare to other US cities?
Here's how Pawtucket stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income46% higher than other cities
Home value63% pricier than other cities
Median rent86% pricier than other cities
Safety37% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at Rhode Island, Pawtucket ranks #9 of 11 Rhode Island cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Pawtucket 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 Pawtucket near the bottom of Rhode Island's cities
Among the 36 Rhode Island cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Pawtucket ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Pawtucket only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#28 of 33
15th percentile in Rhode Island
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 36
0th percentile in Rhode Island
Median Home Value
#31 of 35
11th percentile in Rhode Island
Poverty Rate
#6 of 36
83rd percentile in Rhode Island
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#31 of 36
14th 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
46th percentile nationally for median household income · 37th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Pawtucket's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Pawtucket'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 Pawtucket's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$286,20037th percentilemore affordable than 37% 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
Pawtucket's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,368 of 15,516
More affordable than 27% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#349 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 4.2×, Pawtucket sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,368 of 15,516 and #349 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
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
$67,436Pawtucket, RI median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Pawtucket, 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 Pawtucket, RI.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)23.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)10.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)65.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
75,280
Median Income
$67,436
Median Home Value
$286,200
Median Age
37.4
Poverty Rate
10.1%
Labor force participation
65.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
23.5%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1819.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
307.6
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1511.8
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
18
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Pawtucket's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
75,514 residents
2021
75,359 residents
2022
75,575 residents
2023
75,901 residents
2024
76,869 residents
2025
77,065 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
2
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
2
apartments & condos
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
13
13
0
$1.5M
2020
22
14
8
$2.9M
2021
31
8
23
$3.8M
2022
20
20
0
$2.6M
2023
4
4
0
$0.8M
2024
2
0
2
$0.1M
Permit volume decreased 85% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
23.5 minutes
Drive Alone
74.9%
Carpool
9.1%
Public Transit
3.9%
Walk
1.7%
Work from Home
8.5%
Other
1.9%
Based on 38,594 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 Pawtucket. 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 Pawtucket 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 Pawtucket sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Pawtucket 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.