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Place dossier plate
SheetTN-COLUMBIA-TN · Columbia, TN 43,971 pop · income 37th pct · 21 tracts
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 Columbia
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Columbia on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Saginaw · lowest
37,298
Saginaw · lowest
37,298 median HH income
20.2% of the leader · rank #1
Las Maravillas · near
61,200
Las Maravillas · near
61,200 median HH income
33.1% of the leader · rank #2
Hastings · near
61,202
Hastings · near
61,202 median HH income
33.1% of the leader · rank #3
Columbia · this city
61,204
Columbia · this city
61,204 median HH income
33.1% of the leader · rank #4
Eddyville · near
61,205
Eddyville · near
61,205 median HH income
33.1% of the leader · rank #5
Hebron · near
61,207
Hebron · near
61,207 median HH income
33.1% of the leader · rank #6
Brentwood · highest
184,720
Brentwood · highest
184,720 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 Columbia 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: 43,971.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Columbia - the verdict
Nationally, Columbia sits in the 37th 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.
37th
percentile, household income
58th
percentile, home value
34th
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: Columbia, TN
43,971 people live in Columbia, Tennessee - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Columbia brings in $61,204 a year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 11.1%. Columbia's housing stock carries a median value of $261,700, and the median resident age is 35.9 years. 23.9% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 62.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 777 residential building permits were authorized in Columbia (Building Boom), up 59% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Columbia's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 3060.3 crimes per 100,000 residents, above the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 58.0°F with 56.8 inches of precipitation per year and 0.9 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in Tennessee run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Tennessee at 91.9 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Well Below Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,118 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Tennessee run around $218, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Natural-hazard exposure scores 52.5 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Columbia'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 housing and income to population change to work and mobility to schools and households to climate and hazard context to comparison shortlist to reported crime to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Columbia, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, matched public-school count, annual population history, commute-mode shares.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Columbia?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 11.1%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Is Columbia growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +8,237 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +19.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 777 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 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Columbia?
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 Tennessee, the closest population matches are Brentwood (45,272 residents, $184,720 income); Lebanon (41,951 residents, $71,320 income); Gallatin (46,667 residents, $73,589 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Oakland Park, FL (44,015 residents); Gainesville, GA (44,051 residents); Saginaw, MI (43,879 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.
PlainCities matches 21 Census tracts to this city.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
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 Columbia?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 75.8%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
Drive alone
75.8%
Work from home
12.5%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 20,952 workers age 16+.
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.
The NCES join finds 11 public schools within the city match. 23.9% 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.
Poverty estimate
11.1%
Bachelor's degree+
23.9%
Matched public schools
11
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 58.0°F, with 56.8 inches of precipitation and 0.9 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Tennessee is 52.5 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
FEMA risk index (state avg)
52.5
Annual precipitation
56.8 in
Mean temperature
58.0°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Columbia?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 3060.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 34% 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.
Total reported rate
3060.3
Violent rate
573.2
Property rate
2487.1
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Below median income · poverty 11.1% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
91.9 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Tennessee average
D
City profile score · Columbia, TN
41/100
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 B+
91.9 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 D
23.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$61,204
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
11.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
573 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Columbia profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 78/100 (B+) · 91.9 index
Bachelor's+ share: 46/100 (D) · 23.9%
Household income: 36/100 (F) · $61,204
Poverty rate: 35/100 (F) · 11.1%
Violent crime: 11/100 (F) · 573 /100k
Where Columbia sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Columbia'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 - Columbia highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Columbia, TN (this city): home $261,700, crime 3,060/100k
Gainesville, GA : home $337,000, crime 2,789/100k
Saginaw, MI : home $54,000, crime 4,160/100k
Saratoga Springs, UT : home $567,200, crime 666/100k
Brentwood, TN : home $926,700, crime 788/100k
Lebanon, TN : home $359,300, crime 1,378/100k
Gallatin, TN : home $343,700, crime 957/100k
Mount Juliet, TN : home $423,000, crime 1,124/100k
Germantown, TN : home $441,200, crime 1,345/100k
Cleveland, TN : home $241,800, crime 2,837/100k
How does Columbia compare to other US cities?
Here's how Columbia stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income37% higher than other cities
Home value58% pricier than other cities
Median rent34% pricier than other cities
Safety15% 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 Tennessee alone, Columbia ranks #145 of 174 Tennessee 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 Columbia against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Tennessee only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Tennessee-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Columbia near the bottom of Tennessee's cities
Among the 482 Tennessee cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Columbia ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Columbia only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#189 of 458
59th percentile in Tennessee
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 482
0th percentile in Tennessee
Median Home Value
#103 of 455
77th percentile in Tennessee
Poverty Rate
#220 of 482
54th percentile in Tennessee
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#136 of 482
71st percentile in Tennessee
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 Tennessee only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
37th percentile nationally for median household income · 15th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Columbia's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Columbia'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 Columbia's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$261,70042nd percentilemore affordable than 42% 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
Columbia's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,459 of 15,516
More affordable than 26% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,204 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 4.3×, Columbia sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,459 of 15,516 and #2,204 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
$61,204Columbia, TN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Columbia, TN median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Columbia, TN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)23.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)11.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)62.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
43,971
Median Income
$61,204
Median Home Value
$261,700
Median Age
35.9
Poverty Rate
11.1%
Labor force participation
62.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
23.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3060.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
573.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2487.1
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
58.0°F
Annual Precipitation
56.8"
Annual Snowfall
0.9"
Schools
Total Schools
11
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Columbia's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
41,835 residents
2021
43,030 residents
2022
45,482 residents
2023
47,210 residents
2024
48,548 residents
2025
50,072 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
777
housing units authorized
Single-Family
747
detached homes
Multifamily
30
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
17.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
490
319
171
$55.0M
2020
636
630
6
$74.1M
2021
1,212
796
416
$128.0M
2022
873
847
26
$100.0M
2023
690
690
0
$100.9M
2024
777
747
30
$131.7M
Permit volume increased 59% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
75.8%
Carpool
9.1%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
1.8%
Work from Home
12.5%
Other
0.8%
Based on 20,952 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Tennessee statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $218
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Tennessee at $218 (electricity about $120 , water and sewer about $40 ).
These are Tennessee statewide averages, not a meter reading for Columbia. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Tennessee's BEA cost-of-living index is 91.9 (Well Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Columbia is $1,118/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Tennessee statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 52.5 / 100 (Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Tennessee statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Columbia sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Columbia compares to similar-size Tennessee 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, NOAA Climate Normals, 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.