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Place dossier plate
SheetTX-ABILENE-TX · Abilene, TX 127,130 pop · income 39th pct · 41 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 Abilene
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Abilene on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Athens-Clarke… · lowest
51,655
Athens-Clarke… · lowest
51,655 median HH income
38.4% of the leader · rank #1
Abilene · this city
62,720
Abilene · this city
62,720 median HH income
46.7% of the leader · rank #2
Watertown · near
62,721
Watertown · near
62,721 median HH income
46.7% of the leader · rank #3
Belle Plaine · near
62,727
Belle Plaine · near
62,727 median HH income
46.7% of the leader · rank #4
Hildale · near
62,727
Hildale · near
62,727 median HH income
46.7% of the leader · rank #5
Madison Heigh… · near
62,727
Madison Heigh… · near
62,727 median HH income
46.7% of the leader · rank #6
Thousand Oaks · highest
134,367
Thousand Oaks · highest
134,367 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 Abilene 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: 127,130.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Abilene - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Abilene lands in the 39th percentile for household income and the 28th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
39th
percentile, household income
36th
percentile, home value
40th
percentile, median rent
28th
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: Abilene, TX
127,130 people live in Abilene, Texas - a mid-sized U.S. city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $62,720 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 10.2%. Home values in Abilene run a median of $178,900, and the median resident age is 32.8 years. About 27.1% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 55.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 481 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Rapid Growth), up 38% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 2187.7 incidents per 100,000 residents, near the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 63.7°F with 27.8 inches of precipitation per year and 3.1 inches of snowfall.
Texas tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: the state registers 97.1 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Near Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,149 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Texas run around $223, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Commute times here average 14.0 minutes, with 77.8% driving alone and 7.9% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 49.0 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Abilene'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 reported crime to population change to within-city variation to schools and households to work and mobility to comparison shortlist to housing and income to climate and hazard context; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Abilene, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What can the FBI record say about safety in Abilene?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2187.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 4% lower 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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +6,394 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +5.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 481 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.
PlainCities matches 41 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Abilene?
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 Texas, the closest population matches are Pearland (125,983 residents, $112,470 income); Lewisville (128,313 residents, $85,002 income); Round Rock (124,288 residents, $97,187 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Columbia, MO (127,200 residents); Athens-Clarke County, GA (126,987 residents); Lehigh Acres, FL (127,391 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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Abilene?
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 38 public schools within the city match. 27.1% 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
10.2%
Bachelor's degree+
27.1%
Matched public schools
38
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in Abilene?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 77.8%. The reported mean trip to work is 14.0 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. 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
77.8%
Work from home
7.9%
Public transit
0.5%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 60,168 workers age 16+.
How far does income reach against housing in Abilene?
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 10.2%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
2.9×
Home value
$178,900
Household income
$62,720
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
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 63.7°F, with 27.8 inches of precipitation and 3.1 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Texas is 49.0 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)
49.0
Annual precipitation
27.8 in
Mean temperature
63.7°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
Below median income · poverty 10.2% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Texas average
D
City profile score · Abilene, TX
40/100
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 C-
27.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Cost of living C-
97.1 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Household income F
$62,720
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
10.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
425 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Abilene profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 53/100 (C-) · 27.1%
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Household income: 39/100 (F) · $62,720
Poverty rate: 39/100 (F) · 10.2%
Violent crime: 21/100 (F) · 425 /100k
Where Abilene sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Abilene'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 - Abilene highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Abilene, TX (this city): home $178,900, crime 2,188/100k
Columbia, MO : home $268,300, crime 2,665/100k
Athens-Clarke County, GA : home $271,800, crime 2,683/100k
Topeka, KS : home $130,600, crime 4,499/100k
Simi Valley, CA : home $753,500, crime 1,053/100k
Thousand Oaks, CA : home $951,200, crime 1,123/100k
Pearland, TX : home $330,900, crime 1,536/100k
Lewisville, TX : home $350,200, crime 1,705/100k
Round Rock, TX : home $383,700, crime 2,071/100k
College Station, TX : home $326,500, crime 1,273/100k
Carrollton, TX : home $353,600, crime 1,453/100k
Midland, TX : home $298,600, crime 1,977/100k
How does Abilene compare to other US cities?
Abilene measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income39% higher than other cities
Home value36% pricier than other cities
Median rent40% pricier than other cities
Safety28% 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 Texas, Abilene ranks #478 of 624 Texas 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 Abilene against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Texas only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Texas-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Abilene near the bottom of Texas's cities
Among the 1,663 Texas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Abilene ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Abilene only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#782 of 1,520
49th percentile in Texas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,663
0th percentile in Texas
Median Home Value
#647 of 1,505
57th percentile in Texas
Poverty Rate
#740 of 1,663
55th percentile in Texas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#447 of 1,663
73rd percentile in Texas
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 Texas only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
39th percentile nationally for median household income · 28th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Abilene's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Abilene'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 Abilene's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$178,900Among the most affordablemore affordable than 64% 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
Abilene's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,873 of 15,516
More affordable than 62% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#94 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 2.9×, Abilene sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,873 of 15,516 and #94 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
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
$62,720Abilene, TX median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Abilene, TX median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Abilene, TX.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)27.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)10.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)55.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
127,130
Median Income
$62,720
Median Home Value
$178,900
Median Age
32.8
Poverty Rate
10.2%
Labor force participation
55.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
27.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2187.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
424.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1763.2
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
63.7°F
Annual Precipitation
27.8"
Annual Snowfall
3.1"
Schools
Total Schools
38
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Abilene's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
125,194 residents
2021
125,883 residents
2022
127,376 residents
2023
129,167 residents
2024
130,136 residents
2025
131,588 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Rapid Growth
Total Permits (2024)
481
housing units authorized
Single-Family
385
detached homes
Multifamily
96
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
3.8
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
349
333
16
$70.7M
2020
637
373
264
$101.9M
2021
869
492
377
$147.7M
2022
776
452
324
$138.4M
2023
433
313
120
$102.1M
2024
481
385
96
$125.4M
Permit volume increased 38% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
14.0 minutes
Drive Alone
77.8%
Carpool
10.0%
Public Transit
0.5%
Walk
2.2%
Work from Home
7.9%
Other
1.6%
Based on 60,168 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Texas statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $223
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Texas at $223 (electricity about $130 , water and sewer about $48 ).
These are Texas statewide averages, not a meter reading for Abilene. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Texas's BEA cost-of-living index is 97.1 (Near Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Abilene is $1,149/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Texas statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 49.0 / 100 (Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Texas statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Abilene sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Abilene compares to similar-size Texas 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.