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Place dossier plate
SheetTX-BORGER-TX · Borger, TX 12,398 pop · income 34th pct · 8 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 Borger
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Borger on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Escanaba · lowest
40,169
Escanaba · lowest
40,169 median HH income
20.1% of the leader · rank #1
Cedar Point · near
59,028
Cedar Point · near
59,028 median HH income
29.5% of the leader · rank #2
Agency · near
59,028
Agency · near
59,028 median HH income
29.5% of the leader · rank #3
Loretto · near
59,028
Loretto · near
59,028 median HH income
29.5% of the leader · rank #4
Fromberg · near
59,028
Fromberg · near
59,028 median HH income
29.5% of the leader · rank #5
Borger · this city
59,031
Borger · this city
59,031 median HH income
29.5% of the leader · rank #6
Lantana · highest
200,147
Lantana · highest
200,147 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 Borger 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: 12,398.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Borger - the verdict
Borger ranks in the 34th percentile for household income and the 25th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
34th
percentile, household income
6th
percentile, home value
40th
percentile, median rent
25th
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: Borger, TX
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 12,398 residents in Borger, a small town within Texas. The typical household in Borger brings in $59,031 a year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 8.8%. Home values in Borger run a median of $90,000, and the median resident age is 36.3 years. Educational attainment runs 17.0% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 57.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 0 residential units were authorized in 2024 (No Permits). Crime here tracks close to the national norm: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 2336.6 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, near the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Borger's yearly average temperature at 60.7°F with 22.5 inches of precipitation per year and 15.0 inches of snowfall.
Texas tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Texas scores 97.1 (Near Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,149 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $223 across Texas, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Workers in Borger report an average commute of 18.6 minutes, with 83.8% driving alone and 3.8% working from home. Natural-hazard exposure scores 49.0 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Borger'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 work and mobility to comparison shortlist to within-city variation to climate and hazard context to population change to reported crime to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Borger, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Borger?
The NCES join finds 6 public schools within the city match. 17.0% 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Borger?
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 83.8%. The reported mean trip to work is 18.6 minutes.
Which cities make useful reference points for Borger?
Within Texas, the closest population matches are Webster (12,283 residents, $62,536 income); Levelland (12,565 residents, $51,847 income); El Campo (12,220 residents, $67,356 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Lake City, FL (12,404 residents); Myrtle Grove, NC (12,404 residents); Sylacauga, AL (12,388 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.
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.
Climate and hazard context
What physical conditions frame life in Borger?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 60.7°F, with 22.5 inches of precipitation and 15.0 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.
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.
Mean temperature
60.7°F
Annual precipitation
22.5 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
49.0
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -686 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -5.5% 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.
Period change
-5.5%
2025 estimate
11,842
2020 estimate
12,528
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Borger?
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 2336.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 2% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1936.1
Violent rate
400.6
Total reported rate
2336.6
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
How far does income reach against housing in Borger?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 1.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 8.8%, 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. The ratio makes housing the clearest place to start this profile, but a low multiple can coexist with slow demand, older stock, or household-level hardship. Compare the home-value distribution and same-state peer table before treating it as an advantage.
Household income
$59,031
Home value
$90,000
Value / income
1.5×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Below median income · poverty 8.8% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Texas average
F
City profile score · Borger, TX
36/100
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 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.
Poverty rate D
8.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$59,031
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
17.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime F
401 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Borger profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Poverty rate: 44/100 (D) · 8.8%
Household income: 33/100 (F) · $59,031
Bachelor's+ share: 26/100 (F) · 17.0%
Violent crime: 22/100 (F) · 401 /100k
Where Borger sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Borger'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 - Borger highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Borger, TX (this city): home $90,000, crime 2,337/100k
Sylacauga, AL : home $156,800, crime 4,038/100k
Fortuna, CA : home $353,200, crime 1,400/100k
Escanaba, MI : home $116,600, crime 2,354/100k
Webster, TX : home $284,900, crime 6,532/100k
Levelland, TX : home $126,200, crime 1,368/100k
El Campo, TX : home $183,400, crime 2,314/100k
Robinson, TX : home $269,000, crime 623/100k
Richmond, TX : home $229,800, crime 2,990/100k
How does Borger compare to other US cities?
Borger measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income34% higher than other cities
Home value6% pricier than other cities
Median rent40% pricier than other cities
Safety25% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Texas and the picture shifts: Borger ranks #503 of 624 Texas cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Borger 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 Borger near the bottom of Texas's cities
Among the 1,663 Texas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Borger ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Borger only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#877 of 1,520
42nd percentile in Texas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,663
0th percentile in Texas
Median Home Value
#1,211 of 1,505
19th percentile in Texas
Poverty Rate
#820 of 1,663
50th percentile in Texas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#827 of 1,663
50th 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
34th percentile nationally for median household income · 25th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Borger's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Borger'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 Borger's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$90,000Among the most affordablemore affordable than 94% 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
Borger's home-value-to-income ratio: 1.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#430 of 15,516
More affordable than 97% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#7 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 1.5×, Borger sits in the affordable band:
national rank #430 of 15,516 and #7 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
$59,031Borger, TX median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Borger, 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 Borger, TX.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)17.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)8.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)57.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
12,398
Median Income
$59,031
Median Home Value
$90,000
Median Age
36.3
Poverty Rate
8.8%
Labor force participation
57.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
17.0%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2336.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
400.6
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1936.1
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
60.7°F
Annual Precipitation
22.5"
Annual Snowfall
15.0"
Schools
Total Schools
6
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Borger's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
12,528 residents
2021
12,430 residents
2022
12,230 residents
2023
12,108 residents
2024
11,964 residents
2025
11,842 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
1
1
0
$0.2M
2021
4
4
0
$0.8M
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
2
2
0
$0.4M
2024
0
0
0
-
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
18.6 minutes
Drive Alone
83.8%
Carpool
8.0%
Public Transit
1.3%
Walk
1.4%
Work from Home
3.8%
Other
1.7%
Based on 5,362 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 Borger. 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 Borger 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 Borger sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Borger 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.