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Place dossier plate
SheetTX-BROWNSVILLE-TX · Brownsville, TX 188,023 pop · income 17th pct · 122 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 Brownsville
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Brownsville on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Akron · lowest
48,544
Akron · lowest
48,544 median HH income
33.2% of the leader · rank #1
West City · near
48,672
West City · near
48,672 median HH income
33.3% of the leader · rank #2
Big Bay · near
48,672
Big Bay · near
48,672 median HH income
33.3% of the leader · rank #3
Wyaconda · near
48,672
Wyaconda · near
48,672 median HH income
33.3% of the leader · rank #4
Shrewsbury · near
48,674
Shrewsbury · near
48,674 median HH income
33.3% of the leader · rank #5
Brownsville · this city
48,675
Brownsville · this city
48,675 median HH income
33.3% of the leader · rank #6
Frisco · highest
146,158
Frisco · highest
146,158 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 Brownsville 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: 188,023.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Brownsville - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Brownsville places in the 17th percentile for household income and the 24th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
17th
percentile, household income
18th
percentile, home value
40th
percentile, median rent
24th
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: Brownsville, TX
188,023 people live in Brownsville, Texas - a mid-sized U.S. city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Brownsville households earn a median of $48,675 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 22.5%. Home values in Brownsville run a median of $122,400, and the median resident age is 30.9 years. 22.3% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 55.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 1,070 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Growing), up 14% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 2397.7 crimes per 100,000 residents, near the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score). The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 76.2°F with 26.8 inches of precipitation per year.
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. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,149 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $223 across Texas, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 49.0 out of 100 (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Brownsville'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 comparison shortlist to housing and income to within-city variation to climate and hazard context to work and mobility to schools and households to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Brownsville, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, local building permits, annual population history, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Brownsville?
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 2397.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 5% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Which cities make useful reference points for Brownsville?
Within Texas, the closest population matches are Grand Prairie (198,564 residents, $78,889 income); Amarillo (200,945 residents, $62,469 income); McKinney (202,314 residents, $120,273 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Akron, OH (189,526 residents); Tempe, AZ (186,419 residents); Paradise, NV (186,178 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 Brownsville?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 22.5%, 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. 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.
What can 122 Census tracts reveal inside Brownsville?
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.
PlainCities matches 122 Census tracts to this city.
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 Brownsville?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 76.2°F, with 26.8 inches of precipitation. 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
76.2°F
Annual precipitation
26.8 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Brownsville?
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 76.6%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.8%
Work from home
7.7%
Drive alone
76.6%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 76,932 workers age 16+.
What does the education layer cover for Brownsville?
The NCES join finds 73 public schools within the city match. 22.3% 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
73
Bachelor's degree+
22.3%
Poverty estimate
22.5%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Is Brownsville 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 +6,375 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +3.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 1,070 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
+3.4%
2025 estimate
192,957
2020 estimate
186,582
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Low income · poverty 22.5% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Texas average
F
City profile score · Brownsville, TX
27/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share D
22.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime F
456 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income F
$48,675
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
22.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Brownsville profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Bachelor's+ share: 41/100 (D) · 22.3%
Violent crime: 19/100 (F) · 456 /100k
Household income: 18/100 (F) · $48,675
Poverty rate: 9/100 (F) · 22.5%
Where Brownsville sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Brownsville'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 - Brownsville highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Brownsville, TX (this city): home $122,400, crime 2,398/100k
Akron, OH : home $111,200, crime 3,775/100k
Tempe, AZ : home $421,900, crime 3,364/100k
Providence, RI : home $322,800, crime 1,935/100k
Mobile, AL : home $170,300, crime 2,427/100k
Newport News, VA : home $243,300, crime 3,152/100k
Grand Prairie, TX : home $272,200, crime 1,822/100k
Amarillo, TX : home $186,800, crime 3,346/100k
McKinney, TX : home $439,500, crime 933/100k
Frisco, TX : home $595,400, crime 1,104/100k
Killeen, TX : home $196,000, crime 1,910/100k
Pasadena, TX : home $193,600, crime 2,918/100k
How does Brownsville compare to other US cities?
Brownsville measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income17% higher than other cities
Home value18% pricier than other cities
Median rent40% pricier than other cities
Safety24% 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, Brownsville ranks #508 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 Brownsville 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 Brownsville near the bottom of Texas's cities
Among the 1,663 Texas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Brownsville ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Brownsville only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,170 of 1,520
23rd percentile in Texas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,663
0th percentile in Texas
Median Home Value
#957 of 1,505
36th percentile in Texas
Poverty Rate
#254 of 1,663
85th percentile in Texas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#592 of 1,663
64th 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
17th percentile nationally for median household income · 24th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Brownsville's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Brownsville'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 Brownsville's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$122,400Among the most affordablemore affordable than 82% 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
Brownsville's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,080 of 15,516
More affordable than 74% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#38 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 2.5×, Brownsville sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,080 of 15,516 and #38 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
$48,675Brownsville, TX median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Brownsville, 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 Brownsville, TX.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)22.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)22.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)55.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
188,023
Median Income
$48,675
Median Home Value
$122,400
Median Age
30.9
Poverty Rate
22.5%
Labor force participation
55.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
22.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2397.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
456.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1941.7
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
76.2°F
Annual Precipitation
26.8"
Annual Snowfall
0.0"
Schools
Total Schools
73
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Brownsville's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
186,582 residents
2021
187,322 residents
2022
189,237 residents
2023
190,727 residents
2024
192,417 residents
2025
192,957 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Growing
Total Permits (2024)
1,070
housing units authorized
Single-Family
706
detached homes
Multifamily
364
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
5.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
937
679
258
$98.8M
2020
970
772
198
$97.5M
2021
1,129
883
246
$114.8M
2022
1,170
817
353
$238.1M
2023
824
751
73
$135.8M
2024
1,070
706
364
$148.0M
Permit volume increased 14% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
76.6%
Carpool
12.2%
Public Transit
0.8%
Walk
1.5%
Work from Home
7.7%
Other
1.2%
Based on 76,932 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 Brownsville. 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 Brownsville 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 Brownsville sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Brownsville 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.