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Place dossier plate
SheetTX-ELGIN-TX · Elgin, TX 10,996 pop · income 67th 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 Elgin
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Elgin on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Bolivar · lowest
44,603
Bolivar · lowest
44,603 median HH income
25.0% of the leader · rank #1
Rail Road Flat · near
85,656
Rail Road Flat · near
85,656 median HH income
48.1% of the leader · rank #2
Elgin · this city
85,666
Elgin · this city
85,666 median HH income
48.1% of the leader · rank #3
Calvert Beach · near
85,667
Calvert Beach · near
85,667 median HH income
48.1% of the leader · rank #4
Teaticket · near
85,669
Teaticket · near
85,669 median HH income
48.1% of the leader · rank #5
Osceola · near
85,673
Osceola · near
85,673 median HH income
48.1% of the leader · rank #6
Scenic Oaks · highest
178,125
Scenic Oaks · highest
178,125 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 Elgin 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: 10,996.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Elgin - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Elgin places in the 67th percentile for household income and the 41st percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
67th
percentile, household income
59th
percentile, home value
40th
percentile, median rent
41st
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: Elgin, TX
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 10,996 residents in Elgin, a small town within Texas. Households in Elgin report a median income of $85,666 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 8.0%. Typical homes in Elgin are valued around $267,900, and the median resident age is 40.4 years. 22.5% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 69.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 372 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 348% from five years earlier. Elgin reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1642.1 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Elgin's yearly average temperature at 68.0°F with 36.1 inches of precipitation per year.
Texas tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Texas at 97.1 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Near Average). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,149 per month. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Texas's average monthly utility costs around $223 (state average). 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 Elgin'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 schools and households to housing and income to reported crime to climate and hazard context to work and mobility to within-city variation to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Elgin, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Elgin?
Within Texas, the closest population matches are Burkburnett (11,012 residents, $65,796 income); Heartland (11,019 residents, $107,165 income); Iowa Colony (11,028 residents, $126,167 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Bolivar, MO (10,996 residents); Brandon, SD (10,996 residents); North Bellport, NY (10,999 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.
The NCES join finds 7 public schools within the city match. 22.5% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Elgin?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 8.0%, 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.
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 21 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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Elgin?
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 1642.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 28% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1468.8
Violent rate
173.2
Total reported rate
1642.1
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 68.0°F, with 36.1 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
68.0°F
Annual precipitation
36.1 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.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 71.3%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
18.4%
Drive alone
71.3%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 5,965 workers age 16+.
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 +3,524 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +35.9% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 372 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
+35.9%
2025 estimate
13,327
2020 estimate
9,803
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Above median income · poverty 8.0% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Texas average
C-
City profile score · Elgin, TX
53/100
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 B-
$85,666
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); 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.
Violent crime C-
173 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate D
8.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share D
22.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Elgin profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 65/100 (B-) · $85,666
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Violent crime: 53/100 (C-) · 173 /100k
Poverty rate: 48/100 (D) · 8.0%
Bachelor's+ share: 42/100 (D) · 22.5%
Where Elgin sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Elgin'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 - Elgin highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Elgin, TX (this city): home $267,900, crime 1,642/100k
Bolivar, MO : home $188,700, crime 1,198/100k
Brandon, SD : home $317,300, crime 448/100k
Beachwood, NJ : home $307,500, crime 824/100k
Burkburnett, TX : home $143,500, crime 1,007/100k
Iowa Colony, TX : home $356,300, crime 690/100k
Pleasanton, TX : home $203,100, crime 2,260/100k
Fredericksburg, TX : home $442,800, crime 640/100k
How does Elgin compare to other US cities?
Here's how Elgin stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income67% higher than other cities
Home value59% pricier than other cities
Median rent40% pricier than other cities
Safety41% 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: Elgin ranks #377 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 Elgin 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 Elgin near the bottom of Texas's cities
Among the 1,663 Texas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Elgin ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Elgin only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#384 of 1,520
75th percentile in Texas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,663
0th percentile in Texas
Median Home Value
#344 of 1,505
77th percentile in Texas
Poverty Rate
#888 of 1,663
46th percentile in Texas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#581 of 1,663
65th 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
67th percentile nationally for median household income · 41st percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Elgin's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Elgin'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 Elgin's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$267,90041st percentilemore affordable than 41% 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
Elgin's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#7,327 of 15,516
More affordable than 53% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,082 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.1×, Elgin sits in the moderate band:
national rank #7,327 of 15,516 and #1,082 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
$85,666Elgin, TX median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Elgin, 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 Elgin, TX.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)22.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)8.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)69.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
10,996
Median Income
$85,666
Median Home Value
$267,900
Median Age
40.4
Poverty Rate
8.0%
Labor force participation
69.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
22.5%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1642.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
173.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1468.8
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
68.0°F
Annual Precipitation
36.1"
Annual Snowfall
0.0"
Schools
Total Schools
7
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Elgin's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
9,803 residents
2021
10,457 residents
2022
11,368 residents
2023
12,355 residents
2024
12,542 residents
2025
13,327 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
372
housing units authorized
Single-Family
212
detached homes
Multifamily
160
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
33.8
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
83
73
10
$9.5M
2020
221
221
0
$28.7M
2021
361
357
4
$66.3M
2022
390
388
2
$84.7M
2023
63
63
0
$15.0M
2024
372
212
160
$80.7M
Permit volume increased 348% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
71.3%
Carpool
9.8%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
18.4%
Based on 5,965 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 Elgin. 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 Elgin 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 Elgin sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Elgin 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.