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Place dossier plate
SheetTX-GAINESVILLE-TX · Gainesville, TX 17,688 pop · income 29th pct · 9 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 Gainesville
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Gainesville on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Natchitoches · lowest
38,731
Natchitoches · lowest
38,731 median HH income
28.1% of the leader · rank #1
Millington · near
56,339
Millington · near
56,339 median HH income
40.9% of the leader · rank #2
New Florence · near
56,339
New Florence · near
56,339 median HH income
40.9% of the leader · rank #3
Gainesville · this city
56,341
Gainesville · this city
56,341 median HH income
40.9% of the leader · rank #4
Waterloo · near
56,344
Waterloo · near
56,344 median HH income
40.9% of the leader · rank #5
Plymptonville · near
56,346
Plymptonville · near
56,346 median HH income
40.9% of the leader · rank #6
Melissa · highest
137,875
Melissa · highest
137,875 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 Gainesville 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: 17,688.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Gainesville - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Gainesville places in the 29th percentile for household income and the 37th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
29th
percentile, household income
31st
percentile, home value
40th
percentile, median rent
37th
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: Gainesville, TX
Gainesville is a small town in Texas, home to 17,688 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Gainesville brings in $56,341 a year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 17.1%. Home values in Gainesville run a median of $162,900, and the median resident age is 35.4 years. About 19.6% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 58.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 130 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 233% from five years earlier. Gainesville reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1787.7 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). The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 63.2°F with 42.8 inches of precipitation per year and 2.6 inches of snowfall.
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). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,149 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Texas run around $223, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Workers in Gainesville report an average commute of 21.3 minutes, with 80.0% driving alone and 6.9% working from home. 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 Gainesville'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 population change to reported crime to schools and households to climate and hazard context to housing and income to within-city variation to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Gainesville, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits, commute-mode shares, annual population history.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Gainesville?
Within Texas, the closest population matches are Alice (17,797 residents, $46,963 income); Bay City (17,816 residents, $51,898 income); Melissa (17,497 residents, $137,875 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Glassmanor, MD (17,687 residents); Holly Springs, GA (17,693 residents); Natchitoches, LA (17,682 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.
Is Gainesville 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 +1,134 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +6.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 130 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Gainesville?
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 1787.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 22% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
What can 9 Census tracts reveal inside Gainesville?
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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Gainesville?
The NCES join finds 10 public schools within the city match. 19.6% 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
10
Bachelor's degree+
19.6%
Poverty estimate
17.1%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What physical conditions frame life in Gainesville?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 63.2°F, with 42.8 inches of precipitation and 2.6 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
63.2°F
Annual precipitation
42.8 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Gainesville?
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 17.1%, 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.
Household income
$56,341
Home value
$162,900
Value / income
2.9×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What does the journey to work look like in Gainesville?
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 80.0%. The reported mean trip to work is 21.3 minutes.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
6.9%
Drive alone
80.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 7,982 workers age 16+.
Below median income · poverty 17.1% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Texas average
F
City profile score · Gainesville, TX
38/100
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.
Violent crime C
164 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
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 F
19.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$56,341
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
17.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Gainesville profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 55/100 (C) · 164 /100k
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Bachelor's+ share: 33/100 (F) · 19.6%
Household income: 29/100 (F) · $56,341
Poverty rate: 19/100 (F) · 17.1%
Where Gainesville sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Gainesville'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 - Gainesville highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Gainesville, TX (this city): home $162,900, crime 1,788/100k
Holly Springs, GA : home $414,700, crime 490/100k
Natchitoches, LA : home $188,400, crime 5,276/100k
Norcross, GA : home $375,900, crime 2,778/100k
Greenfield, MA : home $252,000, crime 2,698/100k
Alice, TX : home $107,700, crime 3,757/100k
Bay City, TX : home $149,800, crime 3,424/100k
Melissa, TX : home $430,300, crime 377/100k
Royse City, TX : home $288,400, crime 1,002/100k
Brenham, TX : home $223,200, crime 2,569/100k
Stafford, TX : home $247,900, crime 3,521/100k
How does Gainesville compare to other US cities?
Here's how Gainesville stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income29% higher than other cities
Home value31% pricier than other cities
Median rent40% pricier than other cities
Safety37% 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 Texas alone, Gainesville ranks #415 of 624 Texas 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 Gainesville 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 Gainesville near the bottom of Texas's cities
Among the 1,663 Texas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Gainesville ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Gainesville only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#961 of 1,520
37th percentile in Texas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,663
0th percentile in Texas
Median Home Value
#729 of 1,505
52nd percentile in Texas
Poverty Rate
#414 of 1,663
75th percentile in Texas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#697 of 1,663
58th 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
29th percentile nationally for median household income · 37th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Gainesville's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Gainesville'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 Gainesville's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$162,900Among the most affordablemore affordable than 69% 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
Gainesville's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#6,069 of 15,516
More affordable than 61% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#748 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.9×, Gainesville sits in the affordable band:
national rank #6,069 of 15,516 and #748 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
$56,341Gainesville, TX median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Gainesville, 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 Gainesville, TX.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)19.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)17.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)58.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
17,688
Median Income
$56,341
Median Home Value
$162,900
Median Age
35.4
Poverty Rate
17.1%
Labor force participation
58.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
19.6%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1787.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
163.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1624.2
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
63.2°F
Annual Precipitation
42.8"
Annual Snowfall
2.6"
Schools
Total Schools
10
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Gainesville's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
17,394 residents
2021
17,686 residents
2022
17,903 residents
2023
18,136 residents
2024
18,370 residents
2025
18,528 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
130
housing units authorized
Single-Family
118
detached homes
Multifamily
12
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
7.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
39
39
0
$8.8M
2020
43
43
0
$9.7M
2021
24
22
2
$5.0M
2022
28
28
0
$6.8M
2023
25
25
0
$5.9M
2024
130
118
12
$34.7M
Permit volume increased 233% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
21.3 minutes
Drive Alone
80.0%
Carpool
9.3%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.8%
Work from Home
6.9%
Other
3.0%
Based on 7,982 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 Gainesville. 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 Gainesville 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 Gainesville sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Gainesville 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.