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Place dossier plate
SheetTX-GALVESTON-TX · Galveston, TX 53,348 pop · income 31st pct
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 Galveston
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Galveston on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Port Arthur · lowest
45,752
Port Arthur · lowest
45,752 median HH income
38.0% of the leader · rank #1
Absarokee · near
57,212
Absarokee · near
57,212 median HH income
47.5% of the leader · rank #2
Hamburg · near
57,212
Hamburg · near
57,212 median HH income
47.5% of the leader · rank #3
Linden · near
57,212
Linden · near
57,212 median HH income
47.5% of the leader · rank #4
Newport · near
57,213
Newport · near
57,213 median HH income
47.5% of the leader · rank #5
Galveston · this city
57,216
Galveston · this city
57,216 median HH income
47.5% of the leader · rank #6
Minnetonka · highest
120,496
Minnetonka · highest
120,496 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 Galveston 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: 53,348.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Galveston - the verdict
Nationally, Galveston sits in the 31st percentile for household income and the 17th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
31st
percentile, household income
64th
percentile, home value
40th
percentile, median rent
17th
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: Galveston, TX
Texas's Galveston is a small city, with 53,348 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in Galveston report a median income of $57,216 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 13.4%. Galveston's housing stock carries a median value of $294,300, and the median resident age is 40.0 years. About 33.7% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 53.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 279 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 75% from five years earlier. Galveston's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 2917.1 crimes per 100,000 residents, above the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 71.4°F.
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. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Texas's average monthly utility costs around $223 (state average). 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 Galveston'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 population change to schools and households to housing and income to reported crime to comparison shortlist to climate and hazard context to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Galveston, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, annual population history, local building permits.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Population change
Is Galveston growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -21 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 279 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
What does the education layer cover for Galveston?
The NCES join finds 14 public schools within the city match. 33.7% 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 Galveston?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 5.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 13.4%, 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. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
Which cities make useful reference points for Galveston?
Within Texas, the closest population matches are Texas City (54,159 residents, $65,447 income); Kyle (52,439 residents, $89,645 income); Little Elm (51,426 residents, $116,036 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Aloha, OR (53,362 residents); Oak Park, IL (53,315 residents); Pinellas Park, FL (53,423 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.
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 Galveston?
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 2917.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 28% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
2380.4
Violent rate
536.7
Total reported rate
2917.1
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 71.4°F. 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
71.4°F
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 Galveston?
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 69.4%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.4%
Work from home
11.3%
Drive alone
69.4%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 24,178 workers age 16+.
Below median income · poverty 13.4% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Texas average
F
City profile score · Galveston, 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.
Bachelor's+ share C+
33.7%
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
$57,216
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
13.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
537 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Galveston profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 64/100 (C+) · 33.7%
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Household income: 30/100 (F) · $57,216
Poverty rate: 26/100 (F) · 13.4%
Violent crime: 14/100 (F) · 537 /100k
Where Galveston sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Galveston'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 - Galveston highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Galveston, TX (this city): home $294,300, crime 2,917/100k
Oak Park, IL : home $456,300, crime 3,931/100k
Pinellas Park, FL : home $251,900, crime 2,440/100k
Minnetonka, MN : home $456,200, crime 1,754/100k
Wheaton, IL : home $447,700, crime 591/100k
Twin Falls, ID : home $279,400, crime 1,543/100k
Texas City, TX : home $190,600, crime 2,555/100k
Kyle, TX : home $302,200, crime 1,022/100k
Little Elm, TX : home $390,300, crime 557/100k
Burleson, TX : home $282,900, crime 1,260/100k
Port Arthur, TX : home $96,900, crime 2,258/100k
Grapevine, TX : home $470,400, crime 2,244/100k
How does Galveston compare to other US cities?
Where Galveston sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income31% higher than other cities
Home value64% pricier than other cities
Median rent40% pricier than other cities
Safety17% 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, Galveston ranks #554 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 Galveston 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 Galveston near the bottom of Texas's cities
Among the 1,663 Texas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Galveston ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Galveston only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#929 of 1,520
39th percentile in Texas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,663
0th percentile in Texas
Median Home Value
#274 of 1,505
82nd percentile in Texas
Poverty Rate
#572 of 1,663
65th percentile in Texas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#312 of 1,663
81st 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
31st percentile nationally for median household income · 17th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Galveston's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Galveston'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 Galveston's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$294,30036th percentilemore affordable than 36% 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
Galveston's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#13,121 of 15,516
More affordable than 15% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#468 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 5.1×, Galveston sits in the pressured band:
national rank #13,121 of 15,516 and #468 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median, a comparison flag, not a verdict on any household.
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
$57,216Galveston, TX median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Galveston, 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 Galveston, TX.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)33.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)13.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)53.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
53,348
Median Income
$57,216
Median Home Value
$294,300
Median Age
40.0
Poverty Rate
13.4%
Labor force participation
53.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
33.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2917.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
536.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2380.4
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
71.4°F
Annual Precipitation
N/A
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
14
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Galveston's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
53,657 residents
2021
53,453 residents
2022
53,234 residents
2023
53,411 residents
2024
53,605 residents
2025
53,636 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
279
housing units authorized
Single-Family
279
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
5.2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
159
159
0
$39.5M
2020
237
237
0
$46.4M
2021
251
251
0
$51.9M
2022
215
215
0
$45.3M
2023
289
289
0
$77.6M
2024
279
279
0
$71.7M
Permit volume increased 75% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
69.4%
Carpool
8.6%
Public Transit
0.4%
Walk
5.8%
Work from Home
11.3%
Other
4.5%
Based on 24,178 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 Galveston. 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 Galveston 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 Galveston sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Galveston 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.