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Place dossier plate
SheetTX-LUBBOCK-TX · Lubbock, TX 261,078 pop · income 36th pct · 106 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 Lubbock
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Lubbock on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Toledo · lowest
47,532
Toledo · lowest
47,532 median HH income
32.5% of the leader · rank #1
Boston · near
60,486
Boston · near
60,486 median HH income
41.4% of the leader · rank #2
Galloway · near
60,486
Galloway · near
60,486 median HH income
41.4% of the leader · rank #3
Lubbock · this city
60,487
Lubbock · this city
60,487 median HH income
41.4% of the leader · rank #4
Granite City · near
60,490
Granite City · near
60,490 median HH income
41.4% of the leader · rank #5
Saranac Lake · near
60,494
Saranac Lake · near
60,494 median HH income
41.4% 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 Lubbock 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: 261,078.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Lubbock - the verdict
Nationally, Lubbock sits in the 36th percentile for household income and the 11th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
36th
percentile, household income
42nd
percentile, home value
40th
percentile, median rent
11th
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: Lubbock, TX
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 261,078 residents in Lubbock, a mid-sized U.S. city within Texas. The typical household in Lubbock brings in $60,487 a year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 13.0%. Typical homes in Lubbock are valued around $197,900, and the median resident age is 30.4 years. About 34.9% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 62.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 1,852 residential building permits were authorized in Lubbock (Slowing), down 11% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Lubbock's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 3449.8 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 puts Lubbock's yearly average temperature at 61.4°F with 18.3 inches of precipitation per year and 7.0 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. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,149 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Texas's average monthly utility costs around $223 (state average). 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 Lubbock'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 within-city variation to population change to work and mobility to schools and households to climate and hazard context to comparison shortlist to housing and income to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Lubbock, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, local building permits.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What can 106 Census tracts reveal inside Lubbock?
PlainCities matches 106 Census tracts to this city.
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +14,991 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +5.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 1,852 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
What does the journey to work look like in Lubbock?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 77.3%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Lubbock?
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.
Within Texas, the closest population matches are Laredo (255,949 residents, $63,264 income); Irving (255,036 residents, $79,641 income); Garland (245,298 residents, $74,717 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are St. Petersburg, FL (260,646 residents); Fort Wayne, IN (266,235 residents); Toledo, OH (268,461 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.
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 Lubbock?
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.
The NCES join finds 79 public schools within the city match. 34.9% 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.
Poverty estimate
13.0%
Bachelor's degree+
34.9%
Matched public schools
79
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
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.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 61.4°F, with 18.3 inches of precipitation and 7.0 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.
FEMA risk index (state avg)
49.0
Annual precipitation
18.3 in
Mean temperature
61.4°F
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 Lubbock?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 13.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
3.3×
Home value
$197,900
Household income
$60,487
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Lubbock?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 3449.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 51% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
Total reported rate
3449.8
Violent rate
821.0
Property rate
2628.8
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Below median income · poverty 13.0% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Texas average
F
City profile score · Lubbock, TX
35/100
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 B-
34.9%
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
$60,487
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
13.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
821 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Lubbock profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 66/100 (B-) · 34.9%
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Household income: 35/100 (F) · $60,487
Poverty rate: 28/100 (F) · 13.0%
Violent crime: 1/100 (F) · 821 /100k
Where Lubbock sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Lubbock'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 - Lubbock highlighted among 13 peers.Read the chart values
Lubbock, TX (this city): home $197,900, crime 3,450/100k
St. Petersburg, FL : home $331,500, crime 3,079/100k
Fort Wayne, IN : home $169,700, crime 2,531/100k
Toledo, OH : home $107,000, crime 3,773/100k
Reno, NV : home $498,600, crime 2,975/100k
North Las Vegas, NV : home $372,300, crime 2,350/100k
Chesapeake, VA : home $359,100, crime 2,084/100k
Laredo, TX : home $182,400, crime 1,831/100k
Irving, TX : home $287,300, crime 2,474/100k
Garland, TX : home $248,900, crime 2,221/100k
Plano, TX : home $440,600, crime 1,618/100k
Frisco, TX : home $595,400, crime 1,104/100k
Corpus Christi, TX : home $197,100, crime 3,875/100k
How does Lubbock compare to other US cities?
Lubbock measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income36% higher than other cities
Home value42% pricier than other cities
Median rent40% pricier than other cities
Safety11% 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, Lubbock ranks #581 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 Lubbock 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 Lubbock near the bottom of Texas's cities
Among the 1,663 Texas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Lubbock ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Lubbock only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#837 of 1,520
45th percentile in Texas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,663
0th percentile in Texas
Median Home Value
#559 of 1,505
63rd percentile in Texas
Poverty Rate
#593 of 1,663
64th percentile in Texas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#300 of 1,663
82nd 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
36th percentile nationally for median household income · 11th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Lubbock's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Lubbock'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 Lubbock's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$197,900Among the most affordablemore affordable than 58% 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
Lubbock's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#7,989 of 15,516
More affordable than 49% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#21 of 117
Large cities (200,000–999,999)
At 3.3×, Lubbock sits in the moderate band:
national rank #7,989 of 15,516 and #21 of 117large cities (200,000–999,999).
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
$60,487Lubbock, TX median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Lubbock, 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 Lubbock, TX.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)34.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)13.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)62.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
261,078
Median Income
$60,487
Median Home Value
$197,900
Median Age
30.4
Poverty Rate
13.0%
Labor force participation
62.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
34.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3449.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
821.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2628.8
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
61.4°F
Annual Precipitation
18.3"
Annual Snowfall
7.0"
Schools
Total Schools
79
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Lubbock's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
258,080 residents
2021
261,274 residents
2022
264,296 residents
2023
267,247 residents
2024
270,226 residents
2025
273,071 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Slowing
Total Permits (2024)
1,852
housing units authorized
Single-Family
1,570
detached homes
Multifamily
282
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
7.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
2,086
1,403
683
$363.7M
2020
3,600
1,825
1,775
$547.9M
2021
3,131
2,454
677
$649.1M
2022
2,946
2,036
910
$570.8M
2023
2,193
1,635
558
$463.5M
2024
1,852
1,570
282
$476.5M
Permit volume decreased 11% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
77.3%
Carpool
11.8%
Public Transit
0.7%
Walk
2.0%
Work from Home
6.5%
Other
1.7%
Based on 128,307 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 Lubbock. 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 Lubbock 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 Lubbock sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Lubbock 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.