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Place dossier plate
SheetTX-MCALLEN-TX · McAllen, TX 143,789 pop · income 35th pct · 212 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 McAllen
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest McAllen on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Gainesville · lowest
45,611
Gainesville · lowest
45,611 median HH income
40.3% of the leader · rank #1
Tallula · near
60,156
Tallula · near
60,156 median HH income
53.2% of the leader · rank #2
Ashton · near
60,156
Ashton · near
60,156 median HH income
53.2% of the leader · rank #3
McAllen · this city
60,165
McAllen · this city
60,165 median HH income
53.2% of the leader · rank #4
Troy · near
60,167
Troy · near
60,167 median HH income
53.2% of the leader · rank #5
Reading · near
60,167
Reading · near
60,167 median HH income
53.2% of the leader · rank #6
Torrance · highest
113,105
Torrance · highest
113,105 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 McAllen 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: 143,789.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
McAllen - the verdict
Nationally, McAllen sits in the 35th percentile for household income and the 33rd percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
35th
percentile, household income
35th
percentile, home value
40th
percentile, median rent
33rd
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: McAllen, TX
McAllen is a mid-sized U.S. city in Texas, home to 143,789 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $60,165 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 17.8%. Typical homes in McAllen are valued around $173,800, and the median resident age is 34.0 years. About 32.0% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 58.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 1,722 residential building permits were authorized in McAllen (Building Boom), up 99% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1985.6 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, near the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA puts McAllen's yearly average temperature at 75.5°F with 18.7 inches of precipitation per year and 0.1 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). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,149 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Texas run around $223, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. 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 McAllen'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 climate and hazard context to population change to reported crime to schools and households to work and mobility to within-city variation to housing and income to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For McAllen, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, local building permits.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Climate and hazard context
What physical conditions frame life in McAllen?
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 75.5°F, with 18.7 inches of precipitation and 0.1 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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +8,245 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +5.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 1,722 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.
PlainCities matches 212 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for McAllen?
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 Waco (141,925 residents, $51,468 income); Denton (146,987 residents, $73,719 income); Mesquite (148,848 residents, $71,843 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Olathe, KS (143,720 residents); Gainesville, FL (143,611 residents); Torrance, CA (143,499 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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in McAllen?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1985.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 13% lower 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
1985.6
Violent rate
150.0
Property rate
1835.6
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
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 44 public schools within the city match. 32.0% 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
17.8%
Bachelor's degree+
32.0%
Matched public schools
44
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in McAllen?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 72.2%. 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.
Drive alone
72.2%
Work from home
11.5%
Public transit
0.5%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 62,501 workers age 16+.
How far does income reach against housing in McAllen?
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 2.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 17.8%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
2.9×
Home value
$173,800
Household income
$60,165
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Below median income · poverty 17.8% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Texas average
D
City profile score · McAllen, TX
44/100
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+
32.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime C
150 /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.
Household income F
$60,165
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
17.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
McAllen profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 61/100 (C+) · 32.0%
Violent crime: 58/100 (C) · 150 /100k
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Household income: 35/100 (F) · $60,165
Poverty rate: 17/100 (F) · 17.8%
Where McAllen sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
McAllen'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 - McAllen highlighted among 13 peers.Read the chart values
McAllen, TX (this city): home $173,800, crime 1,986/100k
Olathe, KS : home $340,600, crime 1,137/100k
Gainesville, FL : home $235,000, crime 3,442/100k
Torrance, CA : home $1,036,600, crime 3,087/100k
Thornton, CO : home $482,200, crime 3,109/100k
Visalia, CA : home $340,600, crime 2,566/100k
Syracuse, NY : home $125,100, crime 5,000/100k
Waco, TX : home $199,600, crime 2,552/100k
Denton, TX : home $325,700, crime 1,949/100k
Mesquite, TX : home $226,500, crime 3,478/100k
Pasadena, TX : home $193,600, crime 2,918/100k
Midland, TX : home $298,600, crime 1,977/100k
Carrollton, TX : home $353,600, crime 1,453/100k
How does McAllen compare to other US cities?
Where McAllen sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income35% higher than other cities
Home value35% pricier than other cities
Median rent40% pricier than other cities
Safety33% 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, McAllen ranks #452 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 McAllen 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 McAllen near the bottom of Texas's cities
Among the 1,663 Texas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, McAllen ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares McAllen only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#848 of 1,520
44th percentile in Texas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,663
0th percentile in Texas
Median Home Value
#674 of 1,505
55th percentile in Texas
Poverty Rate
#393 of 1,663
76th percentile in Texas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#346 of 1,663
79th 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
35th percentile nationally for median household income · 33rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
McAllen's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
McAllen'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 McAllen's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$173,800Among the most affordablemore affordable than 65% 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
McAllen's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#6,050 of 15,516
More affordable than 61% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#100 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 2.9×, McAllen sits in the affordable band:
national rank #6,050 of 15,516 and #100 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
$60,165McAllen, TX median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context McAllen, 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 McAllen, TX.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)32.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)17.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)58.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
143,789
Median Income
$60,165
Median Home Value
$173,800
Median Age
34.0
Poverty Rate
17.8%
Labor force participation
58.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
32.0%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1985.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
150.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1835.6
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
75.5°F
Annual Precipitation
18.7"
Annual Snowfall
0.1"
Schools
Total Schools
44
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
McAllen's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
142,395 residents
2021
143,739 residents
2022
144,703 residents
2023
147,125 residents
2024
148,655 residents
2025
150,640 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
1,722
housing units authorized
Single-Family
669
detached homes
Multifamily
1,053
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
12
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
865
536
329
$100.7M
2020
1,096
530
566
$180.0M
2021
1,012
807
205
$195.8M
2022
1,330
663
667
$217.1M
2023
1,181
428
753
$167.9M
2024
1,722
669
1,053
$229.0M
Permit volume increased 99% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
72.2%
Carpool
10.4%
Public Transit
0.5%
Walk
0.9%
Work from Home
11.5%
Other
4.5%
Based on 62,501 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 McAllen. 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 McAllen 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 McAllen sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How McAllen 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.