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Place dossier plate
SheetTX-MERCEDES-TX · Mercedes, TX 16,449 pop · income 9th 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 Mercedes
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Mercedes on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Donna · lowest
38,082
Donna · lowest
38,082 median HH income
22.6% of the leader · rank #1
Charlotte Har… · near
41,750
Charlotte Har… · near
41,750 median HH income
24.8% of the leader · rank #2
Joppa · near
41,750
Joppa · near
41,750 median HH income
24.8% of the leader · rank #3
Catahoula · near
41,750
Catahoula · near
41,750 median HH income
24.8% of the leader · rank #4
Ridgecrest · near
41,750
Ridgecrest · near
41,750 median HH income
24.8% of the leader · rank #5
Mercedes · this city
41,753
Mercedes · this city
41,753 median HH income
24.8% of the leader · rank #6
Madison · highest
168,469
Madison · highest
168,469 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 Mercedes 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: 16,449.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Mercedes - the verdict
Nationally, Mercedes sits in the 9th percentile for household income and the 10th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
9th
percentile, household income
12th
percentile, home value
40th
percentile, median rent
10th
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: Mercedes, TX
16,449 people live in Mercedes, Texas - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Mercedes households earn a median of $41,753 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 24.5%. Typical homes in Mercedes are valued around $107,700, and the median resident age is 31.4 years. 14.9% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 50.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 268 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 347% from five years earlier. Mercedes's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 3611.0 in FBI UCR data, above the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
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. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Texas run around $223, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Commute times here average 16.2 minutes, with 72.4% driving alone and 8.8% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. 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 Mercedes'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 comparison shortlist to schools and households to housing and income to work and mobility to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Mercedes, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
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.
Question 1
Is Mercedes growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +1,648 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +10.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 268 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Mercedes?
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 Humble (16,489 residents, $52,927 income); Hewitt (16,244 residents, $83,798 income); Sulphur Springs (16,185 residents, $56,457 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are White Oak, MD (16,458 residents); Madison, NJ (16,464 residents); Lemay, MO (16,431 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.
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 15 public schools within the city match. 14.9% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Mercedes?
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 2.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 24.5%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Mercedes?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 72.4%. The reported mean trip to work is 16.2 minutes.
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
72.4%
Work from home
8.8%
Public transit
0.9%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 5,837 workers age 16+.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Mercedes?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 3611.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 58% 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
3611.0
Violent rate
402.5
Property rate
3208.4
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 24.5% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Texas average
F
City profile score · Mercedes, TX
22/100
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.
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 F
403 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
14.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$41,753
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
24.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Mercedes profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Violent crime: 22/100 (F) · 403 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 20/100 (F) · 14.9%
Household income: 9/100 (F) · $41,753
Poverty rate: 7/100 (F) · 24.5%
Where Mercedes sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Mercedes'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 - Mercedes highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Mercedes, TX (this city): home $107,700, crime 3,611/100k
Madison, NJ : home $882,900, crime 421/100k
Havelock, NC : home $186,800, crime 1,780/100k
Jasper, IN : home $203,300, crime 726/100k
Humble, TX : home $191,200, crime 11,303/100k
Hewitt, TX : home $252,200, crime 1,266/100k
Sulphur Springs, TX : home $188,200, crime 912/100k
Pampa, TX : home $95,800, crime 2,451/100k
Taylor, TX : home $246,800, crime 2,301/100k
Donna, TX : home $68,500, crime 6,060/100k
How does Mercedes compare to other US cities?
Here's how Mercedes stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income9% higher than other cities
Home value12% pricier than other cities
Median rent40% pricier than other cities
Safety10% 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, Mercedes ranks #587 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 Mercedes 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 Mercedes near the bottom of Texas's cities
Among the 1,663 Texas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Mercedes ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Mercedes only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,332 of 1,520
12th percentile in Texas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,663
0th percentile in Texas
Median Home Value
#1,077 of 1,505
28th percentile in Texas
Poverty Rate
#203 of 1,663
88th percentile in Texas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#968 of 1,663
41st 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
9th percentile nationally for median household income · 10th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Mercedes's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Mercedes'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 Mercedes's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$107,700Among the most affordablemore affordable than 88% 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
Mercedes's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,401 of 15,516
More affordable than 72% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#421 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.6×, Mercedes sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,401 of 15,516 and #421 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
$41,753Mercedes, TX median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Mercedes, 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 Mercedes, TX.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)14.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)24.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)50.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
16,449
Median Income
$41,753
Median Home Value
$107,700
Median Age
31.4
Poverty Rate
24.5%
Labor force participation
50.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
14.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3611.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
402.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3208.4
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.
Schools
Total Schools
15
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Mercedes's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
16,267 residents
2021
16,307 residents
2022
16,731 residents
2023
16,809 residents
2024
17,490 residents
2025
17,915 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
268
housing units authorized
Single-Family
182
detached homes
Multifamily
86
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
16.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
60
58
2
$5.4M
2020
68
68
0
$6.2M
2021
228
158
70
$16.9M
2022
64
52
12
$7.4M
2023
326
220
106
$74.7M
2024
268
182
86
$59.9M
Permit volume increased 347% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
16.2 minutes
Drive Alone
72.4%
Carpool
10.8%
Public Transit
0.9%
Walk
1.1%
Work from Home
8.8%
Other
6.0%
Based on 5,837 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 Mercedes. 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 Mercedes 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 Mercedes sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Mercedes 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, 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.