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Place dossier plate
SheetTX-MERKEL-TX · Merkel, TX 2,630 pop · income 39th 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 Merkel
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Merkel on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Ruidoso Downs · lowest
31,413
Ruidoso Downs · lowest
31,413 median HH income
19.4% of the leader · rank #1
Hueytown · near
62,362
Hueytown · near
62,362 median HH income
38.6% of the leader · rank #2
Osceola · near
62,363
Osceola · near
62,363 median HH income
38.6% of the leader · rank #3
Lexington · near
62,364
Lexington · near
62,364 median HH income
38.6% of the leader · rank #4
Merkel · this city
62,368
Merkel · this city
62,368 median HH income
38.6% of the leader · rank #5
Mason City · near
62,369
Mason City · near
62,369 median HH income
38.6% of the leader · rank #6
Jarrettsville · highest
161,510
Jarrettsville · highest
161,510 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 Merkel 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: 2,630.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Merkel - the verdict
Merkel ranks in the 39th percentile for household income and the 73rd percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
39th
percentile, household income
9th
percentile, home value
40th
percentile, median rent
73rd
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: Merkel, TX
Merkel is a small town in Texas, home to 2,630 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Merkel brings in $62,368 a year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 10.6%. Home values in Merkel run a median of $99,000, and the median resident age is 36.2 years. Educational attainment runs 12.6% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 59.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 3 residential building permits were authorized in Merkel (Building Boom), up 200% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Merkel reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 785.1 crimes per 100,000 residents, below the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Merkel's yearly average temperature at 63.3°F with 26.5 inches of precipitation per year.
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. Monthly utility costs average around $223 across Texas, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Merkel'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 reported crime to population change to schools and households to housing and income to comparison shortlist to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Merkel, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, 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. Climate and hazard context
What physical conditions frame life in Merkel?
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 63.3°F, with 26.5 inches of precipitation. 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Merkel?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 785.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 66% 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.
Census PEP estimates show the population was unchanged by +0 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 3 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Merkel?
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 Briarcliff (2,630 residents, $129,524 income); Troy (2,628 residents, $81,193 income); Overton (2,633 residents, $76,384 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Montague, MI (2,630 residents); West Newton, PA (2,630 residents); Paia, HI (2,629 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 Merkel?
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 3 public schools within the city match. 12.6% 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.
Poverty estimate
10.6%
Bachelor's degree+
12.6%
Matched public schools
3
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
How far does income reach against housing in Merkel?
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. The ratio makes housing the clearest place to start this profile, but a low multiple can coexist with slow demand, older stock, or household-level hardship. Compare the home-value distribution and same-state peer table before treating it as an advantage.
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 1.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 10.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
1.6×
Home value
$99,000
Household income
$62,368
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 Merkel?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 76.4%. 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
76.4%
Work from home
4.8%
Public transit
0.4%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 1,157 workers age 16+.
Below median income · poverty 10.6% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Texas average
D
City profile score · Merkel, TX
41/100
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
165 /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
$62,368
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
10.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
12.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Merkel profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 55/100 (C) · 165 /100k
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Household income: 38/100 (F) · $62,368
Poverty rate: 37/100 (F) · 10.6%
Bachelor's+ share: 14/100 (F) · 12.6%
Where Merkel sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Merkel'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 - Merkel highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Merkel, TX (this city): home $99,000, crime 785/100k
West Newton, PA : home $130,300, crime 812/100k
Troy, TX : home $188,200, crime 690/100k
Overton, TX : home $114,100, crime 945/100k
Pottsboro, TX : home $246,300, crime 798/100k
Floydada, TX : home $83,400, crime 1,618/100k
Westworth, TX : home $330,000, crime 5,101/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Merkel compare to other US cities?
Merkel measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income39% higher than other cities
Home value9% pricier than other cities
Median rent40% pricier than other cities
Safety73% 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, Merkel ranks #171 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 Merkel 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 Merkel near the bottom of Texas's cities
Among the 1,663 Texas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Merkel ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Merkel only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#791 of 1,520
48th percentile in Texas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,663
0th percentile in Texas
Median Home Value
#1,140 of 1,505
24th percentile in Texas
Poverty Rate
#716 of 1,663
57th percentile in Texas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,110 of 1,663
33rd 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
39th percentile nationally for median household income · 73rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Merkel's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Merkel'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 Merkel's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$99,000Among the most affordablemore affordable than 91% 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
Merkel's home-value-to-income ratio: 1.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#539 of 15,516
More affordable than 97% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#527 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 1.6×, Merkel sits in the affordable band:
national rank #539 of 15,516 and #527 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$62,368Merkel, TX median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Merkel, 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 Merkel, TX.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)12.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)10.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)59.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,630
Median Income
$62,368
Median Home Value
$99,000
Median Age
36.2
Poverty Rate
10.6%
Labor force participation
59.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
12.6%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
785.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
165.3
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
619.8
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
63.3°F
Annual Precipitation
26.5"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Merkel's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,496 residents
2021
2,469 residents
2022
2,466 residents
2023
2,472 residents
2024
2,478 residents
2025
2,496 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
3
housing units authorized
Single-Family
3
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
1
1
0
$0.2M
2020
0
0
0
-
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
3
3
0
$0.3M
2024
3
3
0
$0.3M
Permit volume increased 200% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
76.4%
Carpool
14.3%
Public Transit
0.4%
Walk
2.0%
Work from Home
4.8%
Other
2.1%
Based on 1,157 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 Merkel. 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 Merkel 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 Merkel sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Merkel 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.