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Place dossier plate
SheetTX-ROCKWALL-TX · Rockwall, TX 49,605 pop · income 85th 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 Rockwall
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Rockwall on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Huntsville · lowest
45,401
Huntsville · lowest
45,401 median HH income
34.0% of the leader · rank #1
Mahomet · near
114,904
Mahomet · near
114,904 median HH income
86.1% of the leader · rank #2
Diamond Beach · near
114,914
Diamond Beach · near
114,914 median HH income
86.2% of the leader · rank #3
Cheshire · near
114,923
Cheshire · near
114,923 median HH income
86.2% of the leader · rank #4
Rockwall · this city
114,926
Rockwall · this city
114,926 median HH income
86.2% of the leader · rank #5
Marthasville · near
114,950
Marthasville · near
114,950 median HH income
86.2% of the leader · rank #6
Chesterfield · highest
133,380
Chesterfield · highest
133,380 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 Rockwall 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: 49,605.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Rockwall - the verdict
Nationally, Rockwall sits in the 85th percentile for household income and the 45th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
85th
percentile, household income
76th
percentile, home value
40th
percentile, median rent
45th
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: Rockwall, TX
49,605 people live in Rockwall, Texas - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Rockwall households earn a median of $114,926 annually, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 3.4%. Typical homes in Rockwall are valued around $382,400, and the median resident age is 39.6 years. Educational attainment runs 49.2% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 67.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 319 residential building permits were authorized in Rockwall (Construction Slowdown), down 42% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Rockwall reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 1519.2 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Texas tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: the state registers 97.1 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Near Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. 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). 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 Rockwall'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 work and mobility to housing and income to reported crime to comparison shortlist to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Rockwall, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, commute-mode shares.
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 Rockwall growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +6,240 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +13.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 319 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 journey to work look like in Rockwall?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 72.4%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
How far does income reach against housing in Rockwall?
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 3.4%, 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. 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Rockwall?
Within Texas, the closest population matches are Bedford (49,191 residents, $81,393 income); Cedar Hill (48,547 residents, $90,608 income); Grapevine (50,875 residents, $111,438 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Chesterfield, MO (49,591 residents); St. Louis Park, MN (49,541 residents); Florin, CA (49,536 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 Rockwall?
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 1519.2 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 33% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1373.1
Violent rate
146.1
Total reported rate
1519.2
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
The NCES join finds 16 public schools within the city match. 49.2% 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.
Matched public schools
16
Bachelor's degree+
49.2%
Poverty estimate
3.4%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
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.
Household income A-
$114,926
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share A-
49.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate B+
3.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime C
146 /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.
Rockwall profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 84/100 (A-) · $114,926
Bachelor's+ share: 83/100 (A-) · 49.2%
Poverty rate: 76/100 (B+) · 3.4%
Violent crime: 59/100 (C) · 146 /100k
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Where Rockwall sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Rockwall'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 - Rockwall highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Rockwall, TX (this city): home $382,400, crime 1,519/100k
Chesterfield, MO : home $458,000, crime 1,382/100k
St. Louis Park, MN : home $371,600, crime 3,507/100k
Cypress, CA : home $870,100, crime 1,875/100k
Bedford, TX : home $322,300, crime 1,691/100k
Cedar Hill, TX : home $273,200, crime 1,953/100k
Grapevine, TX : home $470,400, crime 2,244/100k
Burleson, TX : home $282,900, crime 1,260/100k
Little Elm, TX : home $390,300, crime 557/100k
Huntsville, TX : home $225,800, crime 2,045/100k
How does Rockwall compare to other US cities?
Where Rockwall sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income85% higher than other cities
Home value76% pricier than other cities
Median rent40% pricier than other cities
Safety45% 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, Rockwall ranks #344 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 Rockwall 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 Rockwall near the bottom of Texas's cities
Among the 1,663 Texas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Rockwall ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Rockwall only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#163 of 1,520
89th percentile in Texas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,663
0th percentile in Texas
Median Home Value
#153 of 1,505
90th percentile in Texas
Poverty Rate
#1,240 of 1,663
25th percentile in Texas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#141 of 1,663
92nd 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
85th percentile nationally for median household income · 45th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Rockwall's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Rockwall'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 Rockwall's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$382,40024th percentilemore affordable than 24% 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
Rockwall'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
#8,248 of 15,516
More affordable than 47% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,319 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.3×, Rockwall sits in the moderate band:
national rank #8,248 of 15,516 and #1,319 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$114,926Rockwall, TX median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Rockwall, 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 Rockwall, TX.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)49.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)67.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
49,605
Median Income
$114,926
Median Home Value
$382,400
Median Age
39.6
Poverty Rate
3.4%
Labor force participation
67.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
49.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1519.2
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
146.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1373.1
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
16
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Rockwall's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
47,740 residents
2021
49,788 residents
2022
51,609 residents
2023
53,004 residents
2024
53,503 residents
2025
53,980 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
319
housing units authorized
Single-Family
319
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
6.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
546
258
288
$109.0M
2020
763
388
375
$135.9M
2021
989
427
562
$172.5M
2022
261
261
0
$65.3M
2023
164
164
0
$45.5M
2024
319
319
0
$91.6M
Permit volume decreased 42% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
72.4%
Carpool
6.2%
Public Transit
0.3%
Walk
0.8%
Work from Home
19.2%
Other
1.1%
Based on 25,650 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 Rockwall. 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 Rockwall 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 Rockwall sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Rockwall 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.