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Place dossier plate
SheetTX-SUGAR-LAND-TX · Sugar Land, TX 109,735 pop · income 92nd pct · 133 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 Sugar Land
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Sugar Land on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Ponce zona ur… · lowest
18,650
Ponce zona ur… · lowest
18,650 median HH income
13.6% of the leader · rank #1
Leesylvania · near
137,460
Leesylvania · near
137,460 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #2
Brookeville · near
137,500
Brookeville · near
137,500 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #3
Sugar Land · this city
137,511
Sugar Land · this city
137,511 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #4
Cedar Hills · near
137,527
Cedar Hills · near
137,527 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #5
Spokane Creek · near
137,552
Spokane Creek · near
137,552 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #6
Cutchogue · highest
137,581
Cutchogue · highest
137,581 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 Sugar Land 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: 109,735.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Sugar Land - the verdict
Nationally, Sugar Land sits in the 92nd percentile for household income and the 47th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
92nd
percentile, household income
78th
percentile, home value
40th
percentile, median rent
47th
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: Sugar Land, TX
Texas's Sugar Land is a mid-sized U.S. city, with 109,735 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $137,511 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 3.9%. Home values in Sugar Land run a median of $406,600, and the median resident age is 42.5 years. Educational attainment runs 62.4% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 61.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 67 residential building permits were authorized in Sugar Land (Construction Slowdown), down 46% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Sugar Land reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 1461.6 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). The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 70.6°F with 51.1 inches of precipitation per year.
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. 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 Sugar Land'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 schools and households to comparison shortlist to climate and hazard context to population change to housing and income to within-city variation 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 Sugar Land, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, annual population history.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Sugar Land?
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 32 public schools within the city match. 62.4% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Sugar Land?
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 Tyler (107,718 residents, $65,527 income); Allen (107,684 residents, $129,130 income); Beaumont (113,710 residents, $57,530 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Ponce zona urbana, PR (109,765 residents); Santa Maria, CA (109,880 residents); San Buenaventura (Ventura), CA (109,900 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.
What physical conditions frame life in Sugar Land?
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 70.6°F, with 51.1 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 133 Census tracts reveal inside Sugar Land?
PlainCities matches 133 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.
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.
Population change
Is Sugar Land growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -3,093 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 67 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 downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
2020 estimate
110,819
2025 estimate
107,726
Period change
-2.8%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
How far does income reach against housing in Sugar Land?
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 3.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.9%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
3.0×
Home value
$406,600
Household income
$137,511
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 Sugar Land?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 69.4%. 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. 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.
Drive alone
69.4%
Work from home
20.0%
Public transit
0.6%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 53,424 workers age 16+.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Sugar Land?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1461.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 36% 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
1461.6
Violent rate
78.0
Property rate
1383.7
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Top-decile income · poverty 3.9% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Texas average
B+
City profile score · Sugar Land, TX
77/100
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 A+
62.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income A+
$137,511
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime B+
78 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate B
3.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better 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.
Sugar Land profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 93/100 (A+) · 62.4%
Household income: 92/100 (A+) · $137,511
Violent crime: 76/100 (B+) · 78 /100k
Poverty rate: 72/100 (B) · 3.9%
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Where Sugar Land sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Sugar Land'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 - Sugar Land highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Sugar Land, TX (this city): home $406,600, crime 1,462/100k
Santa Maria, CA : home $478,200, crime 2,543/100k
Greeley, CO : home $369,600, crime 3,690/100k
South Fulton, GA : home $270,600, crime 2,378/100k
Sparks, NV : home $455,900, crime 2,978/100k
Tyler, TX : home $216,400, crime 2,305/100k
Allen, TX : home $429,900, crime 985/100k
Beaumont, TX : home $158,800, crime 4,440/100k
Odessa, TX : home $208,000, crime 2,159/100k
League City, TX : home $334,000, crime 1,264/100k
Edinburg, TX : home $174,800, crime 2,027/100k
How does Sugar Land compare to other US cities?
Where Sugar Land sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income92% higher than other cities
Home value78% pricier than other cities
Median rent40% pricier than other cities
Safety47% 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, Sugar Land ranks #334 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 Sugar Land 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 Sugar Land near the bottom of Texas's cities
Among the 1,663 Texas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Sugar Land ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Sugar Land only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#98 of 1,520
94th percentile in Texas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,663
0th percentile in Texas
Median Home Value
#131 of 1,505
91st percentile in Texas
Poverty Rate
#1,210 of 1,663
27th percentile in Texas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#65 of 1,663
96th 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
92nd percentile nationally for median household income · 47th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Sugar Land's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Sugar Land'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 Sugar Land's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$406,60022nd percentilemore affordable than 22% 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
Sugar Land's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#6,456 of 15,516
More affordable than 58% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#110 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 3.0×, Sugar Land sits in the affordable band:
national rank #6,456 of 15,516 and #110 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
$137,511Sugar Land, TX median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Sugar Land, 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 Sugar Land, TX.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)62.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)61.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
109,735
Median Income
$137,511
Median Home Value
$406,600
Median Age
42.5
Poverty Rate
3.9%
Labor force participation
61.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
62.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1461.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
78.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1383.7
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
70.6°F
Annual Precipitation
51.1"
Annual Snowfall
0.0"
Schools
Total Schools
32
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Sugar Land's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
110,819 residents
2021
109,678 residents
2022
109,843 residents
2023
109,289 residents
2024
108,937 residents
2025
107,726 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
67
housing units authorized
Single-Family
67
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.6
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
124
124
0
$36.9M
2020
148
148
0
$52.7M
2021
151
151
0
$50.7M
2022
136
136
0
$46.6M
2023
196
36
160
$57.5M
2024
67
67
0
$19.3M
Permit volume decreased 46% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
69.4%
Carpool
8.5%
Public Transit
0.6%
Walk
0.4%
Work from Home
20.0%
Other
1.1%
Based on 53,424 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 Sugar Land. 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 Sugar Land 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 Sugar Land sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Sugar Land 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.