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Place dossier plate
SheetTX-SWEETWATER-TX · Sweetwater, TX 10,484 pop · income 14th pct · 5 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 Sweetwater
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Sweetwater on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Brent · lowest
45,708
Brent · lowest
45,708 median HH income
37.1% of the leader · rank #1
Riverdale · near
45,709
Riverdale · near
45,709 median HH income
37.1% of the leader · rank #2
Stanton · near
45,714
Stanton · near
45,714 median HH income
37.1% of the leader · rank #3
McConnelsville · near
45,714
McConnelsville · near
45,714 median HH income
37.1% of the leader · rank #4
Lake Andes · near
45,714
Lake Andes · near
45,714 median HH income
37.1% of the leader · rank #5
Sweetwater · this city
45,720
Sweetwater · this city
45,720 median HH income
37.1% of the leader · rank #6
White Marsh · highest
123,302
White Marsh · highest
123,302 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 Sweetwater 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: 10,484.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Sweetwater - the verdict
Nationally, Sweetwater sits in the 14th percentile for household income and the 42nd percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
14th
percentile, household income
4th
percentile, home value
40th
percentile, median rent
42nd
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: Sweetwater, TX
Texas's Sweetwater is a small town, with 10,484 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $45,720 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 13.4%. Typical homes in Sweetwater are valued around $84,000, and the median resident age is 35.5 years. 11.0% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 59.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 16 residential building permits were authorized in Sweetwater (Building Boom), up 700% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Sweetwater reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 1620.8 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: 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. Workers in Sweetwater report an average commute of 14.0 minutes, with 77.9% driving alone and 3.5% working from home. 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 Sweetwater'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 within-city variation to work and mobility to housing and income to comparison shortlist to reported crime to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Sweetwater, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Population change
Is Sweetwater growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -466 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -4.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 16 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
What can 5 Census tracts reveal inside Sweetwater?
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.
What does the journey to work look like in Sweetwater?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 77.9%. The reported mean trip to work is 14.0 minutes.
Which cities make useful reference points for Sweetwater?
Within Texas, the closest population matches are Bastrop (10,484 residents, $70,625 income); Rockport (10,449 residents, $63,303 income); Galena Park (10,527 residents, $54,167 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Milton, FL (10,485 residents); Cheat Lake, WV (10,485 residents); River Grove, IL (10,482 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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Sweetwater?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 1.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 13.4%, 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. 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.
Household income
$45,720
Home value
$84,000
Value / income
1.8×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Sweetwater?
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 1620.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 29% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1119.8
Violent rate
501.0
Total reported rate
1620.8
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What does the education layer cover for Sweetwater?
The NCES join finds 6 public schools within the city match. 11.0% 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.
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
6
Bachelor's degree+
11.0%
Poverty estimate
13.4%
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.
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.
Poverty rate F
13.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
501 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income F
$45,720
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
11.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Sweetwater profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Poverty rate: 26/100 (F) · 13.4%
Violent crime: 16/100 (F) · 501 /100k
Household income: 14/100 (F) · $45,720
Bachelor's+ share: 9/100 (F) · 11.0%
Where Sweetwater sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Sweetwater'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 - Sweetwater highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Sweetwater, TX (this city): home $84,000, crime 1,621/100k
River Grove, IL : home $244,700, crime 1,532/100k
Reading, OH : home $184,200, crime 2,285/100k
Bastrop, TX : home $308,300, crime 3,665/100k
Rockport, TX : home $288,600, crime 2,018/100k
Galena Park, TX : home $116,400, crime 898/100k
Bellmead, TX : home $117,600, crime 3,641/100k
Fairview, TX : home $544,800, crime 999/100k
Bonham, TX : home $183,600, crime 789/100k
How does Sweetwater compare to other US cities?
Where Sweetwater sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income14% higher than other cities
Home value4% pricier than other cities
Median rent40% pricier than other cities
Safety42% 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, Sweetwater ranks #370 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 Sweetwater 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 Sweetwater near the bottom of Texas's cities
Among the 1,663 Texas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Sweetwater ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Sweetwater only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,240 of 1,520
18th percentile in Texas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,663
0th percentile in Texas
Median Home Value
#1,264 of 1,505
16th percentile in Texas
Poverty Rate
#572 of 1,663
65th percentile in Texas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,208 of 1,663
27th 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
14th percentile nationally for median household income · 42nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Sweetwater's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Sweetwater'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 Sweetwater's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$84,000Among the most affordablemore affordable than 96% 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
Sweetwater's home-value-to-income ratio: 1.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#1,110 of 15,516
More affordable than 93% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#35 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 1.8×, Sweetwater sits in the affordable band:
national rank #1,110 of 15,516 and #35 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
$45,720Sweetwater, TX median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Sweetwater, 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 Sweetwater, TX.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)11.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)13.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)59.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
10,484
Median Income
$45,720
Median Home Value
$84,000
Median Age
35.5
Poverty Rate
13.4%
Labor force participation
59.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
11.0%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1620.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
501.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1119.8
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.
Schools
Total Schools
6
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Sweetwater's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
10,607 residents
2021
10,510 residents
2022
10,377 residents
2023
10,233 residents
2024
10,165 residents
2025
10,141 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
16
housing units authorized
Single-Family
16
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.5
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
2
2
0
$0.4M
2020
4
4
0
$0.7M
2021
1
1
0
$0.2M
2022
4
4
0
$0.6M
2023
16
16
0
$2.3M
2024
16
16
0
$2.8M
Permit volume increased 700% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
14.0 minutes
Drive Alone
77.9%
Carpool
13.5%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
2.0%
Work from Home
3.5%
Other
3.1%
Based on 4,734 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 Sweetwater. 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 Sweetwater 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 Sweetwater sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Sweetwater 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.