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Place dossier plate
SheetTX-VAN-TX · Van, TX 2,751 pop · income 47th 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 Van
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Van on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Galena · lowest
39,968
Galena · lowest
39,968 median HH income
42.6% of the leader · rank #1
Sheboygan Fal… · near
68,264
Sheboygan Fal… · near
68,264 median HH income
72.8% of the leader · rank #2
Van · this city
68,267
Van · this city
68,267 median HH income
72.8% of the leader · rank #3
Auburndale · near
68,267
Auburndale · near
68,267 median HH income
72.8% of the leader · rank #4
Falmouth · near
68,267
Falmouth · near
68,267 median HH income
72.8% of the leader · rank #5
Matheny · near
68,269
Matheny · near
68,269 median HH income
72.8% of the leader · rank #6
Cecil-Bishop · highest
93,750
Cecil-Bishop · highest
93,750 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 Van 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: 2,751.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Van - the verdict
Nationally, Van sits in the 47th percentile for household income and the 62nd percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
47th
percentile, household income
33rd
percentile, home value
40th
percentile, median rent
62nd
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: Van, TX
Texas's Van is a small town, with 2,751 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. The typical household in Van brings in $68,267 a year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 12.9%. Typical homes in Van are valued around $167,900, and the median resident age is 34.0 years. 27.6% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 62.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 8 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 300% from five years earlier. Van reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 1058.7 in FBI UCR data, below 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: the state registers 97.1 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Near Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,149 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $223 across Texas, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Van'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 work and mobility to schools and households to population change to reported crime to housing and income to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Van, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates.
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. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Van?
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 71.3%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
The NCES join finds 5 public schools within the city match. 27.6% 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.
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.
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 +319 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +11.9% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 8 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Which cities make useful reference points for Van?
Within Texas, the closest population matches are Vinton (2,752 residents, $58,542 income); Sonora (2,746 residents, $72,273 income); Hallettsville (2,744 residents, $53,567 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Pine Ridge, PA (2,751 residents); Monterey, TN (2,751 residents); McLeansboro, IL (2,750 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 Van?
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 1058.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 54% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
956.3
Violent rate
102.5
Total reported rate
1058.7
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 2.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 12.9%, 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
$68,267
Home value
$167,900
Value / income
2.5×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Below median income · poverty 12.9% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Texas average
C-
City profile score · Van, TX
50/100
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 B
103 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share C-
27.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
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 D
$68,267
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
12.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Van profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 70/100 (B) · 103 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 54/100 (C-) · 27.6%
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Household income: 47/100 (D) · $68,267
Poverty rate: 28/100 (F) · 12.9%
Where Van sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Van'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 - Van highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Van, TX (this city): home $167,900, crime 1,059/100k
Monterey, TN : home $130,600, crime 1,676/100k
McLeansboro, IL : home $72,200, crime 192/100k
Galena, KS : home $70,600, crime 1,127/100k
New Richmond, OH : home $221,100, crime 216/100k
Sonora, TX : home $130,100, crime 466/100k
Hallettsville, TX : home $154,300, crime 1,446/100k
Sunray, TX : home $130,100, crime 935/100k
How does Van compare to other US cities?
Where Van sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income47% higher than other cities
Home value33% pricier than other cities
Median rent40% pricier than other cities
Safety62% 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, Van ranks #247 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 Van 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 Van near the bottom of Texas's cities
Among the 1,663 Texas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Van ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Van only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#639 of 1,520
58th percentile in Texas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,663
0th percentile in Texas
Median Home Value
#706 of 1,505
53rd percentile in Texas
Poverty Rate
#596 of 1,663
64th percentile in Texas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#438 of 1,663
74th 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
47th percentile nationally for median household income · 62nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Van's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Van'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 Van's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$167,900Among the most affordablemore affordable than 67% 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
Van's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#3,788 of 15,516
More affordable than 76% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,429 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.5×, Van sits in the affordable band:
national rank #3,788 of 15,516 and #3,429 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
$68,267Van, TX median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Van, 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 Van, TX.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)27.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)12.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)62.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,751
Median Income
$68,267
Median Home Value
$167,900
Median Age
34.0
Poverty Rate
12.9%
Labor force participation
62.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
27.6%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1058.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
102.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
956.3
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
5
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Van's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,674 residents
2021
2,740 residents
2022
2,806 residents
2023
2,863 residents
2024
2,960 residents
2025
2,993 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
8
housing units authorized
Single-Family
2
detached homes
Multifamily
6
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2.9
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
9
9
0
$0.9M
2021
13
13
0
$2.7M
2022
11
11
0
$2.2M
2023
19
10
9
$3.8M
2024
8
2
6
$1.4M
Permit volume increased 300% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
71.3%
Carpool
13.7%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
14.4%
Other
0.6%
Based on 1,169 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 Van. 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 Van 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 Van sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Van 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.