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Place dossier plate
SheetTX-WAELDER-TX · Waelder, TX 671 pop · income 32nd 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 Waelder
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Waelder on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Murrayville · lowest
49,615
Murrayville · lowest
49,615 median HH income
40.6% of the leader · rank #1
Hays · near
57,875
Hays · near
57,875 median HH income
47.4% of the leader · rank #2
Oriental · near
57,875
Oriental · near
57,875 median HH income
47.4% of the leader · rank #3
Waelder · this city
57,879
Waelder · this city
57,879 median HH income
47.4% of the leader · rank #4
St. Stephens · near
57,882
St. Stephens · near
57,882 median HH income
47.4% of the leader · rank #5
Fountain Lake · near
57,885
Fountain Lake · near
57,885 median HH income
47.4% of the leader · rank #6
Grey Forest · highest
122,222
Grey Forest · highest
122,222 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 Waelder 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: 671.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Waelder - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Waelder places in the 32nd percentile for household income and the 96th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
32nd
percentile, household income
4th
percentile, home value
40th
percentile, median rent
96th
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: Waelder, TX
Waelder is a small town in Texas, home to 671 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $57,879 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 11.2%. Typical homes in Waelder are valued around $81,300, and the median resident age is 40.4 years. Educational attainment runs 12.2% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 62.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Waelder reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 207.7 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
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. 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. 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 Waelder'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 comparison shortlist to reported crime to housing and income to schools and households to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Waelder, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Waelder?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 70.4%. 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Waelder?
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 Oak Grove (671 residents, $109,107 income); Solis (672 residents); Garza-Salinas II (673 residents). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are East Williston, FL (671 residents); Findlay, IL (671 residents); Murrayville, IL (671 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 can the FBI record say about safety in Waelder?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 207.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 91% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Waelder?
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 1.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 11.2%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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 Waelder?
The matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 12.2% 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.
Poverty estimate
11.2%
Bachelor's degree+
12.2%
Matched public schools
1
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +19 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +2.0% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
2020 estimate
935
2025 estimate
954
Period change
+2.0%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Below median income · poverty 11.2% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Texas average
D
City profile score · Waelder, 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 B
104 /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.
Poverty rate F
11.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$57,879
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
12.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Waelder profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 70/100 (B) · 104 /100k
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Poverty rate: 35/100 (F) · 11.2%
Household income: 31/100 (F) · $57,879
Bachelor's+ share: 12/100 (F) · 12.2%
Where Waelder sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Waelder'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 - Waelder highlighted among 23 peers.Read the chart values
Waelder, TX (this city): home $81,300, crime 208/100k
Findlay, IL : home $90,800, crime 927/100k
Trenton, TX : home $154,500, crime 1,192/100k
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 Waelder compare to other US cities?
Waelder measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income32% higher than other cities
Home value4% pricier than other cities
Median rent40% pricier than other cities
Safety96% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Texas and the picture shifts: Waelder ranks #31 of 624 Texas cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Waelder 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 Waelder near the bottom of Texas's cities
Among the 1,663 Texas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Waelder ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Waelder only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#907 of 1,520
40th percentile in Texas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,663
0th percentile in Texas
Median Home Value
#1,289 of 1,505
14th percentile in Texas
Poverty Rate
#689 of 1,663
58th percentile in Texas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,133 of 1,663
32nd 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
32nd percentile nationally for median household income · 96th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Waelder's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Waelder'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 Waelder's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$81,300Among 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
Waelder's home-value-to-income ratio: 1.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#275 of 15,516
More affordable than 98% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#271 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 1.4×, Waelder sits in the affordable band:
national rank #275 of 15,516 and #271 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
$57,879Waelder, TX median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Waelder, 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 Waelder, TX.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)12.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)11.2%
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
671
Median Income
$57,879
Median Home Value
$81,300
Median Age
40.4
Poverty Rate
11.2%
Labor force participation
62.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
12.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
207.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
103.8
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
103.8
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
1
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Waelder's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
935 residents
2021
934 residents
2022
942 residents
2023
949 residents
2024
955 residents
2025
954 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
70.4%
Carpool
6.0%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
12.3%
Work from Home
11.2%
Based on 365 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 Waelder. 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 Waelder 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 Waelder sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Waelder 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 ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.