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Place dossier plate
SheetTX-WEST-COLUMBIA-TX · West Columbia, TX 3,631 pop · income 10th 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 West Columbia
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest West Columbia on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Escatawpa · lowest
35,313
Escatawpa · lowest
35,313 median HH income
22.2% of the leader · rank #1
Hinckley · near
41,979
Hinckley · near
41,979 median HH income
26.4% of the leader · rank #2
Attica · near
41,981
Attica · near
41,981 median HH income
26.4% of the leader · rank #3
West Columbia · this city
41,985
West Columbia · this city
41,985 median HH income
26.4% of the leader · rank #4
Merrydale · near
41,986
Merrydale · near
41,986 median HH income
26.4% of the leader · rank #5
Bassett · near
41,992
Bassett · near
41,992 median HH income
26.4% of the leader · rank #6
Shavano Park · highest
158,969
Shavano Park · highest
158,969 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 West Columbia 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: 3,631.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
West Columbia - the verdict
Nationally, West Columbia sits in the 10th percentile for household income and the 38th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
10th
percentile, household income
23rd
percentile, home value
40th
percentile, median rent
38th
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: West Columbia, TX
Texas's West Columbia is a small town, with 3,631 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in West Columbia report a median income of $41,985 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 7.2%. West Columbia's housing stock carries a median value of $138,200, and the median resident age is 36.4 years. 16.6% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 67.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 11 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Growing), up 10% from five years earlier. West Columbia reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 1745.2 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).
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. 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 West Columbia'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 housing and income to work and mobility to population change to comparison shortlist to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For West Columbia, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, 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. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for West Columbia?
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 3 public schools within the city match. 16.6% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in West Columbia?
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 3.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 7.2%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What does the journey to work look like in West Columbia?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 87.6%. 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. The profile is strongly car-oriented, so a relocation comparison should put trip distance, vehicle access, and household fuel costs ahead of a citywide commute average. The same-state peer links offer a more relevant benchmark than a national label.
Which cities make useful reference points for West Columbia?
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 Eastland (3,631 residents, $51,334 income); Groesbeck (3,634 residents, $54,615 income); Howe (3,638 residents, $57,417 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Beaver, UT (3,632 residents); Gravette, AR (3,629 residents); Combined Locks, WI (3,633 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.
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 West Columbia growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +4 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 11 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
2020 estimate
3,632
2025 estimate
3,636
Period change
+0.1%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What can the FBI record say about safety in West Columbia?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1745.2 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 23% 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
1745.2
Violent rate
277.0
Property rate
1468.1
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 7.2% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Texas average
F
City profile score · West Columbia, TX
34/100
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.
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 C-
7.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
277 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
16.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$41,985
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
West Columbia profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Poverty rate: 51/100 (C-) · 7.2%
Violent crime: 36/100 (F) · 277 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 24/100 (F) · 16.6%
Household income: 9/100 (F) · $41,985
Where West Columbia sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
West Columbia'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 - West Columbia highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
West Columbia, TX (this city): home $138,200, crime 1,745/100k
Gravette, AR : home $189,100, crime 1,652/100k
Johnson, AR : home $255,500, crime 1,923/100k
Eastland, TX : home $175,800, crime 1,696/100k
Groesbeck, TX : home $144,100, crime 1,499/100k
Howe, TX : home $190,000, crime 244/100k
Laguna Vista, TX : home $267,500, crime 683/100k
Shavano Park, TX : home $838,800, crime 1,215/100k
Ballinger, TX : home $109,000, crime 785/100k
How does West Columbia compare to other US cities?
Here's how West Columbia stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income10% higher than other cities
Home value23% pricier than other cities
Median rent40% pricier than other cities
Safety38% 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: West Columbia ranks #405 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 West Columbia 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 West Columbia near the bottom of Texas's cities
Among the 1,663 Texas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, West Columbia ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares West Columbia only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,324 of 1,520
13th percentile in Texas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,663
0th percentile in Texas
Median Home Value
#875 of 1,505
42nd percentile in Texas
Poverty Rate
#942 of 1,663
43rd percentile in Texas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#853 of 1,663
48th 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
10th percentile nationally for median household income · 38th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
West Columbia's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
West Columbia'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 West Columbia's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$138,200Among the most affordablemore affordable than 77% 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
West Columbia'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
#8,086 of 15,516
More affordable than 48% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#6,623 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.3×, West Columbia sits in the moderate band:
national rank #8,086 of 15,516 and #6,623 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$41,985West Columbia, TX median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context West Columbia, 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 West Columbia, TX.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)16.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)7.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)67.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
3,631
Median Income
$41,985
Median Home Value
$138,200
Median Age
36.4
Poverty Rate
7.2%
Labor force participation
67.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
16.6%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1745.2
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
277.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1468.1
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
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
West Columbia's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
3,632 residents
2021
3,611 residents
2022
3,602 residents
2023
3,627 residents
2024
3,647 residents
2025
3,636 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Growing
Total Permits (2024)
11
housing units authorized
Single-Family
8
detached homes
Multifamily
3
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
10
7
3
$1.2M
2020
10
10
0
$1.4M
2021
9
6
3
$1.2M
2022
12
12
0
$1.6M
2023
9
7
2
$1.4M
2024
11
8
3
$1.5M
Permit volume increased 10% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
87.6%
Carpool
4.9%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
7.5%
Based on 1,645 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 West Columbia. 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 West Columbia 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 West Columbia sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How West Columbia 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.