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Place dossier plate
SheetUT-TROPIC-UT · Tropic, UT 537 pop · income 42nd 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 Tropic
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Tropic on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Florence · lowest
40,125
Florence · lowest
40,125 median HH income
29.3% of the leader · rank #1
Tropic · this city
64,375
Tropic · this city
64,375 median HH income
47.0% of the leader · rank #2
Franklin · near
64,375
Franklin · near
64,375 median HH income
47.0% of the leader · rank #3
Greenleaf · near
64,375
Greenleaf · near
64,375 median HH income
47.0% of the leader · rank #4
Lake of the W… · near
64,375
Lake of the W… · near
64,375 median HH income
47.0% of the leader · rank #5
Lake City · near
64,375
Lake City · near
64,375 median HH income
47.0% of the leader · rank #6
Mulford · highest
136,923
Mulford · highest
136,923 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Tropic on ACS population and median household income
. 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: 537.
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Tropic places in the 42nd percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
42nd
percentile, household income
49th
percentile, home value
60th
percentile, median rent
📝 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: Tropic, UT
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 537 residents in Tropic, a small town within Utah. The typical household in Tropic brings in $64,375 a year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 1.8%. Home values in Tropic run a median of $223,000, and the median resident age is 42.8 years. About 24.3% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 58.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 2 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
Utah tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Utah scores 98.9 (Near Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,313 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $178 across Utah, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 36.2 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Tropic'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 housing and income to population change to comparison shortlist to schools and households to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Tropic, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Tropic?
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 3.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 1.8%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +15 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +3.1% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Tropic?
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.
Within Utah, the closest population matches are Trenton (534 residents, $83,000 income); Garden City (545 residents, $62,750 income); Joseph (546 residents, $80,000 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Bend, CA (537 residents); Davenport, CA (537 residents); Mulford, CO (537 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.
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 2 public schools within the city match. 24.3% 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.
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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Tropic?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 77.1%. 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.
Drive alone
77.1%
Work from home
2.1%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 240 workers age 16+.
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.
Poverty rate A
1.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share D
24.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Cost of living D
98.9 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
$64,375
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Tropic profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 87/100 (A) · 1.8%
Bachelor's+ share: 47/100 (D) · 24.3%
Cost of living: 44/100 (D) · 98.9 index
Household income: 41/100 (D) · $64,375
How does Tropic compare to other US cities?
Here's how Tropic stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income42% higher than other cities
Home value49% pricier than other cities
Median rent60% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Tropic against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Utah only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Utah-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Tropic near the bottom of Utah's cities
Among the 310 Utah cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Tropic ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Tropic only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#244 of 293
17th percentile in Utah
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 310
0th percentile in Utah
Median Home Value
#263 of 301
13th percentile in Utah
Poverty Rate
#227 of 310
26th percentile in Utah
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#185 of 310
40th percentile in Utah
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 Utah only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
42nd percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Tropic's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$223,000Among the most affordablemore affordable than 51% 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
Tropic's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#8,831 of 15,516
More affordable than 43% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#7,144 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.5×, Tropic sits in the moderate band:
national rank #8,831 of 15,516 and #7,144 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
$64,375Tropic, UT median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Tropic, UT median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Tropic, UT.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)24.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)1.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)58.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
537
Median Income
$64,375
Median Home Value
$223,000
Median Age
42.8
Poverty Rate
1.8%
Labor force participation
58.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
24.3%
Schools
Total Schools
2
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Tropic's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
482 residents
2021
484 residents
2022
499 residents
2023
505 residents
2024
505 residents
2025
497 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
77.1%
Carpool
14.2%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
6.7%
Work from Home
2.1%
Based on 240 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Utah statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $178
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Utah at $178 (electricity about $85 , water and sewer about $45 ).
These are Utah statewide averages, not a meter reading for Tropic. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Utah's BEA cost-of-living index is 98.9 (Near Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Tropic is $1,313/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Utah statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 36.2 / 100 (Very Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Utah statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Tropic sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Tropic compares to similar-size Utah 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, 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.