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Place dossier plate
SheetUT-VERNAL-UT · Vernal, UT 10,254 pop · income 34th pct · 8 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 Vernal
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Vernal on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Raymondville · lowest
42,148
Raymondville · lowest
42,148 median HH income
26.9% of the leader · rank #1
Huslia · near
59,167
Huslia · near
59,167 median HH income
37.7% of the leader · rank #2
Mount Carroll · near
59,167
Mount Carroll · near
59,167 median HH income
37.7% of the leader · rank #3
Rocky Boy's A… · near
59,175
Rocky Boy's A… · near
59,175 median HH income
37.7% of the leader · rank #4
Vernal · this city
59,178
Vernal · this city
59,178 median HH income
37.7% of the leader · rank #5
Kansas City · near
59,183
Kansas City · near
59,183 median HH income
37.7% of the leader · rank #6
Alpine · highest
156,786
Alpine · highest
156,786 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 Vernal 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: 10,254.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Vernal - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Vernal lands in the 34th percentile for household income and the 12th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
34th
percentile, household income
52nd
percentile, home value
60th
percentile, median rent
12th
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: Vernal, UT
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 10,254 residents in Vernal, a small town within Utah. Median household income here is $59,178 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 15.1%. Home values in Vernal run a median of $234,200, and the median resident age is 29.3 years. 14.6% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 58.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 25 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 127% from five years earlier. Vernal's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 3321.5 crimes per 100,000 residents, above the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 46.9°F with 9.1 inches of precipitation per year and 20.4 inches of snowfall.
Utah tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Utah at 98.9 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Near Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,313 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $178 across Utah, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Workers in Vernal report an average commute of 16.8 minutes, with 76.1% driving alone and 3.7% working from home. Natural-hazard exposure scores 36.2 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Vernal'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 climate and hazard context to work and mobility to schools and households to reported crime to population change to housing and income to comparison shortlist to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Vernal, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What physical conditions frame life in Vernal?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 46.9°F, with 9.1 inches of precipitation and 20.4 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Utah is 36.2 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
What does the journey to work look like in Vernal?
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 76.1%. The reported mean trip to work is 16.8 minutes.
Which cities make useful reference points for Vernal?
Within Utah, the closest population matches are Alpine (10,272 residents, $156,786 income); Hyrum (10,022 residents, $85,557 income); Cedar Hills (9,945 residents, $137,527 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Franklin, KY (10,254 residents); Elkhorn, WI (10,259 residents); Carroll, IA (10,261 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.
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.
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 Vernal?
The NCES join finds 12 public schools within the city match. 14.6% 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.
Matched public schools
12
Bachelor's degree+
14.6%
Poverty estimate
15.1%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Vernal?
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 3321.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 46% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
3041.6
Violent rate
279.9
Total reported rate
3321.5
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger 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 +585 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +5.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 25 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+5.8%
2025 estimate
10,671
2020 estimate
10,086
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
How far does income reach against housing in Vernal?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 4.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 15.1%, 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. 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.
Household income
$59,178
Home value
$234,200
Value / income
4.0×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Below median income · poverty 15.1% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
98.9 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Utah average
F
City profile score · Vernal, UT
32/100
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 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.
Violent crime F
280 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income F
$59,178
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
15.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
14.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Vernal profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 44/100 (D) · 98.9 index
Violent crime: 36/100 (F) · 280 /100k
Household income: 33/100 (F) · $59,178
Poverty rate: 22/100 (F) · 15.1%
Bachelor's+ share: 19/100 (F) · 14.6%
Where Vernal sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Vernal'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 - Vernal highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Vernal, UT (this city): home $234,200, crime 3,322/100k
Franklin, KY : home $170,400, crime 1,023/100k
Elkhorn, WI : home $255,300, crime 597/100k
Carroll, IA : home $184,100, crime 1,018/100k
Raymondville, TX : home $48,200, crime 2,852/100k
Salem, UT : home $547,000, crime 312/100k
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 Vernal compare to other US cities?
Vernal measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income34% higher than other cities
Home value52% pricier than other cities
Median rent60% pricier than other cities
Safety12% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Utah and the picture shifts: Vernal ranks #63 of 67 Utah cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Vernal 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 Vernal near the bottom of Utah's cities
Among the 310 Utah cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Vernal ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Vernal only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#260 of 293
11th percentile in Utah
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 310
0th percentile in Utah
Median Home Value
#256 of 301
15th percentile in Utah
Poverty Rate
#29 of 310
91st percentile in Utah
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#258 of 310
16th 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
34th percentile nationally for median household income · 12th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Vernal's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Vernal'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 Vernal's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$234,20048th percentilemore affordable than 48% 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
Vernal's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,581 of 15,516
More affordable than 32% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,946 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 4.0×, Vernal sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,581 of 15,516 and #1,946 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$59,178Vernal, UT median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Vernal, 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 Vernal, UT.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)14.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)15.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)58.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
10,254
Median Income
$59,178
Median Home Value
$234,200
Median Age
29.3
Poverty Rate
15.1%
Labor force participation
58.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
14.6%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3321.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
279.9
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3041.6
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
46.9°F
Annual Precipitation
9.1"
Annual Snowfall
20.4"
Schools
Total Schools
12
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Vernal's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
10,086 residents
2021
10,206 residents
2022
10,436 residents
2023
10,589 residents
2024
10,645 residents
2025
10,671 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
25
housing units authorized
Single-Family
15
detached homes
Multifamily
10
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
11
11
0
$2.3M
2020
4
4
0
$0.8M
2021
18
18
0
$3.8M
2022
13
11
2
$3.5M
2023
19
9
10
$4.5M
2024
25
15
10
$6.0M
Permit volume increased 127% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
16.8 minutes
Drive Alone
76.1%
Carpool
12.3%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
6.2%
Work from Home
3.7%
Other
1.7%
Based on 4,154 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 Vernal. 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 Vernal 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 Vernal sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Vernal 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, FBI UCR, NOAA Climate Normals, 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.