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Place dossier plate
SheetVA-ARLINGTON-VA · Arlington, VA 235,463 pop · income 92nd pct · 71 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 Arlington
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Arlington on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Richmond · lowest
62,671
Richmond · lowest
62,671 median HH income
35.5% of the leader · rank #1
Arlington · this city
140,160
Arlington · this city
140,160 median HH income
79.5% of the leader · rank #2
McSwain · near
140,173
McSwain · near
140,173 median HH income
79.5% of the leader · rank #3
Leander · near
140,180
Leander · near
140,180 median HH income
79.5% of the leader · rank #4
Jupiter Farms · near
140,213
Jupiter Farms · near
140,213 median HH income
79.5% of the leader · rank #5
Lake Waconda · near
140,221
Lake Waconda · near
140,221 median HH income
79.5% of the leader · rank #6
Fremont · highest
176,350
Fremont · highest
176,350 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 Arlington 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: 235,463.
Arlington ranks in the 92nd percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
92nd
percentile, household income
96th
percentile, home value
62nd
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: Arlington, VA
235,463 people live in Arlington, Virginia - a mid-sized U.S. city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Arlington report a median income of $140,160 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 5.0%. Arlington's housing stock carries a median value of $864,800, and the median resident age is 35.5 years. 77.1% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 73.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 36 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
Virginia tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: the state registers 101.1 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 $1,369 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Virginia run around $235, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Commute times here average 18.2 minutes, with 39.7% driving alone and 31.5% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. Natural-hazard exposure scores 33.3 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Arlington'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 housing and income to comparison shortlist to within-city variation to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Arlington, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history; 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 Arlington?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 39.7%. The reported mean trip to work is 18.2 minutes.
How far does income reach against housing in Arlington?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 6.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 5.0%, 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. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
Which cities make useful reference points for Arlington?
Within Virginia, the closest population matches are Norfolk (235,037 residents, $64,017 income); Richmond (227,595 residents, $62,671 income); Chesapeake (251,153 residents, $94,189 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Boise City, ID (235,701 residents); Enterprise, NV (232,043 residents); Spokane, WA (229,228 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.
What can 71 Census tracts reveal inside Arlington?
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.
PlainCities matches 71 Census tracts to this city.
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 Arlington?
The NCES join finds 36 public schools within the city match. 77.1% 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
36
Bachelor's degree+
77.1%
Poverty estimate
5.0%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Top-decile income · poverty 5.0% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
101.1 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Virginia average
B
City profile score · Arlington, VA
73/100
4 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.
Bachelor's+ share A+
77.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income A+
$140,160
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate B-
5.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Cost of living F
101.1 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Arlington profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 100/100 (A+) · 77.1%
Household income: 93/100 (A+) · $140,160
Poverty rate: 65/100 (B-) · 5.0%
Cost of living: 35/100 (F) · 101.1 index
How does Arlington compare to other US cities?
Here's how Arlington stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income92% higher than other cities
Home value96% pricier than other cities
Median rent62% 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 Arlington against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Virginia only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Virginia-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Arlington near the bottom of Virginia's cities
Among the 619 Virginia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Arlington ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Arlington only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#86 of 558
85th percentile in Virginia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 619
0th percentile in Virginia
Median Home Value
#22 of 567
96th percentile in Virginia
Poverty Rate
#317 of 616
48th percentile in Virginia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#32 of 618
95th percentile in Virginia
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 Virginia only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
92nd percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Arlington's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$864,8004th percentilemore affordable than 4% 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
Arlington's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,224 of 15,516
More affordable than 8% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#94 of 117
Large cities (200,000–999,999)
At 6.2×, Arlington sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,224 of 15,516 and #94 of 117large cities (200,000–999,999).
Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median, a comparison flag, not a verdict on any household.
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
$140,160Arlington, VA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Arlington, VA median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Arlington, VA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)77.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)5.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)73.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
235,463
Median Income
$140,160
Median Home Value
$864,800
Median Age
35.5
Poverty Rate
5.0%
Labor force participation
73.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
77.1%
Schools
Total Schools
36
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
18.2 minutes
Drive Alone
39.7%
Carpool
5.3%
Public Transit
15.9%
Walk
4.3%
Work from Home
31.5%
Other
3.3%
Based on 146,947 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Virginia statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $235
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Virginia at $235 (electricity about $115 , water and sewer about $50 ).
These are Virginia statewide averages, not a meter reading for Arlington. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Virginia's BEA cost-of-living index is 101.1 (Near Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Arlington is $1,369/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Virginia statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 33.3 / 100 (Very Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Virginia statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Arlington sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Arlington compares to similar-size Virginia 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.