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Place dossier plate
SheetVA-BLAIRS-VA · Blairs, VA 1,001 pop · income 16th 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 Blairs
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Blairs on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Garrison · lowest
39,167
Garrison · lowest
39,167 median HH income
29.1% of the leader · rank #1
Decatur · near
47,258
Decatur · near
47,258 median HH income
35.1% of the leader · rank #2
Lady Lake · near
47,260
Lady Lake · near
47,260 median HH income
35.1% of the leader · rank #3
Blairs · this city
47,262
Blairs · this city
47,262 median HH income
35.1% of the leader · rank #4
Millville · near
47,262
Millville · near
47,262 median HH income
35.1% of the leader · rank #5
Gantt · near
47,265
Gantt · near
47,265 median HH income
35.1% of the leader · rank #6
Simonton · highest
134,750
Simonton · highest
134,750 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 Blairs 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: 1,001.
Blairs ranks in the 16th percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
16th
percentile, household income
31st
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: Blairs, VA
Virginia's Blairs is a small town, with 1,001 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. The typical household in Blairs brings in $47,262 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 8.9%. Blairs's housing stock carries a median value of $162,900, and the median resident age is 36.9 years. 17.1% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 50.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 1 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
Virginia tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Virginia scores 101.1 (Near Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,369 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $235 across Virginia, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 33.3 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Blairs'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 comparison shortlist to schools and households to work and mobility to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Blairs, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Comparison shortlist
Which cities make useful reference points for Blairs?
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 Virginia, the closest population matches are Adwolf (1,001 residents, $42,639 income); Accomac (999 residents, $43,211 income); Passapatanzy (1,015 residents, $114,792 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Ashland, IL (1,001 residents); Harvard, NE (1,001 residents); Richmondville, NY (1,001 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 1 public school within the city match. 17.1% 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Blairs?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 67.8%. 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Blairs?
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 3.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 8.9%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Virginia average
F
City profile score · Blairs, VA
30/100
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.
Poverty rate D
8.9%
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.
Bachelor's+ share F
17.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$47,262
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).
Blairs profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 44/100 (D) · 8.9%
Cost of living: 35/100 (F) · 101.1 index
Bachelor's+ share: 26/100 (F) · 17.1%
Household income: 17/100 (F) · $47,262
How does Blairs compare to other US cities?
Here's how Blairs stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income16% higher than other cities
Home value31% 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 Blairs 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 Blairs near the bottom of Virginia's cities
Among the 619 Virginia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Blairs ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Blairs only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#449 of 558
20th percentile in Virginia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 619
0th percentile in Virginia
Median Home Value
#415 of 567
27th percentile in Virginia
Poverty Rate
#218 of 616
64th percentile in Virginia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#428 of 618
31st 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
16th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Blairs's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$162,900Among the most affordablemore affordable than 69% 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
Blairs's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#8,771 of 15,516
More affordable than 43% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#7,101 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.4×, Blairs sits in the moderate band:
national rank #8,771 of 15,516 and #7,101 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
$47,262Blairs, VA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Blairs, 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 Blairs, VA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)17.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)8.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)50.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,001
Median Income
$47,262
Median Home Value
$162,900
Median Age
36.9
Poverty Rate
8.9%
Labor force participation
50.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
17.1%
Schools
Total Schools
1
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
67.8%
Carpool
25.1%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
5.2%
Other
1.9%
Based on 366 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 Blairs. 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 Blairs 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 Blairs sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Blairs 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.