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Place dossier plate
SheetVA-CEDAR-BLUFF-VA · Cedar Bluff, VA 1,156 pop · income 8th 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 Cedar Bluff
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Cedar Bluff on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Independence · lowest
36,250
Independence · lowest
36,250 median HH income
42.8% of the leader · rank #1
Cedar Bluff · this city
40,179
Cedar Bluff · this city
40,179 median HH income
47.5% of the leader · rank #2
Big River · near
40,179
Big River · near
40,179 median HH income
47.5% of the leader · rank #3
Sebeka · near
40,179
Sebeka · near
40,179 median HH income
47.5% of the leader · rank #4
Gordonville · near
40,179
Gordonville · near
40,179 median HH income
47.5% of the leader · rank #5
Lewistown · near
40,179
Lewistown · near
40,179 median HH income
47.5% of the leader · rank #6
Lake Don Pedro · highest
84,659
Lake Don Pedro · highest
84,659 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 Cedar Bluff 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: 1,156.
Cedar Bluff ranks in the 8th percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
8th
percentile, household income
19th
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: Cedar Bluff, VA
1,156 people live in Cedar Bluff, Virginia - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Cedar Bluff brings in $40,179 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 12.5%. Home values in Cedar Bluff run a median of $123,300, and the median resident age is 50.9 years. Educational attainment runs 17.8% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 41.8% 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: the state registers 101.1 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Near Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,369 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Virginia run around $235, per EIA 2023 residential energy 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 Cedar Bluff'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 population change to 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 Cedar Bluff, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
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.
Question 1
Is Cedar Bluff growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -47 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -4.5% 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 downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
Which cities make useful reference points for Cedar Bluff?
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 McGaheysville (1,155 residents, $67,125 income); Lawrenceville (1,149 residents, $39,833 income); Cana (1,164 residents, $61,985 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Babson Park, FL (1,156 residents); St. Ansgar, IA (1,156 residents); Concord, MI (1,156 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.
What does the education layer cover for Cedar Bluff?
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. 17.8% 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 Cedar Bluff?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 91.5%. 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.
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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Cedar Bluff?
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 3.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 12.5%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
3.1×
Home value
$123,300
Household income
$40,179
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 12.5% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
101.1 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Virginia average
F
City profile score · Cedar Bluff, VA
24/100
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.
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.
Poverty rate F
12.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
17.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$40,179
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).
Cedar Bluff profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 35/100 (F) · 101.1 index
Poverty rate: 30/100 (F) · 12.5%
Bachelor's+ share: 28/100 (F) · 17.8%
Household income: 7/100 (F) · $40,179
How does Cedar Bluff compare to other US cities?
Cedar Bluff measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income8% higher than other cities
Home value19% 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 Cedar Bluff 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 Cedar Bluff near the bottom of Virginia's cities
Among the 619 Virginia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Cedar Bluff ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Cedar Bluff only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#501 of 558
10th percentile in Virginia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 619
0th percentile in Virginia
Median Home Value
#484 of 567
15th percentile in Virginia
Poverty Rate
#154 of 616
75th percentile in Virginia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#419 of 618
32nd 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
8th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Cedar Bluff's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$123,300Among the most affordablemore affordable than 81% 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
Cedar Bluff's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#7,051 of 15,516
More affordable than 55% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#5,904 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.1×, Cedar Bluff sits in the moderate band:
national rank #7,051 of 15,516 and #5,904 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
$40,179Cedar Bluff, VA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Cedar Bluff, 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 Cedar Bluff, VA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)17.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)12.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)41.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,156
Median Income
$40,179
Median Home Value
$123,300
Median Age
50.9
Poverty Rate
12.5%
Labor force participation
41.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
17.8%
Schools
Total Schools
1
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Cedar Bluff's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
1,050 residents
2021
1,039 residents
2022
1,029 residents
2023
1,020 residents
2024
1,012 residents
2025
1,003 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
91.5%
Carpool
4.7%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
3.8%
Based on 424 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 Cedar Bluff. 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 Cedar Bluff 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 Cedar Bluff sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Cedar Bluff 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.