Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetVA-CHARLOTTESVILLE-VA · Charlottesville, VA 45,863 pop · income 49th pct · 12 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 Charlottesville
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Charlottesville on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Blacksburg · lowest
48,070
Blacksburg · lowest
48,070 median HH income
26.8% of the leader · rank #1
Garrettsville · near
69,821
Garrettsville · near
69,821 median HH income
39.0% of the leader · rank #2
Fairchild AFB · near
69,825
Fairchild AFB · near
69,825 median HH income
39.0% of the leader · rank #3
Charlottesvil… · this city
69,829
Charlottesvil… · this city
69,829 median HH income
39.0% of the leader · rank #4
Sugarmill Woo… · near
69,831
Sugarmill Woo… · near
69,831 median HH income
39.0% of the leader · rank #5
Norco · near
69,833
Norco · near
69,833 median HH income
39.0% of the leader · rank #6
Burke · highest
179,063
Burke · highest
179,063 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 Charlottesville 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: 45,863.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Charlottesville - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Charlottesville places in the 49th percentile for household income and the 10th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
49th
percentile, household income
81st
percentile, home value
62nd
percentile, median rent
10th
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: Charlottesville, VA
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 45,863 residents in Charlottesville, a small city within Virginia. Households in Charlottesville report a median income of $69,829 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 9.4%. Home values in Charlottesville run a median of $448,400, and the median resident age is 32.9 years. 60.6% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 61.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 49 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 44% from five years earlier. Charlottesville's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 3550.1 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 puts Charlottesville's yearly average temperature at 56.3°F with 48.2 inches of precipitation per year.
Virginia tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Virginia at 101.1 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Near Average). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,369 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $235 across Virginia, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 33.3 out of 100 (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Charlottesville'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 population change to schools and households to reported crime to within-city variation to comparison shortlist to housing and income to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Charlottesville, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Climate and hazard context
What physical conditions frame life in Charlottesville?
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.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 56.3°F, with 48.2 inches of precipitation. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Virginia is 33.3 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.
Is Charlottesville growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -2,045 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -4.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 49 housing units authorized in 2024. 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.
What can 12 Census tracts reveal inside Charlottesville?
PlainCities matches 12 Census tracts to this city.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Charlottesville?
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.
Within Virginia, the closest population matches are Ashburn (45,551 residents, $152,094 income); Blacksburg (45,288 residents, $48,070 income); Lake Ridge (45,007 residents, $120,844 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Pahrump, NV (45,811 residents); Hackensack, NJ (45,768 residents); Wentzville, MO (45,734 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.
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 Charlottesville?
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.
The NCES join finds 25 public schools within the city match. 60.6% 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.
Poverty estimate
9.4%
Bachelor's degree+
60.6%
Matched public schools
25
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Charlottesville?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 3550.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 56% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
Total reported rate
3550.1
Violent rate
359.0
Property rate
3191.1
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
How far does income reach against housing in Charlottesville?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 6.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 9.4%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
6.4×
Home value
$448,400
Household income
$69,829
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What does the journey to work look like in Charlottesville?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 53.2%. 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. 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.
Drive alone
53.2%
Work from home
19.3%
Public transit
5.5%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 23,715 workers age 16+.
Below median income · poverty 9.4% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
101.1 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Virginia average
D
City profile score · Charlottesville, VA
46/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share A+
60.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income D
$69,829
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate D
9.4%
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 F
359 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Charlottesville profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 92/100 (A+) · 60.6%
Household income: 49/100 (D) · $69,829
Poverty rate: 42/100 (D) · 9.4%
Cost of living: 35/100 (F) · 101.1 index
Violent crime: 25/100 (F) · 359 /100k
Where Charlottesville sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Charlottesville'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 - Charlottesville highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Charlottesville, VA (this city): home $448,400, crime 3,550/100k
Hackensack, NJ : home $370,300, crime 2,271/100k
Wentzville, MO : home $302,700, crime 854/100k
Arlington, MA : home $885,000, crime 490/100k
Plainfield, IL : home $398,000, crime 741/100k
Strongsville, OH : home $279,600, crime 1,355/100k
Blacksburg, VA : home $417,200, crime 792/100k
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 Charlottesville compare to other US cities?
Charlottesville measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income49% higher than other cities
Home value81% pricier than other cities
Median rent62% pricier than other cities
Safety10% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Virginia and the picture shifts: Charlottesville ranks #104 of 117 Virginia cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Charlottesville 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 Charlottesville near the bottom of Virginia's cities
Among the 619 Virginia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Charlottesville ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Charlottesville only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#296 of 558
47th percentile in Virginia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 619
0th percentile in Virginia
Median Home Value
#139 of 567
75th percentile in Virginia
Poverty Rate
#202 of 616
67th percentile in Virginia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#97 of 618
84th 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
49th percentile nationally for median household income · 10th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Charlottesville's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Charlottesville'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 Charlottesville's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$448,40019th percentilemore affordable than 19% 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
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,395 of 15,516
More affordable than 7% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,037 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 6.4×, Charlottesville sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,395 of 15,516 and #3,037 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$69,829Charlottesville, VA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Charlottesville, 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 Charlottesville, VA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)60.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)9.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)61.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
45,863
Median Income
$69,829
Median Home Value
$448,400
Median Age
32.9
Poverty Rate
9.4%
Labor force participation
61.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
60.6%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3550.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
359.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3191.1
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
56.3°F
Annual Precipitation
48.2"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
25
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Charlottesville's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
46,433 residents
2021
45,723 residents
2022
45,104 residents
2023
44,832 residents
2024
44,609 residents
2025
44,388 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
49
housing units authorized
Single-Family
25
detached homes
Multifamily
24
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
88
60
28
$23.0M
2020
190
72
118
$36.8M
2021
191
81
110
$39.4M
2022
101
37
64
$24.5M
2023
59
30
29
$11.0M
2024
49
25
24
$7.0M
Permit volume decreased 44% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
53.2%
Carpool
5.5%
Public Transit
5.5%
Walk
12.8%
Work from Home
19.3%
Other
3.7%
Based on 23,715 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 Charlottesville. 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 Charlottesville 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 Charlottesville sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Charlottesville 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, 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.