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Place dossier plate
SheetVA-CHRISTIANSBURG-VA · Christiansburg, VA 22,820 pop · income 57th 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 Christiansburg
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Christiansburg on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Hopewell · lowest
48,681
Hopewell · lowest
48,681 median HH income
22.3% of the leader · rank #1
Murrells Inlet · near
75,438
Murrells Inlet · near
75,438 median HH income
34.6% of the leader · rank #2
Universal City · near
75,439
Universal City · near
75,439 median HH income
34.6% of the leader · rank #3
Eton · near
75,441
Eton · near
75,441 median HH income
34.6% of the leader · rank #4
Bloomington · near
75,449
Bloomington · near
75,449 median HH income
34.6% of the leader · rank #5
Christiansburg · this city
75,451
Christiansburg · this city
75,451 median HH income
34.6% of the leader · rank #6
Winchester · highest
218,176
Winchester · highest
218,176 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 Christiansburg 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: 22,820.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Christiansburg - the verdict
Christiansburg ranks in the 57th percentile for household income and the 18th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
57th
percentile, household income
54th
percentile, home value
62nd
percentile, median rent
18th
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: Christiansburg, VA
Virginia's Christiansburg is a small city, with 22,820 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Christiansburg households earn a median of $75,451 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 7.8%. Typical homes in Christiansburg are valued around $242,900, and the median resident age is 37.6 years. About 45.5% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 63.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 59 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 50% from five years earlier. Christiansburg's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 2821.0 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 52.6°F with 42.1 inches of precipitation per year and 21.7 inches of snowfall.
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. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,369 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Virginia's average monthly utility costs around $235 (state average). 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 Christiansburg'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 reported crime to schools and households to population change to climate and hazard context to housing and income to work and mobility to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Christiansburg, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, annual population history, local building permits, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Christiansburg?
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 2821.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 24% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
What does the education layer cover for Christiansburg?
The NCES join finds 5 public schools within the city match. 45.5% 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.
Is Christiansburg growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -873 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -3.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 59 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Which cities make useful reference points for Christiansburg?
Within Virginia, the closest population matches are Leesylvania (22,848 residents, $137,460 income); West Springfield (22,905 residents, $157,800 income); Hopewell (22,944 residents, $48,681 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Ramona, CA (22,829 residents); Rotterdam, NY (22,798 residents); Coralville, IA (22,846 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.
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.
Climate and hazard context
What physical conditions frame life in Christiansburg?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 52.6°F, with 42.1 inches of precipitation and 21.7 inches of annual snowfall. 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.
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.
Mean temperature
52.6°F
Annual precipitation
42.1 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
33.3
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
How far does income reach against housing in Christiansburg?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 7.8%, 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
$75,451
Home value
$242,900
Value / income
3.2×
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 Christiansburg?
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 79.9%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
11.3%
Drive alone
79.9%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 11,704 workers age 16+.
Above median income · poverty 7.8% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
101.1 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Virginia average
C-
City profile score · Christiansburg, VA
51/100
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-
45.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income C
$75,451
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate D
7.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime D
224 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger 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.
Christiansburg profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 80/100 (A-) · 45.5%
Household income: 55/100 (C) · $75,451
Poverty rate: 48/100 (D) · 7.8%
Violent crime: 44/100 (D) · 224 /100k
Cost of living: 35/100 (F) · 101.1 index
Where Christiansburg sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Christiansburg'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 - Christiansburg highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Christiansburg, VA (this city): home $242,900, crime 2,821/100k
Coralville, IA : home $286,000, crime 2,197/100k
Watertown, SD : home $212,300, crime 1,328/100k
Winchester, MA : home $1,181,700, crime 400/100k
Hopewell, VA : home $165,100, crime 2,421/100k
Waynesboro, VA : home $236,600, crime 1,762/100k
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 Christiansburg compare to other US cities?
Here's how Christiansburg stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income57% higher than other cities
Home value54% pricier than other cities
Median rent62% pricier than other cities
Safety18% 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: Christiansburg ranks #89 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 Christiansburg 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 Christiansburg near the bottom of Virginia's cities
Among the 619 Virginia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Christiansburg ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Christiansburg only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#266 of 558
52nd percentile in Virginia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 619
0th percentile in Virginia
Median Home Value
#300 of 567
47th percentile in Virginia
Poverty Rate
#242 of 616
61st percentile in Virginia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#159 of 618
74th 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
57th percentile nationally for median household income · 18th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Christiansburg's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Christiansburg'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 Christiansburg's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$242,90046th percentilemore affordable than 46% 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
Christiansburg's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#7,782 of 15,516
More affordable than 50% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,202 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.2×, Christiansburg sits in the moderate band:
national rank #7,782 of 15,516 and #1,202 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
$75,451Christiansburg, VA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Christiansburg, 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 Christiansburg, VA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)45.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)7.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)63.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
22,820
Median Income
$75,451
Median Home Value
$242,900
Median Age
37.6
Poverty Rate
7.8%
Labor force participation
63.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
45.5%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2821.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
224.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2596.8
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
52.6°F
Annual Precipitation
42.1"
Annual Snowfall
21.7"
Schools
Total Schools
5
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Christiansburg's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
23,315 residents
2021
22,476 residents
2022
22,533 residents
2023
22,535 residents
2024
22,474 residents
2025
22,442 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
59
housing units authorized
Single-Family
59
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2.6
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
119
115
4
$14.9M
2020
109
107
2
$9.4M
2021
106
102
4
$11.2M
2022
115
45
70
$13.9M
2023
97
97
0
$14.0M
2024
59
59
0
$11.8M
Permit volume decreased 50% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
79.9%
Carpool
7.8%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.6%
Work from Home
11.3%
Based on 11,704 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 Christiansburg. 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 Christiansburg 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 Christiansburg sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Christiansburg 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.