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Place dossier plate
SheetVA-CLIFTON-FORGE-VA · Clifton Forge, VA 3,483 pop · income 4th 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 Clifton Forge
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Clifton Forge on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Nicholls · lowest
27,297
Nicholls · lowest
27,297 median HH income
19.8% of the leader · rank #1
Denmark · near
33,100
Denmark · near
33,100 median HH income
24.0% of the leader · rank #2
San Antonio c… · near
33,103
San Antonio c… · near
33,103 median HH income
24.0% of the leader · rank #3
Atmore · near
33,104
Atmore · near
33,104 median HH income
24.0% of the leader · rank #4
Clifton Forge · this city
33,107
Clifton Forge · this city
33,107 median HH income
24.0% of the leader · rank #5
Aliceville · near
33,125
Aliceville · near
33,125 median HH income
24.0% of the leader · rank #6
Vineyards · highest
138,042
Vineyards · highest
138,042 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 Clifton Forge 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: 3,483.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Clifton Forge - the verdict
Nationally, Clifton Forge sits in the 4th percentile for household income and the 38th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
4th
percentile, household income
12th
percentile, home value
62nd
percentile, median rent
38th
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: Clifton Forge, VA
Clifton Forge is a small town in Virginia, home to 3,483 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Clifton Forge report a median income of $33,107 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 14.1%. Typical homes in Clifton Forge are valued around $106,900, and the median resident age is 46.1 years. 18.8% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 36.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 0 residential building permits were authorized in Clifton Forge (No Permits), per Census BPS data. Clifton Forge reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1767.0 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
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. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,369 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Virginia's average monthly utility costs around $235 (state average). Commute times here average 24.3 minutes, with 95.2% driving alone and 2.2% 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 Clifton Forge'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 comparison shortlist to schools and households to work and mobility to population change to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Clifton Forge, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, commute-mode shares, local building permits, matched public-school count.
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.
Question 1
What can the FBI record say about safety in Clifton Forge?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1767.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 23% lower 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Clifton Forge?
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 Gloucester Courthouse (3,509 residents, $88,493 income); West Point (3,439 residents, $83,475 income); Dahlgren (3,417 residents, $106,071 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Hillsboro, MO (3,483 residents); French Camp, CA (3,482 residents); Vineyards, FL (3,484 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 Clifton Forge?
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 2 public schools within the city match. 18.8% 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 Clifton Forge?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 95.2%. The reported mean trip to work is 24.3 minutes.
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.
Population change
Is Clifton Forge growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -167 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -4.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 0 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.
2020 estimate
3,539
2025 estimate
3,372
Period change
-4.7%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
How far does income reach against housing in Clifton Forge?
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 3.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 14.1%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
3.2×
Home value
$106,900
Household income
$33,107
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 14.1% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
101.1 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Virginia average
F
City profile score · Clifton Forge, VA
26/100
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.
Violent crime D
210 /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.
Bachelor's+ share F
18.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
14.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$33,107
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Clifton Forge profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 46/100 (D) · 210 /100k
Cost of living: 35/100 (F) · 101.1 index
Bachelor's+ share: 31/100 (F) · 18.8%
Poverty rate: 24/100 (F) · 14.1%
Household income: 0/100 (F) · $33,107
Where Clifton Forge sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Clifton Forge'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 - Clifton Forge highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Clifton Forge, VA (this city): home $106,900, crime 1,767/100k
Hillsboro, MO : home $206,200, crime 1,312/100k
Durand, MI : home $123,900, crime 1,429/100k
West Point, VA : home $256,600, crime 867/100k
Altavista, VA : home $135,000, crime 3,227/100k
Norton, VA : home $100,700, crime 10,497/100k
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 Clifton Forge compare to other US cities?
Where Clifton Forge sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income4% higher than other cities
Home value12% pricier than other cities
Median rent62% pricier than other cities
Safety38% 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: Clifton Forge ranks #58 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 Clifton Forge 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 Clifton Forge near the bottom of Virginia's cities
Among the 619 Virginia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Clifton Forge ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Clifton Forge only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#531 of 558
5th percentile in Virginia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 619
0th percentile in Virginia
Median Home Value
#520 of 567
8th percentile in Virginia
Poverty Rate
#136 of 616
78th percentile in Virginia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#404 of 618
34th 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
4th percentile nationally for median household income · 38th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Clifton Forge's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Clifton Forge'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 Clifton Forge's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$106,900Among the most affordablemore affordable than 88% 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
Clifton Forge'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
#7,820 of 15,516
More affordable than 50% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#6,439 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.2×, Clifton Forge sits in the moderate band:
national rank #7,820 of 15,516 and #6,439 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
$33,107Clifton Forge, VA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Clifton Forge, 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 Clifton Forge, VA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)18.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)14.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)36.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
3,483
Median Income
$33,107
Median Home Value
$106,900
Median Age
46.1
Poverty Rate
14.1%
Labor force participation
36.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
18.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1767.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
209.6
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1557.4
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.
Schools
Total Schools
2
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Clifton Forge's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
3,539 residents
2021
3,493 residents
2022
3,432 residents
2023
3,423 residents
2024
3,405 residents
2025
3,372 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
Total Permits (2024)
0
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
0
0
0
-
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
24.3 minutes
Drive Alone
95.2%
Carpool
2.6%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
2.2%
Based on 1,003 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 Clifton Forge. 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 Clifton Forge 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 Clifton Forge sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Clifton Forge 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, 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.