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Place dossier plate
SheetVA-CUMBERLAND-VA · Cumberland, VA 291 pop · 3 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.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Cumberland 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: 291.
Virginia's Cumberland counts 291 residents. Source: Census ACS.
24th
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: Cumberland, VA
Cumberland is a small town in Virginia, home to 291 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Typical homes in Cumberland are valued around $140,300, and the median resident age is 69.6 years. About 25.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 42.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 3 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
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. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Virginia run around $235, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. The average commute for Cumberland workers runs 56.1 minutes, with 100.0% driving alone and 0.0% working from home. 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 Cumberland'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 work and mobility to comparison shortlist to schools and households to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Cumberland, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Cumberland?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 100.0%. The reported mean trip to work is 56.1 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Cumberland?
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 Wachapreague (290 residents, $56,917 income); Nelsonia (293 residents, $86,228 income); Keokee (294 residents). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Tyonek, AK (291 residents); Capulin, CO (291 residents); Mulat, FL (291 residents). 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 Cumberland?
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 3 public schools within the city match. 25.4% 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 can 3 Census tracts reveal inside Cumberland?
PlainCities matches 3 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.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Virginia average
F
City profile score · Cumberland, VA
28/100
3 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 C-
25.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
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
25.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income N/A
N/A
No ACS median household income on file for this place.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Cumberland profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 50/100 (C-) · 25.4%
Cost of living: 35/100 (F) · 101.1 index
Poverty rate: 5/100 (F) · 25.9%
How does Cumberland compare to other US cities?
Cumberland measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Home value24% 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 Cumberland 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 Cumberland near the bottom of Virginia's cities
Among the 619 Virginia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Cumberland ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Cumberland only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 619
0th percentile in Virginia
Median Home Value
#461 of 567
19th percentile in Virginia
Poverty Rate
#42 of 616
93rd percentile in Virginia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#331 of 618
46th 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.
How Cumberland's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$140,300Among the most affordablemore affordable than 76% 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
Income distribution context
Median household income is not available for Cumberland in the current Census ACS release (common for very small places).
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)25.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)25.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)42.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
291
Median Income
N/A
Median Home Value
$140,300
Median Age
69.6
Poverty Rate
25.9%
Labor force participation
42.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
25.4%
Schools
Total Schools
3
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
56.1 minutes
Drive Alone
100.0%
Carpool
0.0%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
0.0%
Based on 102 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 Cumberland. 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 Cumberland 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 Cumberland sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Cumberland 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.