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Place dossier plate
SheetVA-ELKTON-VA · Elkton, VA 2,973 pop · income 37th pct · 4 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 Elkton
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Elkton on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Wise · lowest
44,234
Wise · lowest
44,234 median HH income
52.3% of the leader · rank #1
Stinesville · near
61,382
Stinesville · near
61,382 median HH income
72.6% of the leader · rank #2
Canadian · near
61,384
Canadian · near
61,384 median HH income
72.6% of the leader · rank #3
Elkton · this city
61,385
Elkton · this city
61,385 median HH income
72.6% of the leader · rank #4
Fairview Shor… · near
61,387
Fairview Shor… · near
61,387 median HH income
72.6% of the leader · rank #5
Quitman · near
61,387
Quitman · near
61,387 median HH income
72.6% of the leader · rank #6
Grottoes · highest
84,508
Grottoes · highest
84,508 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 Elkton 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: 2,973.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Elkton - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Elkton lands in the 37th percentile for household income and the 61st percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
37th
percentile, household income
51st
percentile, home value
62nd
percentile, median rent
61st
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: Elkton, VA
Elkton is a small town in Virginia, home to 2,973 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Elkton report a median income of $61,385 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 2.0%. Elkton's housing stock carries a median value of $232,300, and the median resident age is 39.0 years. 16.1% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 66.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Elkton reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 1075.6 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as 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. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,369 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Virginia run around $235, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 33.3 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Elkton'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 reported crime to within-city variation 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 Elkton, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, annual population history, matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Is Elkton growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +187 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +6.3% 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 upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Elkton?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1075.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 53% 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.
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 Elkton?
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 Merrimac (2,955 residents, $55,202 income); Timberville (2,998 residents, $56,837 income); Wise (2,940 residents, $44,234 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Whitehall, MI (2,974 residents); Dresden, TN (2,974 residents); Eglin AFB, FL (2,975 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 Elkton?
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 4 public schools within the city match. 16.1% 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
2.0%
Bachelor's degree+
16.1%
Matched public schools
4
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in Elkton?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 78.2%. 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. 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.
Drive alone
78.2%
Work from home
5.3%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 1,611 workers age 16+.
How far does income reach against housing in Elkton?
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 3.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 2.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
3.8×
Home value
$232,300
Household income
$61,385
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Virginia average
C-
City profile score · Elkton, VA
53/100
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.
Poverty rate A
2.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime A-
65 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income F
$61,385
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); 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.
Bachelor's+ share F
16.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Elkton profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 86/100 (A) · 2.0%
Violent crime: 80/100 (A-) · 65 /100k
Household income: 37/100 (F) · $61,385
Cost of living: 35/100 (F) · 101.1 index
Bachelor's+ share: 23/100 (F) · 16.1%
Where Elkton sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Elkton'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 - Elkton highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Elkton, VA (this city): home $232,300, crime 1,076/100k
Whitehall, MI : home $205,800, crime 1,199/100k
Dresden, TN : home $104,200, crime 988/100k
Jones, OK : home $204,500, crime 827/100k
Wise, VA : home $118,100, crime 2,377/100k
Grottoes, VA : home $267,500, crime 792/100k
Hillsville, VA : home $132,600, crime 1,265/100k
Pearisburg, VA : home $160,200, crime 2,138/100k
How does Elkton compare to other US cities?
Where Elkton sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income37% higher than other cities
Home value51% pricier than other cities
Median rent62% pricier than other cities
Safety61% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at Virginia, Elkton ranks #28 of 117 Virginia cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Elkton 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 Elkton near the bottom of Virginia's cities
Among the 619 Virginia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Elkton ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Elkton only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#348 of 558
38th percentile in Virginia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 619
0th percentile in Virginia
Median Home Value
#322 of 567
43rd percentile in Virginia
Poverty Rate
#434 of 616
29th percentile in Virginia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#448 of 618
27th 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
37th percentile nationally for median household income · 61st percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Elkton's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Elkton'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 Elkton's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$232,30049th percentilemore affordable than 49% 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
Elkton's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,001 of 15,516
More affordable than 36% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#7,913 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.8×, Elkton sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,001 of 15,516 and #7,913 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
$61,385Elkton, VA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Elkton, 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 Elkton, VA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)16.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)2.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)66.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,973
Median Income
$61,385
Median Home Value
$232,300
Median Age
39.0
Poverty Rate
2.0%
Labor force participation
66.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
16.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1075.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
65.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1010.4
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
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Elkton's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,949 residents
2021
2,974 residents
2022
3,006 residents
2023
3,055 residents
2024
3,103 residents
2025
3,136 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
78.2%
Carpool
10.4%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
6.1%
Work from Home
5.3%
Based on 1,611 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 Elkton. 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 Elkton 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 Elkton sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Elkton 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 ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.