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Place dossier plate
SheetVA-FORT-LEE-VA · Fort Lee, VA 8,318 pop · income 62nd 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 Fort Lee
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Fort Lee on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Monticello · lowest
27,998
Monticello · lowest
27,998 median HH income
24.8% of the leader · rank #1
Quentin · near
81,103
Quentin · near
81,103 median HH income
71.8% of the leader · rank #2
Fort Lee · this city
81,105
Fort Lee · this city
81,105 median HH income
71.8% of the leader · rank #3
Yankee Hill · near
81,107
Yankee Hill · near
81,107 median HH income
71.8% of the leader · rank #4
Elkins · near
81,111
Elkins · near
81,111 median HH income
71.8% of the leader · rank #5
West Concord · near
81,111
West Concord · near
81,111 median HH income
71.8% of the leader · rank #6
Lake of the W… · highest
112,917
Lake of the W… · highest
112,917 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Fort Lee 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: 8,318.
Fort Lee ranks in the 62nd percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
62nd
percentile, household income
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: Fort Lee, VA
Fort Lee is a small town in Virginia, home to 8,318 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Fort Lee households earn a median of $81,105 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 2.6%. The median resident age is 21.0 years. Educational attainment runs 31.8% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 12.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Virginia tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: the state registers 101.1 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Near Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,369 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $235 across Virginia, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Commute times here average 8.2 minutes, with 33.2% driving alone and 18.8% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. 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 Fort Lee'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; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Fort Lee, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Fort Lee?
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.
Walking is the largest reported mode at 42.1%. The reported mean trip to work is 8.2 minutes.
Which cities make useful reference points for Fort Lee?
Within Virginia, the closest population matches are Abingdon (8,332 residents, $54,976 income); Dumbarton (8,407 residents, $59,085 income); Wytheville (8,224 residents, $43,283 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Gulf Gate, FL (8,317 residents); St. Marys, OH (8,319 residents); Monticello, AR (8,320 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.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Virginia average
C
City profile score · Fort Lee, VA
59/100
4 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-
2.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share C+
31.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income C+
$81,105
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.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Fort Lee profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 81/100 (A-) · 2.6%
Bachelor's+ share: 61/100 (C+) · 31.8%
Household income: 60/100 (C+) · $81,105
Cost of living: 35/100 (F) · 101.1 index
How does Fort Lee compare to other US cities?
Fort Lee measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income62% higher 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 Fort Lee 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 Fort Lee near the bottom of Virginia's cities
Among the 619 Virginia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Fort Lee ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Fort Lee only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#244 of 558
56th percentile in Virginia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 619
0th percentile in Virginia
Poverty Rate
#408 of 616
33rd percentile in Virginia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#261 of 618
58th 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
62nd percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Income distribution context
$81,105Fort Lee, VA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Fort Lee, 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 Fort Lee, VA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)31.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)2.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)12.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
8,318
Median Income
$81,105
Median Home Value
N/A
Median Age
21.0
Poverty Rate
2.6%
Labor force participation
12.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
31.8%
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
8.2 minutes
Drive Alone
33.2%
Carpool
3.3%
Public Transit
1.6%
Walk
42.1%
Work from Home
18.8%
Other
1.0%
Based on 5,165 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 Fort Lee. 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 Fort Lee 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 Fort Lee sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Fort Lee 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, 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.