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Place dossier plate
SheetVA-GALAX-VA · Galax, VA 6,698 pop · income 9th pct · 2 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 Galax
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Galax on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Fuller Acres · lowest
41,429
Fuller Acres · lowest
41,429 median HH income
16.6% of the leader · rank #1
Cloverdale · near
41,436
Cloverdale · near
41,436 median HH income
16.6% of the leader · rank #2
Galax · this city
41,438
Galax · this city
41,438 median HH income
16.6% of the leader · rank #3
San Benito · near
41,445
San Benito · near
41,445 median HH income
16.6% of the leader · rank #4
Clinton · near
41,447
Clinton · near
41,447 median HH income
16.6% of the leader · rank #5
South Run · highest
250,001
South Run · highest
250,001 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #6
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 Galax 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: 6,698.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Galax - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Galax places in the 9th percentile for household income and the 4th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
9th
percentile, household income
20th
percentile, home value
62nd
percentile, median rent
4th
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: Galax, VA
Galax is a small town in Virginia, home to 6,698 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Galax report a median income of $41,438 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 19.9%. Typical homes in Galax are valued around $126,800, and the median resident age is 41.9 years. Educational attainment runs 18.3% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 53.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 10 residential building permits were authorized in Galax (Low Activity), per Census BPS data. Galax's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 4844.9 incidents per 100,000 residents, above the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects 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. 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). 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 Galax'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 housing and income to comparison shortlist to within-city variation to schools and households to work and mobility to population change to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Galax, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history, commute-mode shares, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Galax?
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 3.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 19.9%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Galax?
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 Bedford (6,703 residents, $47,697 income); South Run (6,714 residents, $250,000+ income); Bridgewater (6,650 residents, $81,012 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Moapa Valley, NV (6,699 residents); Nephi, UT (6,700 residents); Air Force Academy, CO (6,701 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.
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.
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 6 public schools within the city match. 18.3% 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.
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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Galax?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 80.1%. 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
80.1%
Work from home
3.0%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 2,835 workers age 16+.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -46 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 10 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
2020 estimate
6,716
2025 estimate
6,670
Period change
-0.7%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Galax?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 4844.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 112% higher 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.
Total reported rate
4844.9
Violent rate
310.2
Property rate
4534.7
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 19.9% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
101.1 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Virginia average
F
City profile score · Galax, VA
23/100
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.
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 F
310 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
18.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
19.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$41,438
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Galax profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 35/100 (F) · 101.1 index
Violent crime: 32/100 (F) · 310 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 29/100 (F) · 18.3%
Poverty rate: 14/100 (F) · 19.9%
Household income: 9/100 (F) · $41,438
Where Galax sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Galax'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 - Galax highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Galax, VA (this city): home $126,800, crime 4,845/100k
Nephi, UT : home $379,800, crime 870/100k
Willis, TX : home $113,900, crime 2,547/100k
Jordan, MN : home $319,000, crime 501/100k
Bedford, VA : home $192,600, crime 1,760/100k
Bridgewater, VA : home $372,400, crime 601/100k
Buena Vista, VA : home $153,500, crime 379/100k
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 Galax compare to other US cities?
Here's how Galax stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income9% higher than other cities
Home value20% pricier than other cities
Median rent62% pricier than other cities
Safety4% 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, Galax ranks #116 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 Galax 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 Galax near the bottom of Virginia's cities
Among the 619 Virginia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Galax ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Galax only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#494 of 558
11th percentile in Virginia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 619
0th percentile in Virginia
Median Home Value
#480 of 567
15th percentile in Virginia
Poverty Rate
#69 of 616
89th percentile in Virginia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#412 of 618
33rd 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
9th percentile nationally for median household income · 4th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Galax's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Galax'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 Galax's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$126,800Among the most affordablemore affordable than 80% 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
Galax's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#6,997 of 15,516
More affordable than 55% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#5,872 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.1×, Galax sits in the moderate band:
national rank #6,997 of 15,516 and #5,872 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
$41,438Galax, VA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Galax, 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 Galax, VA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)18.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)19.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)53.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
6,698
Median Income
$41,438
Median Home Value
$126,800
Median Age
41.9
Poverty Rate
19.9%
Labor force participation
53.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
18.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
4844.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
310.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
4534.7
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
6
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Galax's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
6,716 residents
2021
6,656 residents
2022
6,720 residents
2023
6,777 residents
2024
6,701 residents
2025
6,670 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Low Activity
Total Permits (2024)
10
housing units authorized
Single-Family
10
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.5
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
7
7
0
$0.9M
2021
9
9
0
$1.1M
2022
10
10
0
$1.3M
2023
27
11
16
$3.6M
2024
10
10
0
$3.0M
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
80.1%
Carpool
16.6%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.4%
Work from Home
3.0%
Based on 2,835 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 Galax. 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 Galax 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 Galax sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Galax 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.