Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetVA-LAKE-OF-THE-WOODS-VA · Lake of the Woods, VA 8,165 pop · income 84th pct · 34 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 Lake of the Woods
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Lake of the Woods on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Wytheville · lowest
43,283
Wytheville · lowest
43,283 median HH income
23.1% of the leader · rank #1
Lake of the W… · this city
112,917
Lake of the W… · this city
112,917 median HH income
60.2% of the leader · rank #2
Elm Springs · near
112,917
Elm Springs · near
112,917 median HH income
60.2% of the leader · rank #3
Hustontown · near
112,917
Hustontown · near
112,917 median HH income
60.2% of the leader · rank #4
Greenwater · near
112,917
Greenwater · near
112,917 median HH income
60.2% of the leader · rank #5
South Prairie · near
112,917
South Prairie · near
112,917 median HH income
60.2% of the leader · rank #6
Rolling Hills… · highest
187,500
Rolling Hills… · highest
187,500 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 Lake of the Woods 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: 8,165.
Nationally, Lake of the Woods sits in the 84th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
84th
percentile, household income
75th
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: Lake of the Woods, VA
8,165 people live in Lake of the Woods, Virginia - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Lake of the Woods brings in $112,917 a year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 3.5%. Lake of the Woods's housing stock carries a median value of $377,500, and the median resident age is 51.8 years. About 45.2% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 47.5% 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. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,369 monthly. 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 Lake of the Woods'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 comparison shortlist to housing and income to work and mobility to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Lake of the Woods, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, annual population history, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Lake of the Woods?
Within Virginia, the closest population matches are Franklin (8,212 residents, $65,125 income); Fort Belvoir (8,107 residents, $101,237 income); Wytheville (8,224 residents, $43,283 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Downingtown, PA (8,163 residents); Corning, CA (8,168 residents); Odessa, FL (8,170 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Lake of the Woods?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.5%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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.
What does the journey to work look like in Lake of the Woods?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 76.7%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
What can 34 Census tracts reveal inside Lake of the Woods?
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.
PlainCities matches 34 Census tracts to this city.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Virginia average
B-
City profile score · Lake of the Woods, VA
68/100
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.
Household income A-
$112,917
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share A-
45.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate B+
3.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better 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.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Lake of the Woods profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 83/100 (A-) · $112,917
Bachelor's+ share: 80/100 (A-) · 45.2%
Poverty rate: 75/100 (B+) · 3.5%
Cost of living: 35/100 (F) · 101.1 index
How does Lake of the Woods compare to other US cities?
Here's how Lake of the Woods stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income84% higher than other cities
Home value75% 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 Lake of the Woods 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 Lake of the Woods near the bottom of Virginia's cities
Among the 619 Virginia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Lake of the Woods ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Lake of the Woods only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#139 of 558
75th percentile in Virginia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 619
0th percentile in Virginia
Median Home Value
#172 of 567
70th percentile in Virginia
Poverty Rate
#375 of 616
39th percentile in Virginia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#161 of 618
74th 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
84th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Lake of the Woods's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$377,50025th percentilemore affordable than 25% 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
Lake of the Woods's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#8,314 of 15,516
More affordable than 46% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#6,782 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.3×, Lake of the Woods sits in the moderate band:
national rank #8,314 of 15,516 and #6,782 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
$112,917Lake of the Woods, VA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Lake of the Woods, 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 Lake of the Woods, VA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)45.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)47.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
8,165
Median Income
$112,917
Median Home Value
$377,500
Median Age
51.8
Poverty Rate
3.5%
Labor force participation
47.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
45.2%
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
76.7%
Carpool
4.0%
Public Transit
0.8%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
18.2%
Based on 3,170 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 Lake of the Woods. 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 Lake of the Woods 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 Lake of the Woods sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Lake of the Woods 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.