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Place dossier plate
SheetVA-POQUOSON-VA · Poquoson, VA 12,556 pop · income 88th 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 Poquoson
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Poquoson on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Parker · lowest
38,607
Parker · lowest
38,607 median HH income
18.2% of the leader · rank #1
Rocklin · near
120,916
Rocklin · near
120,916 median HH income
57.0% of the leader · rank #2
Crescent Beach · near
120,917
Crescent Beach · near
120,917 median HH income
57.0% of the leader · rank #3
Elmont · near
120,917
Elmont · near
120,917 median HH income
57.0% of the leader · rank #4
Madison · near
120,918
Madison · near
120,918 median HH income
57.0% of the leader · rank #5
Poquoson · this city
120,919
Poquoson · this city
120,919 median HH income
57.0% of the leader · rank #6
Fairfax Stati… · highest
212,128
Fairfax Stati… · highest
212,128 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 Poquoson 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: 12,556.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Poquoson - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Poquoson lands in the 88th percentile for household income and the 65th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
88th
percentile, household income
78th
percentile, home value
62nd
percentile, median rent
65th
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: Poquoson, VA
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 12,556 residents in Poquoson, a small town within Virginia. The typical household in Poquoson brings in $120,919 a year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 4.6%. Home values in Poquoson run a median of $403,000, and the median resident age is 41.4 years. Educational attainment runs 40.1% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 62.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 133 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 412% from five years earlier. Poquoson reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 977.5 crimes per 100,000 residents, below the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than 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. Monthly utility costs average around $235 across Virginia, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Natural-hazard exposure scores 33.3 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Poquoson'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 within-city variation to housing and income to population change to work and mobility to comparison shortlist to schools and households to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Poquoson, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, annual population history.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Within-city variation
What can 4 Census tracts reveal inside Poquoson?
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.
How far does income reach against housing in Poquoson?
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 4.6%, 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.
Is Poquoson growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +820 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +6.6% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 133 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Which cities make useful reference points for Poquoson?
Within Virginia, the closest population matches are Lansdowne (12,603 residents, $180,379 income); Cascades (12,489 residents, $166,023 income); Forest (12,476 residents, $78,825 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Windsor Locks, CT (12,555 residents); Artesia, NM (12,555 residents); Mendota, CA (12,554 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. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
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 Poquoson?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 82.3%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
11.8%
Drive alone
82.3%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 6,442 workers age 16+.
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 40.1% 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.
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.
Matched public schools
4
Bachelor's degree+
40.1%
Poverty estimate
4.6%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Poquoson?
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.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 977.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 57% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
664.7
Violent rate
312.8
Total reported rate
977.5
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Virginia average
C+
City profile score · Poquoson, VA
60/100
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.
Household income A
$120,919
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share B+
40.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate B-
4.6%
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 F
313 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poquoson profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 86/100 (A) · $120,919
Bachelor's+ share: 75/100 (B+) · 40.1%
Poverty rate: 68/100 (B-) · 4.6%
Cost of living: 35/100 (F) · 101.1 index
Violent crime: 31/100 (F) · 313 /100k
Where Poquoson sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Poquoson'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 - Poquoson highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Poquoson, VA (this city): home $403,000, crime 978/100k
Windsor Locks, CT : home $236,800, crime 1,087/100k
Artesia, NM : home $213,800, crime 2,650/100k
Mendota, CA : home $250,400, crime 1,359/100k
Union, MO : home $199,100, crime 2,718/100k
Spearfish, SD : home $309,200, crime 2,087/100k
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 Poquoson compare to other US cities?
Here's how Poquoson stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income88% higher than other cities
Home value78% pricier than other cities
Median rent62% pricier than other cities
Safety65% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Virginia alone, Poquoson ranks #25 of 117 Virginia cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Poquoson 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 Poquoson near the bottom of Virginia's cities
Among the 619 Virginia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Poquoson ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Poquoson only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#120 of 558
78th percentile in Virginia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 619
0th percentile in Virginia
Median Home Value
#159 of 567
72nd percentile in Virginia
Poverty Rate
#333 of 616
45th percentile in Virginia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#194 of 618
68th 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
88th percentile nationally for median household income · 65th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Poquoson's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Poquoson'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 Poquoson's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$403,00022nd percentilemore affordable than 22% 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
Poquoson'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
#8,271 of 15,516
More affordable than 47% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,323 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.3×, Poquoson sits in the moderate band:
national rank #8,271 of 15,516 and #1,323 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$120,919Poquoson, VA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Poquoson, 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 Poquoson, VA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)40.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)4.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)62.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
12,556
Median Income
$120,919
Median Home Value
$403,000
Median Age
41.4
Poverty Rate
4.6%
Labor force participation
62.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
40.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
977.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
312.8
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
664.7
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
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Poquoson's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
12,472 residents
2021
12,628 residents
2022
12,617 residents
2023
12,602 residents
2024
12,863 residents
2025
13,292 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
133
housing units authorized
Single-Family
97
detached homes
Multifamily
36
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
10.6
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
26
26
0
$5.1M
2020
25
25
0
$5.0M
2021
19
19
0
$4.6M
2022
28
15
13
$7.1M
2023
120
74
46
$37.4M
2024
133
97
36
$43.9M
Permit volume increased 412% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
82.3%
Carpool
4.0%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.1%
Work from Home
11.8%
Other
1.8%
Based on 6,442 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 Poquoson. 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 Poquoson 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 Poquoson sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Poquoson 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.