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Place dossier plate
SheetVA-ROANOKE-VA · Roanoke, VA 98,677 pop · income 24th pct · 25 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 Roanoke
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Roanoke on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Beulah Valley · lowest
52,664
Beulah Valley · lowest
52,664 median HH income
36.6% of the leader · rank #1
Trommald · near
52,667
Trommald · near
52,667 median HH income
36.6% of the leader · rank #2
Mount Carmel · near
52,667
Mount Carmel · near
52,667 median HH income
36.6% of the leader · rank #3
Prairie du Ch… · near
52,670
Prairie du Ch… · near
52,670 median HH income
36.7% of the leader · rank #4
Roanoke · this city
52,671
Roanoke · this city
52,671 median HH income
36.7% of the leader · rank #5
Calipatria · near
52,672
Calipatria · near
52,672 median HH income
36.7% of the leader · rank #6
Centreville · highest
143,704
Centreville · highest
143,704 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 Roanoke 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: 98,677.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Roanoke - the verdict
Nationally, Roanoke sits in the 24th percentile for household income and the 5th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
24th
percentile, household income
37th
percentile, home value
62nd
percentile, median rent
5th
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: Roanoke, VA
Virginia's Roanoke is a small city, with 98,677 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $52,671 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 14.8%. Home values in Roanoke run a median of $180,500, and the median resident age is 38.0 years. About 28.9% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 59.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 113 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 59% from five years earlier. Roanoke's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 4676.0 incidents per 100,000 residents, above the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 55.5°F with 45.7 inches of precipitation per year and 11.4 inches of snowfall.
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. 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). 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 Roanoke'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 work and mobility to housing and income to within-city variation to reported crime to schools and households to comparison shortlist to climate and hazard context; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Roanoke, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, matched public-school count, local building permits, commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
Is Roanoke growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -792 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 113 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Roanoke?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 76.2%. 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.
PlainCities matches 25 Census tracts to this city.
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 Roanoke?
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 Portsmouth (97,299 residents, $58,972 income); Suffolk (96,638 residents, $90,089 income); Lynchburg (79,255 residents, $59,808 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are New Braunfels, TX (98,700 residents); Vista, CA (98,646 residents); Boca Raton, FL (98,833 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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Roanoke?
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 3.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 14.8%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
3.4×
Home value
$180,500
Household income
$52,671
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Roanoke?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 4676.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 105% 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
4676.0
Violent rate
620.4
Property rate
4055.6
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
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 41 public schools within the city match. 28.9% 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
14.8%
Bachelor's degree+
28.9%
Matched public schools
41
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 55.5°F, with 45.7 inches of precipitation and 11.4 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Virginia is 33.3 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
FEMA risk index (state avg)
33.3
Annual precipitation
45.7 in
Mean temperature
55.5°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Virginia average
F
City profile score · Roanoke, VA
28/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share C
28.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; 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.
Household income F
$52,671
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
14.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
620 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Roanoke profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 56/100 (C) · 28.9%
Cost of living: 35/100 (F) · 101.1 index
Household income: 24/100 (F) · $52,671
Poverty rate: 23/100 (F) · 14.8%
Violent crime: 9/100 (F) · 620 /100k
Where Roanoke sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Roanoke'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 - Roanoke highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Roanoke, VA (this city): home $180,500, crime 4,676/100k
New Braunfels, TX : home $315,100, crime 1,440/100k
Vista, CA : home $674,400, crime 1,180/100k
Boca Raton, FL : home $660,100, crime 1,848/100k
Yuma, AZ : home $209,100, crime 1,671/100k
Longmont, CO : home $541,400, crime 3,088/100k
Kenosha, WI : home $210,500, crime 1,152/100k
Portsmouth, VA : home $229,400, crime 4,613/100k
Suffolk, VA : home $329,600, crime 1,942/100k
Lynchburg, VA : home $211,800, crime 2,095/100k
How does Roanoke compare to other US cities?
Where Roanoke sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income24% higher than other cities
Home value37% pricier than other cities
Median rent62% pricier than other cities
Safety5% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Virginia and the picture shifts: Roanoke ranks #115 of 117 Virginia cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Roanoke 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 Roanoke near the bottom of Virginia's cities
Among the 619 Virginia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Roanoke ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Roanoke only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#413 of 558
26th percentile in Virginia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 619
0th percentile in Virginia
Median Home Value
#389 of 567
31st percentile in Virginia
Poverty Rate
#119 of 616
80th percentile in Virginia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#289 of 618
53rd 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
24th percentile nationally for median household income · 5th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Roanoke's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Roanoke'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 Roanoke's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$180,500Among the most affordablemore affordable than 63% 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
Roanoke's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#8,687 of 15,516
More affordable than 44% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#196 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 3.4×, Roanoke sits in the moderate band:
national rank #8,687 of 15,516 and #196 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
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
$52,671Roanoke, VA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Roanoke, 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 Roanoke, VA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)28.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)14.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)59.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
98,677
Median Income
$52,671
Median Home Value
$180,500
Median Age
38.0
Poverty Rate
14.8%
Labor force participation
59.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
28.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
4676.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
620.4
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
4055.6
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
55.5°F
Annual Precipitation
45.7"
Annual Snowfall
11.4"
Schools
Total Schools
41
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Roanoke's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
99,903 residents
2021
98,767 residents
2022
97,922 residents
2023
97,741 residents
2024
98,690 residents
2025
99,111 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
113
housing units authorized
Single-Family
101
detached homes
Multifamily
12
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
278
40
238
$38.9M
2020
317
50
267
$44.9M
2021
393
57
336
$55.1M
2022
377
62
315
$51.8M
2023
107
95
12
$21.0M
2024
113
101
12
$25.2M
Permit volume decreased 59% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
76.2%
Carpool
7.3%
Public Transit
2.4%
Walk
1.4%
Work from Home
10.7%
Other
2.0%
Based on 45,604 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 Roanoke. 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 Roanoke 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 Roanoke sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Roanoke 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, NOAA Climate Normals, 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.