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Place dossier plate
SheetVA-ROCKY-MOUNT-VA · Rocky Mount, VA 4,926 pop · income 38th pct · 16 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 Rocky Mount
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Rocky Mount on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Rio Communiti… · lowest
46,223
Rio Communiti… · lowest
46,223 median HH income
36.9% of the leader · rank #1
Moose Lake · near
61,576
Moose Lake · near
61,576 median HH income
49.1% of the leader · rank #2
South Padre I… · near
61,578
South Padre I… · near
61,578 median HH income
49.1% of the leader · rank #3
Rocky Mount · this city
61,580
Rocky Mount · this city
61,580 median HH income
49.1% of the leader · rank #4
Scott City · near
61,581
Scott City · near
61,581 median HH income
49.1% of the leader · rank #5
Atlanta · near
61,583
Atlanta · near
61,583 median HH income
49.1% of the leader · rank #6
Falmouth · highest
125,305
Falmouth · highest
125,305 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 Rocky Mount 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: 4,926.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Rocky Mount - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Rocky Mount places in the 38th percentile for household income and the 10th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
38th
percentile, household income
37th
percentile, home value
62nd
percentile, median rent
10th
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: Rocky Mount, VA
4,926 people live in Rocky Mount, Virginia - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $61,580 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 13.4%. Typical homes in Rocky Mount are valued around $181,400, and the median resident age is 44.7 years. 21.2% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 51.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Rocky Mount's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 3607.2 crimes per 100,000 residents, above 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. 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). 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 Rocky Mount'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 schools and households to reported crime to housing and income to comparison shortlist to population change to within-city variation to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Rocky Mount, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Rocky Mount?
The NCES join finds 5 public schools within the city match. 21.2% 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Rocky Mount?
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 3607.2 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 58% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Which cities make useful reference points for Rocky Mount?
Within Virginia, the closest population matches are Chamberlayne (5,000 residents, $102,656 income); Orange (5,000 residents, $68,833 income); Bluefield (5,016 residents, $53,500 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Herculaneum, MO (4,925 residents); Medical Lake, WA (4,927 residents); Port Allen, LA (4,928 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.
What can 16 Census tracts reveal inside Rocky Mount?
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 16 Census tracts to this city.
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 Rocky Mount?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 13.4%, 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.
Household income
$61,580
Home value
$181,400
Value / income
2.9×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Is Rocky Mount 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 +67 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.4% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+1.4%
2025 estimate
4,973
2020 estimate
4,906
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the journey to work look like in Rocky Mount?
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 77.6%. 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
7.3%
Drive alone
77.6%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 2,036 workers age 16+.
Below median income · poverty 13.4% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
101.1 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Virginia average
F
City profile score · Rocky Mount, VA
39/100
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.
Violent crime C+
140 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
21.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$61,580
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.
Poverty rate F
13.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Rocky Mount profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 61/100 (C+) · 140 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 38/100 (F) · 21.2%
Household income: 37/100 (F) · $61,580
Cost of living: 35/100 (F) · 101.1 index
Poverty rate: 26/100 (F) · 13.4%
Where Rocky Mount sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Rocky Mount'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 - Rocky Mount highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Rocky Mount, VA (this city): home $181,400, crime 3,607/100k
Herculaneum, MO : home $222,100, crime 1,435/100k
Port Allen, LA : home $167,700, crime 3,733/100k
Granite Falls, NC : home $203,100, crime 3,179/100k
Orange, VA : home $252,800, crime 1,810/100k
Bluefield, VA : home $161,100, crime 3,179/100k
Luray, VA : home $243,500, crime 1,263/100k
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 Rocky Mount compare to other US cities?
Rocky Mount measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income38% higher than other cities
Home value37% pricier than other cities
Median rent62% pricier than other cities
Safety10% 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: Rocky Mount ranks #105 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 Rocky Mount 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 Rocky Mount near the bottom of Virginia's cities
Among the 619 Virginia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Rocky Mount ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Rocky Mount only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#347 of 558
38th percentile in Virginia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 619
0th percentile in Virginia
Median Home Value
#387 of 567
32nd percentile in Virginia
Poverty Rate
#143 of 616
76th percentile in Virginia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#373 of 618
39th 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
38th percentile nationally for median household income · 10th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Rocky Mount's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Rocky Mount'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 Rocky Mount's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$181,400Among 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
Rocky Mount's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#6,404 of 15,516
More affordable than 59% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#5,458 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.9×, Rocky Mount sits in the affordable band:
national rank #6,404 of 15,516 and #5,458 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
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
$61,580Rocky Mount, VA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Rocky Mount, 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 Rocky Mount, VA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)21.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)13.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)51.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
4,926
Median Income
$61,580
Median Home Value
$181,400
Median Age
44.7
Poverty Rate
13.4%
Labor force participation
51.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
21.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3607.2
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
140.3
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3466.9
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
5
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Rocky Mount's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
4,906 residents
2021
4,947 residents
2022
4,945 residents
2023
4,978 residents
2024
4,987 residents
2025
4,973 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
77.6%
Carpool
14.2%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.6%
Work from Home
7.3%
Based on 2,036 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 Rocky Mount. 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 Rocky Mount 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 Rocky Mount sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Rocky Mount 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 ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.