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Place dossier plate
SheetVA-RURAL-RETREAT-VA · Rural Retreat, VA 1,614 pop · income 35th pct
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 Rural Retreat
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Rural Retreat on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Ferrum · lowest
31,750
Ferrum · lowest
31,750 median HH income
18.2% of the leader · rank #1
Rural Retreat · this city
60,114
Rural Retreat · this city
60,114 median HH income
34.5% of the leader · rank #2
Elgin · near
60,114
Elgin · near
60,114 median HH income
34.5% of the leader · rank #3
Hebron · near
60,114
Hebron · near
60,114 median HH income
34.5% of the leader · rank #4
Minco · near
60,114
Minco · near
60,114 median HH income
34.5% of the leader · rank #5
Swissvale · near
60,114
Swissvale · near
60,114 median HH income
34.5% of the leader · rank #6
Haymarket · highest
174,306
Haymarket · highest
174,306 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 Rural Retreat 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: 1,614.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Rural Retreat - the verdict
Nationally, Rural Retreat sits in the 35th percentile for household income and the 92nd percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
35th
percentile, household income
33rd
percentile, home value
62nd
percentile, median rent
92nd
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: Rural Retreat, VA
Rural Retreat is a small town in Virginia, home to 1,614 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Rural Retreat brings in $60,114 a year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 21.4%. Typical homes in Rural Retreat are valued around $167,900, and the median resident age is 41.9 years. About 24.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 60.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Rural Retreat reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 328.1 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Virginia tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Virginia at 101.1 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Near Average). 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. 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 Rural Retreat'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 schools and households to reported crime to work and mobility to housing and income to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Rural Retreat, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Population change
Is Rural Retreat growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -22 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.
What does the education layer cover for Rural Retreat?
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 24.4% 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 Rural Retreat?
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 328.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 86% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Which cities make useful reference points for Rural Retreat?
Within Virginia, the closest population matches are Appalachia (1,612 residents, $38,942 income); Coeburn (1,606 residents, $53,750 income); Ferrum (1,622 residents, $31,750 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Crainville, IL (1,614 residents); Van Buren, ME (1,614 residents); Wilson-Conococheague, MD (1,614 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 Rural Retreat?
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 83.4%. 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
6.7%
Drive alone
83.4%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 773 workers age 16+.
How far does income reach against housing in Rural Retreat?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 21.4%, 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
$60,114
Home value
$167,900
Value / income
2.8×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Below median income · poverty 21.4% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
101.1 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Virginia average
D
City profile score · Rural Retreat, VA
44/100
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 A+
0 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share D
24.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$60,114
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
21.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Rural Retreat profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 97/100 (A+) · 0 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 47/100 (D) · 24.4%
Household income: 35/100 (F) · $60,114
Cost of living: 35/100 (F) · 101.1 index
Poverty rate: 11/100 (F) · 21.4%
Where Rural Retreat sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Rural Retreat'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 - Rural Retreat highlighted among 24 peers.Read the chart values
Rural Retreat, VA (this city): home $167,900, crime 328/100k
Chatham, MA : home $1,550,000, crime 687/100k
Coeburn, VA : home $107,800, crime 2,776/100k
Haymarket, VA : home $563,600, crime 761/100k
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 Rural Retreat compare to other US cities?
Where Rural Retreat sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income35% higher than other cities
Home value33% pricier than other cities
Median rent62% pricier than other cities
Safety92% 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, Rural Retreat ranks #3 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 Rural Retreat 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 Rural Retreat near the bottom of Virginia's cities
Among the 619 Virginia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Rural Retreat ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Rural Retreat only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#354 of 558
37th percentile in Virginia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 619
0th percentile in Virginia
Median Home Value
#409 of 567
28th percentile in Virginia
Poverty Rate
#59 of 616
90th percentile in Virginia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#341 of 618
44th 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
35th percentile nationally for median household income · 92nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Rural Retreat's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Rural Retreat'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 Rural Retreat's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$167,900Among the most affordablemore affordable than 67% 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
Rural Retreat's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,544 of 15,516
More affordable than 64% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,820 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.8×, Rural Retreat sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,544 of 15,516 and #4,820 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
$60,114Rural Retreat, VA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Rural Retreat, 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 Rural Retreat, VA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)24.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)21.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)60.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,614
Median Income
$60,114
Median Home Value
$167,900
Median Age
41.9
Poverty Rate
21.4%
Labor force participation
60.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
24.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
328.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
328.1
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
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Rural Retreat's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
1,543 residents
2021
1,536 residents
2022
1,533 residents
2023
1,534 residents
2024
1,525 residents
2025
1,521 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
83.4%
Carpool
7.0%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
2.8%
Work from Home
6.7%
Based on 773 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 Rural Retreat. 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 Rural Retreat 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 Rural Retreat sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Rural Retreat 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.