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Place dossier plate
SheetVA-SHIPMAN-VA · Shipman, VA 489 pop · income 14th 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 Shipman
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Shipman on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Newton · lowest
31,538
Newton · lowest
31,538 median HH income
34.5% of the leader · rank #1
Ford · near
45,976
Ford · near
45,976 median HH income
50.3% of the leader · rank #2
Shipman · this city
45,982
Shipman · this city
45,982 median HH income
50.3% of the leader · rank #3
Springfield · near
45,984
Springfield · near
45,984 median HH income
50.3% of the leader · rank #4
Marietta · near
45,986
Marietta · near
45,986 median HH income
50.3% of the leader · rank #5
Harrisville · near
45,988
Harrisville · near
45,988 median HH income
50.3% of the leader · rank #6
Fairfield · highest
91,354
Fairfield · highest
91,354 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 Shipman 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: 489.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Shipman lands in the 14th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
14th
percentile, household income
53rd
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: Shipman, VA
489 people live in Shipman, Virginia - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Shipman report a median income of $45,982 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 20.0%. Typical homes in Shipman are valued around $237,900, and the median resident age is 42.1 years. 7.6% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 46.5% 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. 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. 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 Shipman'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 work and mobility to comparison shortlist to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Shipman, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Shipman?
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 76.8%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Which cities make useful reference points for Shipman?
Within Virginia, the closest population matches are Burkeville (489 residents, $53,542 income); Scottsville (488 residents, $46,563 income); Boykins (484 residents, $57,917 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Newton, GA (489 residents); Lewisville, ID (489 residents); Hillsdale, IL (489 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 Shipman?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 5.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 20.0%, 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. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Virginia average
F
City profile score · Shipman, VA
17/100
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.
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
$45,982
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
20.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
7.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Shipman profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 35/100 (F) · 101.1 index
Household income: 15/100 (F) · $45,982
Poverty rate: 13/100 (F) · 20.0%
Bachelor's+ share: 0/100 (F) · 7.6%
How does Shipman compare to other US cities?
Here's how Shipman stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income14% higher than other cities
Home value53% 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 Shipman 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 Shipman near the bottom of Virginia's cities
Among the 619 Virginia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Shipman ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Shipman only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#462 of 558
17th percentile in Virginia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 619
0th percentile in Virginia
Median Home Value
#312 of 567
45th percentile in Virginia
Poverty Rate
#67 of 616
89th percentile in Virginia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#552 of 618
11th 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
14th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Shipman's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$237,90047th percentilemore affordable than 47% 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
Shipman's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#13,152 of 15,516
More affordable than 15% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#9,907 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 5.2×, Shipman sits in the pressured band:
national rank #13,152 of 15,516 and #9,907 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median, a comparison flag, not a verdict on any household.
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
$45,982Shipman, VA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Shipman, 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 Shipman, VA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)7.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)20.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)46.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
489
Median Income
$45,982
Median Home Value
$237,900
Median Age
42.1
Poverty Rate
20.0%
Labor force participation
46.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
7.6%
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
76.8%
Carpool
0.0%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
11.6%
Other
11.6%
Based on 164 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 Shipman. 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 Shipman 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 Shipman sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Shipman 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.