Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetVA-WAKEFIELD-VA · Wakefield, VA 12,024 pop · income 99th 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 Wakefield
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Wakefield on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Portales · lowest
51,290
Portales · lowest
51,290 median HH income
21.7% of the leader · rank #1
La Cañada Fli… · near
221,451
La Cañada Fli… · near
221,451 median HH income
93.9% of the leader · rank #2
Trabuco Canyon · near
221,458
Trabuco Canyon · near
221,458 median HH income
93.9% of the leader · rank #3
Wakefield · this city
221,793
Wakefield · this city
221,793 median HH income
94.0% of the leader · rank #4
Rock Ridge · near
222,159
Rock Ridge · near
222,159 median HH income
94.2% of the leader · rank #5
Englewood Cli… · near
222,192
Englewood Cli… · near
222,192 median HH income
94.2% of the leader · rank #6
Wyndham · highest
235,886
Wyndham · highest
235,886 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 Wakefield 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: 12,024.
Nationally, Wakefield sits in the 99th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
99th
percentile, household income
95th
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: Wakefield, VA
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 12,024 residents in Wakefield, a small town within Virginia. Households in Wakefield report a median income of $221,793 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 0.5%. Typical homes in Wakefield are valued around $826,100, and the median resident age is 41.4 years. 73.8% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 65.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 58.9°F with 51.4 inches of precipitation per year and 6.4 inches of snowfall.
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). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,369 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Virginia run around $235, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. The average commute for Wakefield workers runs 22.2 minutes, with 63.1% driving alone and 26.5% working from home. 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 Wakefield'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 climate and hazard context to housing and income to work and mobility to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Wakefield, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What physical conditions frame life in Wakefield?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 58.9°F, with 51.4 inches of precipitation and 6.4 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.
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.
How far does income reach against housing in Wakefield?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 0.5%, 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Wakefield?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 63.1%. The reported mean trip to work is 22.2 minutes.
Which cities make useful reference points for Wakefield?
Within Virginia, the closest population matches are Wyndham (12,084 residents, $235,886 income); Stuarts Draft (11,920 residents, $77,585 income); Dranesville (11,860 residents, $210,766 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are River Edge, NJ (12,024 residents); Bound Brook, NJ (12,023 residents); Portales, NM (12,023 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.
Top-decile income · poverty 0.5% (Very low poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
101.1 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Virginia average
A-
City profile score · Wakefield, VA
83/100
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.
Household income A+
$221,793
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share A+
73.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate A+
0.5%
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 N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Wakefield profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 100/100 (A+) · $221,793
Bachelor's+ share: 100/100 (A+) · 73.8%
Poverty rate: 96/100 (A+) · 0.5%
Cost of living: 35/100 (F) · 101.1 index
How does Wakefield compare to other US cities?
Here's how Wakefield stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income99% higher than other cities
Home value95% 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 Wakefield 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 Wakefield near the bottom of Virginia's cities
Among the 619 Virginia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Wakefield ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Wakefield only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#22 of 558
96th percentile in Virginia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 619
0th percentile in Virginia
Median Home Value
#30 of 567
95th percentile in Virginia
Poverty Rate
#481 of 616
22nd percentile in Virginia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#44 of 618
93rd 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
99th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Wakefield's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$826,1005th percentilemore affordable than 5% 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
Wakefield's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#9,805 of 15,516
More affordable than 37% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,718 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.7×, Wakefield sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,805 of 15,516 and #1,718 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
$221,793Wakefield, VA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Wakefield, 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 Wakefield, VA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)73.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)0.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)65.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
12,024
Median Income
$221,793
Median Home Value
$826,100
Median Age
41.4
Poverty Rate
0.5%
Labor force participation
65.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
73.8%
Climate
Avg Temperature
58.9°F
Annual Precipitation
51.4"
Annual Snowfall
6.4"
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
22.2 minutes
Drive Alone
63.1%
Carpool
5.1%
Public Transit
2.9%
Walk
0.6%
Work from Home
26.5%
Other
1.8%
Based on 5,899 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 Wakefield. 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 Wakefield 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 Wakefield sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Wakefield 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, NOAA Climate Normals, 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.