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Place dossier plate
SheetVA-WINCHESTER-VA · Winchester, VA 27,981 pop · income 42nd pct · 6 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 Winchester
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Winchester on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Henderson · lowest
47,176
Henderson · lowest
47,176 median HH income
35.7% of the leader · rank #1
Wildwood · near
64,643
Wildwood · near
64,643 median HH income
48.9% of the leader · rank #2
Royalton · near
64,643
Royalton · near
64,643 median HH income
48.9% of the leader · rank #3
Fillmore · near
64,643
Fillmore · near
64,643 median HH income
48.9% of the leader · rank #4
Winchester · this city
64,648
Winchester · this city
64,648 median HH income
48.9% of the leader · rank #5
Crystal City · near
64,650
Crystal City · near
64,650 median HH income
48.9% of the leader · rank #6
Short Pump · highest
132,194
Short Pump · highest
132,194 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 Winchester 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: 27,981.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Winchester - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Winchester places in the 42nd percentile for household income and the 21st percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
42nd
percentile, household income
69th
percentile, home value
62nd
percentile, median rent
21st
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: Winchester, VA
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 27,981 residents in Winchester, a small city within Virginia. Winchester households earn a median of $64,648 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 12.3%. Winchester's housing stock carries a median value of $325,900, and the median resident age is 36.7 years. 31.6% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 62.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 91 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 146% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 2566.8 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, near the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Winchester's yearly average temperature at 54.3°F with 40.7 inches of precipitation per year and 23.1 inches of snowfall.
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. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,369 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $235 across Virginia, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Winchester'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 work and mobility to reported crime to housing and income to comparison shortlist to population change to within-city variation to climate and hazard context; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Winchester, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, commute-mode shares, local building permits, matched public-school count.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Winchester?
The NCES join finds 20 public schools within the city match. 31.6% 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 does the journey to work look like in Winchester?
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 72.2%. 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 Winchester?
Within Virginia, the closest population matches are Tysons (28,022 residents, $129,189 income); Short Pump (28,177 residents, $132,194 income); Fredericksburg (28,383 residents, $85,368 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Maryland Heights, MO (27,981 residents); Henderson, KY (27,994 residents); Williston, ND (27,964 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 6 Census tracts reveal inside Winchester?
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.
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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Winchester?
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 2566.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 13% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
2328.5
Violent rate
238.3
Total reported rate
2566.8
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
How far does income reach against housing in Winchester?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 5.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 12.3%, 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.
Household income
$64,648
Home value
$325,900
Value / income
5.0×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Is Winchester growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +269 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 91 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+1.0%
2025 estimate
28,272
2020 estimate
28,003
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What physical conditions frame life in Winchester?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 54.3°F, with 40.7 inches of precipitation and 23.1 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.
Mean temperature
54.3°F
Annual precipitation
40.7 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
33.3
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
Below median income · poverty 12.3% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
101.1 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Virginia average
D
City profile score · Winchester, VA
41/100
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+
31.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime D
238 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income D
$64,648
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
12.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Winchester profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 61/100 (C+) · 31.6%
Violent crime: 42/100 (D) · 238 /100k
Household income: 41/100 (D) · $64,648
Cost of living: 35/100 (F) · 101.1 index
Poverty rate: 31/100 (F) · 12.3%
Where Winchester sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Winchester'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 - Winchester highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Winchester, VA (this city): home $325,900, crime 2,567/100k
Maryland Heights, MO : home $215,300, crime 1,499/100k
Henderson, KY : home $151,400, crime 2,134/100k
Williston, ND : home $262,700, crime 2,753/100k
New Iberia, LA : home $150,300, crime 4,135/100k
Danvers, MA : home $611,200, crime 1,618/100k
Fredericksburg, VA : home $461,500, crime 3,674/100k
Staunton, VA : home $239,300, crime 1,648/100k
How does Winchester compare to other US cities?
Where Winchester sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income42% higher than other cities
Home value69% pricier than other cities
Median rent62% pricier than other cities
Safety21% 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, Winchester ranks #84 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 Winchester 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 Winchester near the bottom of Virginia's cities
Among the 619 Virginia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Winchester ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Winchester only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#324 of 558
42nd percentile in Virginia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 619
0th percentile in Virginia
Median Home Value
#207 of 567
63rd percentile in Virginia
Poverty Rate
#156 of 616
75th percentile in Virginia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#266 of 618
57th 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
42nd percentile nationally for median household income · 21st percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Winchester's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Winchester'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 Winchester's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$325,90031st percentilemore affordable than 31% 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
Winchester's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#12,963 of 15,516
More affordable than 16% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,632 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 5.0×, Winchester sits in the pressured band:
national rank #12,963 of 15,516 and #2,632 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$64,648Winchester, VA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Winchester, 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 Winchester, VA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)31.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)12.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)62.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
27,981
Median Income
$64,648
Median Home Value
$325,900
Median Age
36.7
Poverty Rate
12.3%
Labor force participation
62.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
31.6%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2566.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
238.3
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2328.5
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
54.3°F
Annual Precipitation
40.7"
Annual Snowfall
23.1"
Schools
Total Schools
20
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Winchester's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
28,003 residents
2021
28,088 residents
2022
27,963 residents
2023
27,864 residents
2024
28,082 residents
2025
28,272 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
91
housing units authorized
Single-Family
39
detached homes
Multifamily
52
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
3.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
37
37
0
$2.5M
2020
18
6
12
$2.8M
2021
209
20
189
$32.1M
2022
259
22
237
$42.9M
2023
66
66
0
$12.0M
2024
91
39
52
$9.3M
Permit volume increased 146% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
72.2%
Carpool
8.8%
Public Transit
1.0%
Walk
3.9%
Work from Home
13.3%
Other
0.8%
Based on 13,717 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 Winchester. 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 Winchester 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 Winchester sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Winchester 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.