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Place dossier plate
SheetVT-CAMBRIDGE-VT · Cambridge, VT 173 pop · income 20th 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 Cambridge
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Cambridge on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Waitsfield · lowest
23,068
Waitsfield · lowest
23,068 median HH income
19.5% of the leader · rank #1
Flora · near
50,588
Flora · near
50,588 median HH income
42.9% of the leader · rank #2
Cambridge · this city
50,595
Cambridge · this city
50,595 median HH income
42.9% of the leader · rank #3
Zihlman · near
50,595
Zihlman · near
50,595 median HH income
42.9% of the leader · rank #4
East Arcadia · near
50,595
East Arcadia · near
50,595 median HH income
42.9% of the leader · rank #5
Vader · near
50,598
Vader · near
50,598 median HH income
42.9% of the leader · rank #6
Bolton Valley · highest
118,036
Bolton Valley · highest
118,036 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 Cambridge 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: 173.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Cambridge lands in the 20th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
20th
percentile, household income
54th
percentile, home value
73rd
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: Cambridge, VT
173 people live in Cambridge, Vermont - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $50,595 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 6.3%. Cambridge's housing stock carries a median value of $241,100, and the median resident age is 32.8 years. Educational attainment runs 37.1% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 84.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 1 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
Vermont tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: the state registers 98.0 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Near Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,487 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Vermont's average monthly utility costs around $251 (state average). The average commute for Cambridge workers runs 29.5 minutes, with 86.5% driving alone and 7.5% working from home. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 36.4 out of 100 (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Cambridge'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 to schools and households to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Cambridge, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Cambridge?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 86.5%. The reported mean trip to work is 29.5 minutes.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. The profile is strongly car-oriented, so a relocation comparison should put trip distance, vehicle access, and household fuel costs ahead of a citywide commute average. The same-state peer links offer a more relevant benchmark than a national label.
Which cities make useful reference points for Cambridge?
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.
Within Vermont, the closest population matches are Bolton Valley (177 residents, $118,036 income); Irasburg (167 residents, $67,083 income); Danby (166 residents, $62,500 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Allakaket, AK (173 residents); Tanacross, AK (173 residents); Brinson, GA (173 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Cambridge?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 6.3%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What does the education layer cover for Cambridge?
The matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 37.1% 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.
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.
Population change
Is Cambridge growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -7 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -3.5% 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.
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.
2020 estimate
199
2025 estimate
192
Period change
-3.5%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Vermont average
D
City profile score · Cambridge, VT
46/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share B
37.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate C
6.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Cost of living D
98.0 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
$50,595
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Cambridge profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 70/100 (B) · 37.1%
Poverty rate: 57/100 (C) · 6.3%
Cost of living: 48/100 (D) · 98.0 index
Household income: 21/100 (F) · $50,595
How does Cambridge compare to other US cities?
Cambridge measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income20% higher than other cities
Home value54% pricier than other cities
Median rent73% 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 Cambridge against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Vermont only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Vermont-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Cambridge near the bottom of Vermont's cities
Among the 161 Vermont cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Cambridge ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Cambridge only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#119 of 149
20th percentile in Vermont
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 161
0th percentile in Vermont
Median Home Value
#72 of 152
53rd percentile in Vermont
Poverty Rate
#61 of 161
62nd percentile in Vermont
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#72 of 161
55th percentile in Vermont
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 Vermont only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
20th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Cambridge's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$241,10046th percentilemore affordable than 46% 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
Cambridge's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#12,490 of 15,516
More affordable than 20% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#9,508 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.8×, Cambridge sits in the moderate band:
national rank #12,490 of 15,516 and #9,508 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$50,595Cambridge, VT median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Cambridge, VT median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Cambridge, VT.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)37.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)6.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)84.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
173
Median Income
$50,595
Median Home Value
$241,100
Median Age
32.8
Poverty Rate
6.3%
Labor force participation
84.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
37.1%
Schools
Total Schools
1
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Cambridge's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
199 residents
2021
201 residents
2022
197 residents
2023
195 residents
2024
192 residents
2025
192 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
29.5 minutes
Drive Alone
86.5%
Carpool
6.0%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
7.5%
Based on 133 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Vermont statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $251
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Vermont at $251 (electricity about $105 , water and sewer about $48 ).
These are Vermont statewide averages, not a meter reading for Cambridge. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Vermont's BEA cost-of-living index is 98.0 (Near Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Cambridge is $1,487/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Vermont statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 36.4 / 100 (Very Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Vermont statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Cambridge sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Cambridge compares to similar-size Vermont 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, 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.