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Place dossier plate
SheetVT-PLAINFIELD-VT · Plainfield, VT 441 pop · income 12th 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 Plainfield
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Plainfield on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Olive Branch · lowest
27,250
Olive Branch · lowest
27,250 median HH income
31.5% of the leader · rank #1
Agra · near
44,688
Agra · near
44,688 median HH income
51.7% of the leader · rank #2
Plainfield · this city
44,698
Plainfield · this city
44,698 median HH income
51.7% of the leader · rank #3
Elm City · near
44,698
Elm City · near
44,698 median HH income
51.7% of the leader · rank #4
Walnut Cove · near
44,700
Walnut Cove · near
44,700 median HH income
51.7% of the leader · rank #5
Bristol · near
44,706
Bristol · near
44,706 median HH income
51.7% of the leader · rank #6
Hyde Park · highest
86,467
Hyde Park · highest
86,467 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 Plainfield 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: 441.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Plainfield lands in the 12th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
12th
percentile, household income
31st
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: Plainfield, VT
Plainfield is a small town in Vermont, home to 441 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Plainfield brings in $44,698 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 10.7%. Plainfield's housing stock carries a median value of $163,800, and the median resident age is 41.8 years. Educational attainment runs 27.0% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 68.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
NOAA puts Plainfield's yearly average temperature at 41.3°F with 41.0 inches of precipitation per year.
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. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,487 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $251 across Vermont, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Natural-hazard exposure scores 36.4 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Plainfield'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 comparison shortlist to housing and income to work and mobility to schools and households to climate and hazard context; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Plainfield, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Comparison shortlist
Which cities make useful reference points for Plainfield?
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 South Shaftsbury (442 residents, $58,692 income); South Royalton (435 residents); Hyde Park (434 residents, $86,467 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Emmet, AR (441 residents); Portia, AR (441 residents); Lemon Cove, CA (441 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 Plainfield?
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.
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 10.7%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What does the journey to work look like in Plainfield?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 68.3%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
What does the education layer cover for Plainfield?
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 2 public schools within the city match. 27.0% 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.
Climate and hazard context
What physical conditions frame life in Plainfield?
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.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 41.3°F, with 41.0 inches of precipitation. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Vermont is 36.4 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.
FEMA risk index (state avg)
36.4
Annual precipitation
41.0 in
Mean temperature
41.3°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Vermont average
F
City profile score · Plainfield, VT
35/100
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 C-
27.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
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.
Poverty rate F
10.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$44,698
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).
Plainfield profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 53/100 (C-) · 27.0%
Cost of living: 48/100 (D) · 98.0 index
Poverty rate: 37/100 (F) · 10.7%
Household income: 13/100 (F) · $44,698
How does Plainfield compare to other US cities?
Where Plainfield sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income12% higher than other cities
Home value31% 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 Plainfield 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 Plainfield near the bottom of Vermont's cities
Among the 161 Vermont cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Plainfield ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Plainfield only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#131 of 149
12th percentile in Vermont
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 161
0th percentile in Vermont
Median Home Value
#124 of 152
18th percentile in Vermont
Poverty Rate
#38 of 161
76th percentile in Vermont
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#112 of 161
30th 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
12th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Plainfield's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$163,800Among the most affordablemore affordable than 69% 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
Plainfield'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
#9,597 of 15,516
More affordable than 38% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#7,655 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.7×, Plainfield sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,597 of 15,516 and #7,655 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
$44,698Plainfield, VT median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Plainfield, 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 Plainfield, VT.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)27.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)10.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)68.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
441
Median Income
$44,698
Median Home Value
$163,800
Median Age
41.8
Poverty Rate
10.7%
Labor force participation
68.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
27.0%
Climate
Avg Temperature
41.3°F
Annual Precipitation
41.0"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
2
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
68.3%
Carpool
10.7%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
3.6%
Work from Home
17.5%
Based on 252 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 Plainfield. 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 Plainfield 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 Plainfield sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Plainfield 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, NOAA Climate Normals, 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.