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Place dossier plate
SheetVT-SOUTH-BURLINGTON-VT · South Burlington, VT 20,488 pop · income 76th 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 South Burlington
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest South Burlington on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Adrian · lowest
42,851
Adrian · lowest
42,851 median HH income
26.4% of the leader · rank #1
Arbutus · near
97,215
Arbutus · near
97,215 median HH income
59.9% of the leader · rank #2
Grantsville · near
97,216
Grantsville · near
97,216 median HH income
59.9% of the leader · rank #3
Pikesville · near
97,218
Pikesville · near
97,218 median HH income
59.9% of the leader · rank #4
South Burling… · this city
97,229
South Burling… · this city
97,229 median HH income
59.9% of the leader · rank #5
Pima · near
97,238
Pima · near
97,238 median HH income
59.9% of the leader · rank #6
Libertyville · highest
162,270
Libertyville · highest
162,270 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 South Burlington 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: 20,488.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
South Burlington - the verdict
Nationally, South Burlington sits in the 76th percentile for household income and the 5th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
76th
percentile, household income
77th
percentile, home value
73rd
percentile, median rent
5th
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: South Burlington, VT
20,488 people live in South Burlington, Vermont - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in South Burlington report a median income of $97,229 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 4.5%. Typical homes in South Burlington are valued around $399,600, and the median resident age is 38.8 years. Educational attainment runs 65.1% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 69.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 66 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 30% from five years earlier. South Burlington's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 4619.7 crimes per 100,000 residents, above the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score).
Vermont tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Vermont at 98.0 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Near Average). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,487 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $251 across Vermont, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Workers in South Burlington report an average commute of 15.8 minutes, with 71.4% driving alone and 16.3% 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 South Burlington'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 housing and income to reported crime to work and mobility to population change to schools and households to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For South Burlington, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, local building permits, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in South Burlington?
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 4.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 4.5%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What can the FBI record say about safety in South Burlington?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 4619.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 103% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
What does the journey to work look like in South Burlington?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 71.4%. The reported mean trip to work is 15.8 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. 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for South Burlington?
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.
Within Vermont, the closest population matches are Rutland (15,747 residents, $55,000 income); Essex Junction (10,720 residents, $94,423 income); Bennington (8,888 residents, $53,839 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Westbrook, ME (20,484 residents); Libertyville, IL (20,493 residents); Adrian, MI (20,493 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.
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 South Burlington growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +1,152 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +5.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 66 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
2020 estimate
20,242
2025 estimate
21,394
Period change
+5.7%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the education layer cover for South Burlington?
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.
The NCES join finds 5 public schools within the city match. 65.1% 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.
Poverty estimate
4.5%
Bachelor's degree+
65.1%
Matched public schools
5
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Vermont average
B-
City profile score · South Burlington, VT
65/100
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 A+
65.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income B+
$97,229
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate B-
4.5%
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.
Violent crime D
235 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
South Burlington profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 95/100 (A+) · 65.1%
Household income: 76/100 (B+) · $97,229
Poverty rate: 69/100 (B-) · 4.5%
Cost of living: 48/100 (D) · 98.0 index
Violent crime: 43/100 (D) · 235 /100k
Where South Burlington sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
South Burlington'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 - South Burlington highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
South Burlington, VT (this city): home $399,600, crime 4,620/100k
Westbrook, ME : home $341,800, crime 1,330/100k
Libertyville, IL : home $499,300, crime 617/100k
Adrian, MI : home $119,900, crime 2,968/100k
Golden, CO : home $790,500, crime 2,511/100k
Rutland, VT : home $176,400, crime 4,269/100k
Bennington, VT : home $185,100, crime 2,855/100k
Barre, VT : home $200,100, crime 3,577/100k
Winooski, VT : home $350,700, crime 2,944/100k
Montpelier, VT : home $349,200, crime 2,298/100k
How does South Burlington compare to other US cities?
Here's how South Burlington stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income76% higher than other cities
Home value77% pricier than other cities
Median rent73% pricier than other cities
Safety5% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at Vermont, South Burlington ranks #27 of 30 Vermont cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares South Burlington 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 South Burlington near the bottom of Vermont's cities
Among the 161 Vermont cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, South Burlington ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares South Burlington only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#18 of 149
88th percentile in Vermont
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 161
0th percentile in Vermont
Median Home Value
#13 of 152
91st percentile in Vermont
Poverty Rate
#74 of 161
53rd percentile in Vermont
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#13 of 161
92nd 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
76th percentile nationally for median household income · 5th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
South Burlington's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
South Burlington'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 South Burlington's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$399,60023rd percentilemore affordable than 23% 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
South Burlington's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,006 of 15,516
More affordable than 29% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,077 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 4.1×, South Burlington sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,006 of 15,516 and #2,077 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
$97,229South Burlington, VT median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context South Burlington, 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 South Burlington, VT.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)65.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)4.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)69.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
20,488
Median Income
$97,229
Median Home Value
$399,600
Median Age
38.8
Poverty Rate
4.5%
Labor force participation
69.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
65.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
4619.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
234.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
4385.0
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.
Schools
Total Schools
5
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
South Burlington's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
20,242 residents
2021
20,321 residents
2022
20,624 residents
2023
20,993 residents
2024
21,578 residents
2025
21,394 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
66
housing units authorized
Single-Family
62
detached homes
Multifamily
4
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
3.2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
94
39
55
$15.4M
2020
92
40
52
$20.0M
2021
247
42
205
$32.1M
2022
414
34
380
$92.4M
2023
419
27
392
$66.9M
2024
66
62
4
$25.5M
Permit volume decreased 30% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
15.8 minutes
Drive Alone
71.4%
Carpool
6.5%
Public Transit
1.6%
Walk
1.4%
Work from Home
16.3%
Other
2.8%
Based on 11,891 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 South Burlington. 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 South Burlington 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 South Burlington sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How South Burlington 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, FBI UCR, 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.