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
SheetWI-DOWNING-WI · Downing, WI 250 pop · income 37th 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 Downing
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Downing on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Pembine · lowest
28,672
Pembine · lowest
28,672 median HH income
27.8% of the leader · rank #1
Downing · this city
60,938
Downing · this city
60,938 median HH income
59.0% of the leader · rank #2
Girard · near
60,938
Girard · near
60,938 median HH income
59.0% of the leader · rank #3
Spirit Lake · near
60,938
Spirit Lake · near
60,938 median HH income
59.0% of the leader · rank #4
Wanatah · near
60,938
Wanatah · near
60,938 median HH income
59.0% of the leader · rank #5
Herndon · near
60,938
Herndon · near
60,938 median HH income
59.0% of the leader · rank #6
Jim Falls · highest
103,250
Jim Falls · highest
103,250 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 Downing 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: 250.
Downing ranks in the 37th percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
37th
percentile, household income
32nd
percentile, home value
29th
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: Downing, WI
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 250 residents in Downing, a small town within Wisconsin. Median household income here is $60,938 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 0.0%. Downing's housing stock carries a median value of $163,900, and the median resident age is 41.0 years. 15.7% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 68.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 0 residential units authorized here in 2024 (No Permits).
Living costs in Wisconsin run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Wisconsin at 94.1 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Below Average). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,097 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Wisconsin run around $225, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. The average commute for Downing workers runs 34.1 minutes, with 81.8% driving alone and 3.0% working from home. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 59.1 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Downing'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 population change to comparison shortlist to housing and income to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Downing, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, local building permits, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Is Downing growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -6 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.6% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 0 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 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Downing?
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 Wisconsin, the closest population matches are Pembine (250 residents, $28,672 income); Lake Lorraine (251 residents, $55,208 income); Marquette (248 residents, $58,125 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Carolina, AL (250 residents); Newtown, IN (250 residents); Toronto, KS (250 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 Downing?
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 2.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 0.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What does the journey to work look like in Downing?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 81.8%. The reported mean trip to work is 34.1 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. 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.
Below median income · poverty 0.0% (Very low poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
94.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Wisconsin average
C
City profile score · Downing, WI
57/100
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.
Poverty rate A+
0.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Cost of living B-
94.1 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Household income F
$60,938
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
15.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Downing profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 100/100 (A+) · 0.0%
Cost of living: 68/100 (B-) · 94.1 index
Household income: 36/100 (F) · $60,938
Bachelor's+ share: 22/100 (F) · 15.7%
How does Downing compare to other US cities?
Downing measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income37% higher than other cities
Home value32% pricier than other cities
Median rent29% 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 Downing against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Wisconsin only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Wisconsin-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Downing near the bottom of Wisconsin's cities
Among the 761 Wisconsin cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Downing ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Downing only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#502 of 753
33rd percentile in Wisconsin
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 761
0th percentile in Wisconsin
Median Home Value
#446 of 754
41st percentile in Wisconsin
Poverty Rate
#671 of 761
0th percentile in Wisconsin
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#505 of 761
33rd percentile in Wisconsin
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 Wisconsin only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
37th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Downing's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$163,900Among the most affordablemore affordable than 68% 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
Downing's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,979 of 15,516
More affordable than 68% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,379 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.7×, Downing sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,979 of 15,516 and #4,379 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
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
$60,938Downing, WI median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Downing, WI median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Downing, WI.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)15.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)0.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)68.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
250
Median Income
$60,938
Median Home Value
$163,900
Median Age
41.0
Poverty Rate
0.0%
Labor force participation
68.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
15.7%
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Downing's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
231 residents
2021
230 residents
2022
230 residents
2023
226 residents
2024
225 residents
2025
225 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
Total Permits (2024)
0
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
0
0
0
-
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
1
1
0
$0.3M
2023
0
0
0
-
2024
0
0
0
-
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
34.1 minutes
Drive Alone
81.8%
Carpool
15.2%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
3.0%
Based on 132 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Wisconsin statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $225
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Wisconsin at $225 (electricity about $100 , water and sewer about $45 ).
These are Wisconsin statewide averages, not a meter reading for Downing. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Wisconsin's BEA cost-of-living index is 94.1 (Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Downing is $1,097/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Wisconsin statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 59.1 / 100 (Moderate).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Wisconsin statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Downing sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Downing compares to similar-size Wisconsin 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, 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.