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Place dossier plate
SheetWY-BUFFALO-WY · Buffalo, WY 4,516 pop · income 38th pct · 3 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 Buffalo
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Buffalo on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Dardanelle · lowest
43,287
Dardanelle · lowest
43,287 median HH income
25.1% of the leader · rank #1
McComb · near
61,809
McComb · near
61,809 median HH income
35.9% of the leader · rank #2
Buffalo · this city
61,813
Buffalo · this city
61,813 median HH income
35.9% of the leader · rank #3
Youngsville · near
61,813
Youngsville · near
61,813 median HH income
35.9% of the leader · rank #4
Reader · near
61,815
Reader · near
61,815 median HH income
35.9% of the leader · rank #5
Delano · near
61,817
Delano · near
61,817 median HH income
35.9% of the leader · rank #6
Prospect · highest
172,361
Prospect · highest
172,361 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 Buffalo 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: 4,516.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Buffalo - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Buffalo places in the 38th percentile for household income and the 70th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
38th
percentile, household income
60th
percentile, home value
18th
percentile, median rent
70th
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: Buffalo, WY
Wyoming's Buffalo is a small town, with 4,516 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in Buffalo report a median income of $61,813 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 8.6%. Buffalo's housing stock carries a median value of $272,300, and the median resident age is 49.4 years. About 30.9% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 52.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 7 residential building permits were authorized in Buffalo (Construction Slowdown), down 59% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Buffalo reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 853.4 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Buffalo's yearly average temperature at 43.4°F with 13.8 inches of precipitation per year and 42.7 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in Wyoming run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Wyoming at 92.7 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Below Average). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,044 per month. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Wyoming's average monthly utility costs around $180 (state average). Natural-hazard exposure scores 37.9 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Buffalo'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 climate and hazard context to reported crime to within-city variation to comparison shortlist to schools and households to work and mobility to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Buffalo, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Buffalo?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 8.6%, 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.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 43.4°F, with 13.8 inches of precipitation and 42.7 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Wyoming is 37.9 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.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Buffalo?
Within Wyoming, the closest population matches are South Greeley (4,596 residents, $53,625 income); Mills (4,315 residents, $55,594 income); Worland (4,788 residents, $60,603 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Dardanelle, AR (4,517 residents); Heritage, CT (4,517 residents); Seat Pleasant, MD (4,515 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.
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 Buffalo?
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 853.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 63% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
768.1
Violent rate
85.3
Total reported rate
853.4
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
The NCES join finds 5 public schools within the city match. 30.9% 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.
Matched public schools
5
Bachelor's degree+
30.9%
Poverty estimate
8.6%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in Buffalo?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 66.6%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
1.2%
Work from home
17.2%
Drive alone
66.6%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 1,943 workers age 16+.
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +291 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +6.6% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 7 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
+6.6%
2025 estimate
4,733
2020 estimate
4,442
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Below median income · poverty 8.6% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
92.7 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Wyoming average
C
City profile score · Buffalo, WY
57/100
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.
Cost of living B+
92.7 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 B
85 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share C
30.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate D
8.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$61,813
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Buffalo profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 75/100 (B+) · 92.7 index
Violent crime: 74/100 (B) · 85 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 59/100 (C) · 30.9%
Poverty rate: 45/100 (D) · 8.6%
Household income: 37/100 (F) · $61,813
Where Buffalo sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Buffalo'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 - Buffalo highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Buffalo, WY (this city): home $272,300, crime 853/100k
Dardanelle, AR : home $123,200, crime 1,155/100k
Seat Pleasant, MD : home $296,600, crime 4,565/100k
Prospect, KY : home $494,000, crime 703/100k
Mills, WY : home $166,800, crime 693/100k
Worland, WY : home $176,300, crime 772/100k
Newcastle, WY : home $173,500, crime 935/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Buffalo compare to other US cities?
Buffalo measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income38% higher than other cities
Home value60% pricier than other cities
Median rent18% pricier than other cities
Safety70% 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 Wyoming, Buffalo ranks #8 of 24 Wyoming 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 Buffalo against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Wyoming only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Wyoming-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Buffalo near the bottom of Wyoming's cities
Among the 150 Wyoming cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Buffalo ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Buffalo only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#94 of 135
30th percentile in Wyoming
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 150
0th percentile in Wyoming
Median Home Value
#46 of 128
64th percentile in Wyoming
Poverty Rate
#51 of 149
66th percentile in Wyoming
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#39 of 150
74th percentile in Wyoming
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 Wyoming only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
38th percentile nationally for median household income · 70th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Buffalo's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Buffalo'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 Buffalo's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$272,30040th percentilemore affordable than 40% 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
Buffalo's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,776 of 15,516
More affordable than 24% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#9,046 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.4×, Buffalo sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,776 of 15,516 and #9,046 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
$61,813Buffalo, WY median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Buffalo, WY median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Buffalo, WY.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)30.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)8.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)52.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
4,516
Median Income
$61,813
Median Home Value
$272,300
Median Age
49.4
Poverty Rate
8.6%
Labor force participation
52.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
30.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
853.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
85.3
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
768.1
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
43.4°F
Annual Precipitation
13.8"
Annual Snowfall
42.7"
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
Buffalo's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
4,442 residents
2021
4,537 residents
2022
4,620 residents
2023
4,657 residents
2024
4,686 residents
2025
4,733 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
7
housing units authorized
Single-Family
7
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.6
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
17
15
2
$4.6M
2020
18
16
2
$5.1M
2021
37
37
0
$11.4M
2022
13
13
0
$4.3M
2023
16
16
0
$6.0M
2024
7
7
0
$2.9M
Permit volume decreased 59% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
66.6%
Carpool
5.5%
Public Transit
1.2%
Walk
8.9%
Work from Home
17.2%
Other
0.6%
Based on 1,943 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Wyoming statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $180
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Wyoming at $180 (electricity about $85 , water and sewer about $40 ).
These are Wyoming statewide averages, not a meter reading for Buffalo. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Wyoming's BEA cost-of-living index is 92.7 (Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Buffalo is $1,044/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Wyoming statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 37.9 / 100 (Very Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Wyoming statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Buffalo sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Buffalo compares to similar-size Wyoming 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.