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
SheetWY-ROCK-SPRINGS-WY · Rock Springs, WY 23,229 pop · income 54th pct · 13 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 Rock Springs
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Rock Springs on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Athens · lowest
37,059
Athens · lowest
37,059 median HH income
20.4% of the leader · rank #1
Rock Springs · this city
73,307
Rock Springs · this city
73,307 median HH income
40.3% of the leader · rank #2
Estes Park · near
73,313
Estes Park · near
73,313 median HH income
40.3% of the leader · rank #3
Post Falls · near
73,313
Post Falls · near
73,313 median HH income
40.3% of the leader · rank #4
Four Square M… · near
73,318
Four Square M… · near
73,318 median HH income
40.3% of the leader · rank #5
Bridgeton · near
73,320
Bridgeton · near
73,320 median HH income
40.3% of the leader · rank #6
Union Hill-No… · highest
181,820
Union Hill-No… · highest
181,820 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 Rock Springs 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: 23,229.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Rock Springs - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Rock Springs places in the 54th percentile for household income and the 49th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
54th
percentile, household income
55th
percentile, home value
18th
percentile, median rent
49th
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: Rock Springs, WY
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 23,229 residents in Rock Springs, a small city within Wyoming. Rock Springs households earn a median of $73,307 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 14.6%. Typical homes in Rock Springs are valued around $245,600, and the median resident age is 35.8 years. About 21.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 64.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 17 residential building permits were authorized in Rock Springs (Construction Slowdown), down 70% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Rock Springs reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 1404.9 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Rock Springs's yearly average temperature at 43.7°F with 7.5 inches of precipitation per year and 54.0 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). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,044 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $180 across Wyoming, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. The average commute for Rock Springs workers runs 19.3 minutes, with 81.3% driving alone and 1.9% working from home. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 37.9 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Rock Springs'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 reported crime to climate and hazard context to work and mobility to schools and households to comparison shortlist to within-city variation to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Rock Springs, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, local building permits, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
Is Rock Springs growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -554 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 17 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Rock Springs?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1404.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 38% lower 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Rock Springs?
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 Wyoming, the closest population matches are Sheridan (19,035 residents, $61,598 income); Laramie (31,848 residents, $52,414 income); Gillette (33,278 residents, $90,699 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are North Salt Lake, UT (23,239 residents); Linda, CA (23,215 residents); Athens, OH (23,211 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.
What can 13 Census tracts reveal inside Rock Springs?
PlainCities matches 13 Census tracts to this city.
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.
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 Rock Springs?
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 43.7°F, with 7.5 inches of precipitation and 54.0 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.
FEMA risk index (state avg)
37.9
Annual precipitation
7.5 in
Mean temperature
43.7°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
What does the journey to work look like in Rock Springs?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 81.3%. The reported mean trip to work is 19.3 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.
Drive alone
81.3%
Work from home
1.9%
Public transit
1.8%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 11,318 workers age 16+.
What does the education layer cover for Rock Springs?
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 10 public schools within the city match. 21.4% 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
14.6%
Bachelor's degree+
21.4%
Matched public schools
10
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
How far does income reach against housing in Rock Springs?
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 3.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 14.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
3.4×
Home value
$245,600
Household income
$73,307
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Above median income · poverty 14.6% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
92.7 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Wyoming average
C-
City profile score · Rock Springs, WY
51/100
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 C+
127 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income C-
$73,307
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
21.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
14.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Rock Springs profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 75/100 (B+) · 92.7 index
Violent crime: 64/100 (C+) · 127 /100k
Household income: 53/100 (C-) · $73,307
Bachelor's+ share: 38/100 (F) · 21.4%
Poverty rate: 23/100 (F) · 14.6%
Where Rock Springs sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Rock Springs'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 - Rock Springs highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Rock Springs, WY (this city): home $245,600, crime 1,405/100k
North Salt Lake, UT : home $469,800, crime 1,029/100k
Athens, OH : home $242,200, crime 1,060/100k
Wilmington, MA : home $646,200, crime 1,177/100k
Sheridan, WY : home $295,300, crime 1,126/100k
Laramie, WY : home $302,200, crime 1,293/100k
Gillette, WY : home $257,200, crime 1,716/100k
Evanston, WY : home $236,400, crime 2,022/100k
Green River, WY : home $255,600, crime 851/100k
Riverton, WY : home $204,900, crime 4,689/100k
How does Rock Springs compare to other US cities?
Where Rock Springs sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income54% higher than other cities
Home value55% pricier than other cities
Median rent18% pricier than other cities
Safety49% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Wyoming alone, Rock Springs ranks #16 of 24 Wyoming cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Rock Springs 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 Rock Springs near the bottom of Wyoming's cities
Among the 150 Wyoming cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Rock Springs ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Rock Springs only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#61 of 135
55th percentile in Wyoming
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 150
0th percentile in Wyoming
Median Home Value
#58 of 128
55th percentile in Wyoming
Poverty Rate
#24 of 149
83rd percentile in Wyoming
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#74 of 150
51st 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
54th percentile nationally for median household income · 49th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Rock Springs's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Rock Springs'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 Rock Springs's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$245,60045th percentilemore affordable than 45% 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
Rock Springs's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#8,339 of 15,516
More affordable than 46% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,339 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.4×, Rock Springs sits in the moderate band:
national rank #8,339 of 15,516 and #1,339 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
$73,307Rock Springs, WY median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Rock Springs, 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 Rock Springs, WY.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)21.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)14.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)64.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
23,229
Median Income
$73,307
Median Home Value
$245,600
Median Age
35.8
Poverty Rate
14.6%
Labor force participation
64.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
21.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1404.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
127.3
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1277.5
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
43.7°F
Annual Precipitation
7.5"
Annual Snowfall
54.0"
Schools
Total Schools
10
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Rock Springs's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
23,490 residents
2021
23,182 residents
2022
23,001 residents
2023
22,987 residents
2024
23,015 residents
2025
22,936 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
17
housing units authorized
Single-Family
17
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
57
57
0
$15.9M
2020
39
39
0
$9.9M
2021
31
31
0
$9.5M
2022
20
20
0
$7.9M
2023
23
23
0
$9.0M
2024
17
17
0
$6.9M
Permit volume decreased 70% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
19.3 minutes
Drive Alone
81.3%
Carpool
12.8%
Public Transit
1.8%
Walk
1.0%
Work from Home
1.9%
Other
1.2%
Based on 11,318 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 Rock Springs. 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 Rock Springs 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 Rock Springs sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Rock Springs 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.