Reference

U.S. City Statistics

The national reference figures behind PlainCities -- population, crime, climate, and school coverage across every tracked U.S. city.

Data as of · figures update with each data refresh

PlainCities tracks 28,702 U.S. cities, towns, and census-designated places across 52 states and territories, home to 252,133,314 residents according to Census ACS 5-Year 2023 estimates. This page collects the national reference figures behind the site, with the methodology for every derived number.

Cities tracked
28,702
States & territories
52
Residents covered
252,133,314
Public schools counted
85,574

Key findings

Headline figures from the federal data, free to cite, with attribution to PlainCities (July 2026).

  • 28,702 U.S. cities, towns, and census-designated places are profiled, spanning 52 states and territories.
  • 252,133,314 residents live across the 28,702 tracked places, according to Census ACS 5-Year 2023 estimates.
  • 7,392 of the 28,702 tracked cities report crime data to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program, 26% of all places tracked.
  • 3,526 cities have a NOAA climate-monitoring station with 30-year (1991-2020) average temperature normals on file.
  • 85,574 public schools are counted across 15,093 cities, per the National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data.
  • 16.5 per 100,000 residents is the lowest reported violent-plus-property crime rate of any U.S. city with a population of 5,000+ that reports to the FBI, held by Worcester, Massachusetts.
  • 8,516,202 residents make New York, New York the most populous city tracked on PlainCities, per Census ACS 5-Year 2023 estimates.
  • 769 public schools are counted in Houston, Texas, the most of any city tracked, per NCES Common Core of Data.

Data coverage by source

Not every federal dataset covers every place. Population, income, housing, and demographic figures come from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey and cover all 28,702 tracked places. Crime data covers 7,392 cities that voluntarily report to the FBI's UCR program, 26% of the total. Climate normals cover 3,526 cities with an NOAA monitoring station. School counts cover 15,093 cities with at least one public school in the NCES Common Core of Data. See the methodology for the full source list and join logic.

Using these figures

Every number on this page is read directly from the underlying federal dataset at the data vintage shown above, nothing is estimated or hand-entered. Figures change when the source agency publishes new files and our pipeline ingests them, so a citation should include the as-of date. PlainCities does not rate, rank, or recommend places to live, these statistics describe population, reported crime, climate normals, and school counts, not livability or safety in any predictive sense.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, FBI, NOAA, and NCES American Community Survey; Uniform Crime Reporting Program; U.S. Climate Normals; Common Core of Data · July 2026 Aggregates computed by PlainCities from the official files.

Every figure on PlainCities is rendered directly from Census ACS source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page's figures are live aggregates (SUM/COUNT) over the same city-level Census/FBI/NOAA/NCES data rendered throughout the site. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of July 2026.