The StateDemographics Blog
We run the numbers on all 31,555 US cities, towns, and places. This is where we explain what those numbers mean — how to read a median, what the poverty line actually measures, why two towns with the same paycheck can feel worlds apart — and share original findings pulled straight from the Census data.
Explainer
The Fine Print on Small-Town Census Numbers
Every ACS estimate is a survey result with a margin of error, and for small places that margin can be huge. Here's how to read demographic data for a town of 2,000 without being fooled by false precision.
Analysis Same Paycheck, Different Life: Why Identical Incomes Don't Mean Equal Living Cities with the same ~$73,000 median income where homes cost anywhere from 3x to 10x local earnings — and what that ratio really means.
Analysis Where College Degrees Cluster in America 35% of adults hold a bachelor's degree nationally; in some cities it tops 85% — and the top of the list splits into two distinct kinds of place.
Analysis America's High-Income Small Towns, Mapped From the Data The small towns where the typical household out-earns nearly everywhere else — and the three corridors they cluster in.
Explainer What the Poverty Rate Actually Measures A 1960s formula, the same dollar threshold nationwide, and most benefits left out — what the official poverty line does and doesn't capture.
Explainer How the Census Measures Race and Ethnicity Race and Hispanic origin are two separate questions — which is why the shares don't behave the way people expect.
Analysis Renters and Owners: What Housing Tenure Reveals About a Place Homeownership runs at 65% nationally — but in 218 larger cities renters are the majority, and the pattern isn't random.
Guide The 30% Rule: Where a Familiar Housing Benchmark Comes From The origin of the 'spend no more than 30%' benchmark, how cost burden is measured, and why it's a floor, not a verdict.
Explainer City, Town, CDP: What the Census Actually Counts as a Place Incorporated cities, towns, villages, and the 12,000-plus 'CDPs' that look like towns but legally aren't.
Explainer How to Read a Median Household Income Figure What the median actually counts, why it's not an average, and the traps that make two towns with the same figure feel nothing alike.
Analysis How to Measure the Diversity of a Place A single number for how mixed a place is — and why some heavily minority cities score as the least diverse of all.
Explainer The Unemployment Rate's Blind Spot A low unemployment rate can hide an economy where half of adults aren't working at all. Here's the number that catches it.
Explainer How to Read a Median Home Value The Census home value is what owners estimate their homes are worth — not a sale price or an appraisal. That matters.
Analysis What a Median Age Reveals About a Place The national median age is 38.7 — but towns range from 17 to 74, and the extremes reveal what drives the number.
Explainer What the Census Means by a 'Household' A household isn't a family — and the gap between the two quietly bends median income, poverty, and housing figures.
Prefer the raw numbers?
Every article here links back to the underlying data. Jump straight to our national rankings, the computed data insights, or look up any place with the income percentile and home affordability calculators.