Data Insights: What 31,555 City Profiles Reveal

Most demographic statistics describe one place at a time. These analyses do something different: each one asks a question that can only be answered by computing across our full dataset of 31,555 US cities, towns, and places at once — how many cities are renter-majority, where the retirement towns actually are, which places match the statistical fingerprint of a college town, how far apart the extremes of housing affordability sit. Every figure is computed directly from Census ACS 5-Year Estimates, every claim links to the underlying city profiles, and each article explains its method.

Renter-Majority Cities Where renters outnumber homeowners 439 US cities are renter-majority; Fort Hood tops the list America's Retirement Towns Cities where most residents are 55+ 76 towns are majority-55+; Sun City West peaks at 96.6% The Affordability Cliff Home prices vs. local incomes, city by city From 16.9x income in Monsey to 1.3x in Flint College Towns, Found by Data The demographic signature of a university town 98 cities match the signature; Stanford is the purest Income-Polarized Cities Rich and poor, few in between 39 cities are simultaneously poor and affluent America's Youngest Cities Lowest median ages — and three very different reasons Kiryas Joel has a median age of just 15.1 years The Six-Figure Cities Where $100K households are the majority In 701 US cities, most households earn $100K+ Graduate-Degree Capitals Where a master's is the norm 170 cities where 30%+ of adults hold graduate degrees

Looking for Straight Rankings?

For single-measure comparisons — richest states, largest cities, homeownership rates, and more — see our national rankings. Every state also has its own local rankings and a free CSV download of all its city and county data, linked from its state page. How we handle the data is documented on the methodology page.