Compare U.S. Cities
Compare two to four U.S. cities by population, income, rent, home values and demographics. See Census sources, survey uncertainty and side-by-side differences.
Choose two to four cities or towns from all 19,483 published place profiles. Type a name, then choose a suggestion. Population estimates refer to July 1, 2025. Housing, income and resident measures use ACS 2020–2024. Differences are calculated from the first city in the comparison; ordering is normalized by city slug so a shared selection has one stable representation.
Three cities selected. The table updates when you change a selection.
| Measure | Austin | San Antonio | Seattle |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income ACS 2020–2024 · USD/year | $93,658 ±$1,670 | $65,056 ±$776 | $123,860 ±$2,244 |
| Median owner-occupied home value ACS 2020–2024 · USD | $555,300 ±$8,017 | $235,700 ±$2,304 | $938,600 ±$8,494 |
| Median gross rent ACS 2020–2024 · USD/month | $1,729 ±$14 | $1,324 ±$12 | $2,030 ±$22 |
| Median age ACS 2020–2024 · years | 34.7 ±0.2 | 34.9 ±0.2 | 35.6 ±0.2 |
What the differences mean
An absolute difference is the selected city’s value minus the first city’s value. A relative difference divides that difference by the first city’s value. Percentage measures also show the difference in percentage points. Population growth is an estimate-to-estimate change from 2024 to 2025 within Vintage 2025, rather than a forecast of next year’s growth.
A price difference between median rents does not tell you the difference for a matching apartment size or neighborhood. A home-value difference does not account for mortgage rates, down payments or an individual borrower’s income. Comparing the home-value and income medians is useful for context but does not establish the affordability of a specific household.
Coverage and uncertainty
All columns describe the named Census PEP places, with their entity types shown in the headings. County and metropolitan figures are not substituted into the city table. ACS estimates are survey results with 90% margins of error; small categories may have low precision. Displayed differences are comparisons of point estimates and are not significance tests. Missing source values appear as unavailable and are never converted into zero.
The initial selection connects the Austin benchmark with San Antonio and Seattle to show a same-state alternative and a higher-cost housing comparison. Change the selection to any covered place, including small towns and villages. A city with a lower rent can also have a different income, housing tenure or share of work from home. This tool assigns no overall winner.
Save, share and verify
The shortlist is stored in this browser on this device. A saved selection has no account and is not synchronized across devices. The shareable URL includes only the selected city slugs and reproduces the table when opened elsewhere. Search and arbitrary filter combinations do not create new indexed comparison pages.
For a full national population comparison, use the city directory and its CSV export. The observation download retains source cells and uncertainty, and the methodology documents the formulas. Report a mismatch between a source, profile and comparison table.