City safety & data profile
AltoonaPA
Altoona, PA is a 45K-resident city in Blair County with a median household income of $51,250.
Blair County, Pennsylvania. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Altoona, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Altoona has a population larger than 77% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $119,900, and 2 hospitals serving the surrounding area.
Data updated 2026-09-04
- 45K
- Population (place)
- Top 23%
- By size
- $51,250
- Median income (place)
- $119,900
- Median home (place)
- 16.6%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Altoona
Altoona posts a median household income higher than 10% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 2 hospitals serve the Altoona area.
- Bottom 11%
- by median income, US cities
- 2
- hospitals in & near Altoona
Where Altoona income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$51,250 Bottom 10% higher than 10% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles
Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. 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, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year
Largest cities in PA
Population among 88 PA places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.
- Philadelphia
Philadelphia, PA
1,573,916 residents
- Pittsburgh 304,391
Pittsburgh, PA
304,391 residents
- Allentown 120,207
Allentown, PA
120,207 residents
- Erie 99,475
Erie, PA
99,475 residents
- Reading 87,879
Reading, PA
87,879 residents
- Scranton 77,118
Scranton, PA
77,118 residents
- Bethlehem 74,892
Bethlehem, PA
74,892 residents
- Lancaster 59,339
Lancaster, PA
59,339 residents
- Levittown 52,983
Levittown, PA
52,983 residents
- Harrisburg 50,183
Harrisburg, PA
50,183 residents
What this shows Philadelphia is the largest PA city on this list; Franklin Park leads median income.
Highest median incomes in PA
Median household income among the same 88-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.
- Franklin Park
Franklin Park, PA
$176,875 median
- Wayne
Wayne, PA
$150,539 median
- Montgomeryvi…
Montgomeryville, PA
$131,345 median
- Murrysville
Murrysville, PA
$121,823 median
- Fox Chase
Fox Chase, PA
$121,417 median
- Ardmore
Ardmore, PA
$119,111 median
- King of Prus…
King of Prussia, PA
$117,912 median
- Jefferson Hi…
Jefferson Hills, PA
$116,064 median
- Allison Park
Allison Park, PA
$113,822 median
- Mountain Top
Mountain Top, PA
$109,535 median
What this shows Franklin Park posts the highest place-level median income in PA; Philadelphia is largest by headcount.
The quick read
Reading Altoona, PA beyond the headline numbers
Altoona sits inside Blair County, Pennsylvania, at roughly 40.52°N, -78.39°W. Population 45,344, $51,250 median household income. Median home value $119,900, median rent $819. Poverty rate 16.6%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
2 hospitals in/around Altoona, 4/5 avg rating, 1 with an ER.
16.6% of Altoona, PA residents live below the poverty line, placing it in the hardest-hit quarter of reporting cities. Read every median on this page against that: half the households are above it, and a large minority are far below.
Housing is inexpensive against local pay -- the median home in Altoona runs about 2.3 years of median household income, in the cheapest quarter of reporting cities.
Only 7% of Altoona workers report working from home, the lowest quarter of reporting cities -- an economy still built around showing up somewhere.
Among the CDC measures on this page, short sleep duration departs furthest from its peer median: 41.8% in Altoona, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,852 cities reporting that measure.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Altoona from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.
10-Year Trends 2013–2024
County-level trend (Blair County): Altoona's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.
Economics
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Median Rent | |
| Poverty Rate | 16.6% +34% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 6.8% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 20.5% |
| Work From Home | 7% |
| Public Transit | 1.3% |
Population
Health Profile 2 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Hospitals 2 total
What alerts and safety updates affect Altoona?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Altoona right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet PA-ALTOONA-PA · Altoona
Altoona: no area-tagged alerts on record — state hubs carry the live CAP stream.
- FEED-QUIET No tagged alerts
- LEAD-NONE Feed idle
- DESK-IDLE Awaiting feed
Counts reflect published articles tagged to Altoona; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Pennsylvania state hubs · Methodology
Read with this city profile
Frequently Asked Questions 6
What is the population of Altoona, PA? ▼
What is the median household income in Altoona? ▼
What is the median home value in Altoona? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Altoona? ▼
How many hospitals are in Altoona? ▼
What is the median age in Altoona? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Altoona, both outside Pennsylvania so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside PA (16.6% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside PA ($51,250 here).
Compare Altoona with another city
Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.
Nearby Cities 8
Using Altoona's profile
Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.
- Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Altoona area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
- Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
- Compare Altoona against Pennsylvania peers on any ranking lens. Explore Pennsylvania
Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city. County-level trends are labeled when shown.
Data Sources
All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Blair County) where that is the smallest published unit.
Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.