City safety & data profile
BuffaloNY
Buffalo, NY is a 258K-resident city in Erie County with a median household income of $50,041.
Erie County, New York. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Buffalo, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Buffalo has a population larger than 98% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $164,200, and 7 hospitals serving the surrounding area.
Data updated 2026-09-04
- 258K
- Population (place)
- Top 2%
- By size
- $50,041
- Median income (place)
- $164,200
- Median home (place)
- 26%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Buffalo
Buffalo posts a median household income higher than 9% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 7 hospitals serve the Buffalo area.
- Bottom 10%
- by median income, US cities
- 7
- hospitals in & near Buffalo
Where Buffalo income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$50,041 Bottom 9% higher than 9% 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 NY
Population among 197 NY places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.
- New York City
New York City, NY
8,622,467 residents
- Buffalo 258,071
Buffalo, NY
258,071 residents
- Rochester 209,802
Rochester, NY
209,802 residents
- Yonkers 201,116
Yonkers, NY
201,116 residents
- Washington H… 152,613
Washington Heights, NY
152,613 residents
- Syracuse 144,142
Syracuse, NY
144,142 residents
- Albany 101,228
Albany, NY
101,228 residents
- New Rochelle 79,846
New Rochelle, NY
79,846 residents
- Cheektowaga 75,178
Cheektowaga, NY
75,178 residents
- Mount Vernon 68,628
Mount Vernon, NY
68,628 residents
What this shows New York City is the largest NY city on this list; Scarsdale leads median income.
Highest median incomes in NY
Median household income among the same 197-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.
- Scarsdale
Scarsdale, NY
$250,001 median
- Garden City
Garden City, NY
$244,152 median
- Rye
Rye, NY
$239,815 median
- Dix Hills
Dix Hills, NY
$227,944 median
- Kensington
Kensington, NY
$220,625 median
- Woodbury
Woodbury, NY
$191,321 median
- Plainview
Plainview, NY
$189,906 median
- Fort Salonga
Fort Salonga, NY
$189,856 median
- Syosset
Syosset, NY
$187,273 median
- Merrick
Merrick, NY
$185,740 median
What this shows Scarsdale posts the highest place-level median income in NY; New York City is largest by headcount.
The quick read
Reading Buffalo, NY beyond the headline numbers
Buffalo sits inside Erie County, New York, at roughly 42.89°N, -78.88°W. Population 258,071, $50,041 median household income. Median home value $164,200, median rent $1,046. Poverty rate 26%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
7 hospitals in/around Buffalo, 3/5 avg rating, 5 with an ER.
26% of Buffalo, NY 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.
The median home in Buffalo costs roughly 3.3 times median household income, below the midpoint for reporting cities, so ownership remains reachable on a typical local wage.
Remote work covers 11.3% of Buffalo workers, under the midpoint for reporting cities.
Among the CDC measures on this page, current asthma departs furthest from its peer median: 12.7% in Buffalo, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,722 cities reporting that measure.
8.1% of Buffalo workers commute by public transit, a larger share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.
Buffalo's median age is 34.3 years, in the youngest quarter of reporting cities.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Buffalo 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 (Erie County): Buffalo'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 | 26% +110% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 7.3% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 31.2% |
| Work From Home | 11.3% |
| Public Transit | 8.1% |
Population
Health Profile 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
Hospitals 7 total
What alerts and safety updates affect Buffalo?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Buffalo right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet NY-BUFFALO-NY · Buffalo
Buffalo: 21 tagged alerts; lead category ECCC weather alert.
- VOL-ACTIVE 21 on record
- MIX-LED 57% ca-weather
- DESK-MIX NOAA
- NEAR-PEER 16 · El Paso
Tagged alert mix: Buffalo
Published notices carrying this city slug or location tag
- Weather Alerts
Weather Alerts
12
- Weather Alerts
Weather Alerts
9
What this shows 21 tagged notices on record for Buffalo.
Nearest tagged-volume peer: El Paso, TX (16 tagged · Δ5)
Counts reflect published articles tagged to Buffalo; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse New York state hubs · Methodology
Cities with a similar tagged alert volume 4
Nearest published-notice counts on Areazine (21 tagged here), a feed-density peer set, not an ACS demographic match.
Read with this city profile
Frequently Asked Questions 6
What is the population of Buffalo, NY? ▼
What is the median household income in Buffalo? ▼
What is the median home value in Buffalo? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Buffalo? ▼
How many hospitals are in Buffalo? ▼
What is the median age in Buffalo? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Buffalo, both outside New York so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside NY (26% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside NY ($50,041 here).
Compare Buffalo 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 Buffalo'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 Buffalo 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 Buffalo against New York peers on any ranking lens. Explore New York
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 (Erie 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.