City safety & data profile
ColumbusNE
Columbus, NE is a 23K-resident city in Platte County with a median household income of $64,626.
Platte County, Nebraska. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Columbus, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Columbus has a population larger than 51% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $213,600, and 1 hospital serving the surrounding area.
Data updated 2026-09-04
- 23K
- Population (place)
- Top 49%
- By size
- $64,626
- Median income (place)
- $213,600
- Median home (place)
- 11.3%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Columbus
Columbus posts a median household income higher than 29% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 1 hospital serves the Columbus area.
- Bottom 30%
- by median income, US cities
- 1
- hospital in & near Columbus
Where Columbus income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$64,626 Bottom 29% higher than 29% 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 NE
Population among 17 NE places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.
- Omaha
Omaha, NE
486,051 residents
- Lincoln
Lincoln, NE
294,757 residents
- Bellevue 55,510
Bellevue, NE
55,510 residents
- Grand Island 51,440
Grand Island, NE
51,440 residents
- Kearney 33,021
Kearney, NE
33,021 residents
- Fremont 26,474
Fremont, NE
26,474 residents
- Hastings 24,924
Hastings, NE
24,924 residents
- Norfolk 24,366
Norfolk, NE
24,366 residents
- North Platte 24,194
North Platte, NE
24,194 residents
- Columbus 22,797
Columbus, NE
22,797 residents
What this shows Omaha is the largest NE city on this list; Papillion leads median income.
Highest median incomes in NE
Median household income among the same 17-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.
- Papillion
Papillion, NE
$111,679 median
- Chalco
Chalco, NE
$85,672 median
- Bellevue
Bellevue, NE
$85,462 median
- La Vista
La Vista, NE
$81,961 median
- Omaha
Omaha, NE
$73,201 median
- Lincoln
Lincoln, NE
$71,867 median
- Fremont
Fremont, NE
$71,152 median
- Kearney
Kearney, NE
$69,724 median
- South Sioux …
South Sioux City, NE
$68,223 median
- Lexington
Lexington, NE
$67,666 median
What this shows Papillion posts the highest place-level median income in NE; Omaha is largest by headcount.
The quick read
Reading Columbus, NE beyond the headline numbers
Columbus sits inside Platte County, Nebraska, at roughly 41.43°N, -97.37°W. Population 22,797, $64,626 median household income. Median home value $213,600, median rent $892. Poverty rate 11.3%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
1 hospital in/around Columbus, 3/5 avg rating, 1 with an ER.
Poverty in Columbus, NE stands at 11.3%, above the midpoint of reporting cities. A median income can look comfortable while a share this size sits well beneath it, which is why the two figures belong together.
The median home in Columbus costs roughly 3.3 times median household income, below the midpoint for reporting cities, so ownership remains reachable on a typical local wage.
Only 4.4% of Columbus 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: 28.9% in Columbus, the lowest-prevalence quarter of the 3,852 cities reporting that measure.
Public transit carries 0% of Columbus workers, a smaller share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Columbus 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 (Platte County): Columbus'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 | 11.3% -9% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 2.4% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 21.8% |
| Work From Home | 4.4% |
| Public Transit | 0% |
Population
Health Profile 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
Hospitals 1 total
What alerts and safety updates affect Columbus?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Columbus right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet NE-COLUMBUS-NE · Columbus
Columbus: 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 Columbus; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Nebraska state hubs · Methodology
Read with this city profile
Frequently Asked Questions 6
What is the population of Columbus, NE? ▼
What is the median household income in Columbus? ▼
What is the median home value in Columbus? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Columbus? ▼
How many hospitals are in Columbus? ▼
What is the median age in Columbus? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Columbus, both outside Nebraska so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside NE (11.3% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside NE ($64,626 here).
Compare Columbus 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 Columbus'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 Columbus 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 Columbus against Nebraska peers on any ranking lens. Explore Nebraska
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 (Platte 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.