Elm Creek is a village in Buffalo County, Nebraska, part of the Kearney, NE metro area. It has 1,107 residents. Elm Creek, Nebraska has a quality-of-life score of 93 out of 100 (very high), ranking #1,152 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Nebraska it ranks #15 of 119 cities and towns. It ranks best on loneliness (low), unemployment rate (low) and mammography screening (high). It ranks worst on distance to an airport (high), natural hazard risk (high) and new homes permitted (low).
93Very high
Quality-of-life score
#1,152 of 15,651 cities and towns
Nebraska
#15 of 119 in NE
Population
1,107 (2020-2024)
Land area
1 mi²
Density
1,591.8 /mi²
FIPS code
3115360
Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 74 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.
Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.
Safety77#3,634/15,637
Economy69#4,848/15,631
Housing78#3,275/14,977
Health86#2,238/15,609
Healthcare88#1,891/15,650
Environment75#3,854/15,453
Education74#4,072/15,649
Infrastructure74#3,998/15,650
Community82#2,895/15,651
Leisure & amenities73#4,183/15,651
Strengths · Weaknesses
Indicators where Elm Creek, Nebraska ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Buffalo County value” are the county’s: the source publishes no figure for this city or town, and the county holding most of its residents stands in.
How each measure moved between two periods about five years apart, read against whether more or less is better, the published margin of error and the same change in other places.
Cities and towns like Elm Creek, Nebraska five years ago that improved
The places whose measures looked most like those of Elm Creek, Nebraska in the earlier period, ranked by how many measures improved beyond the margin of error, minus how many declined. A comparison of published data, not a forecast and not advice.
Who lives here
Age, race and education of residents, from the American Community Survey. Shares are of all residents (age), residents of every origin (race) or adults 25 and over (education).
Income
How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.
Homes
Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.
Getting to work
How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.
Jobs and pay
What the largest occupations here pay, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes pay by metro area, not by county or city. The metro area page lists its largest occupations and lets you look up any job.
Employer businesses and sole proprietors by industry, per resident and against the state and the nation. Counts of businesses next to counts of people, not a measure of demand.
Federal contracts performed here
Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: Elm Creek is mostly in Buffalo County.
Over about five years, Elm Creek, Nebraska improved on 3 of 11 measures with a comparison and declined on 1. 7 moved within the margin of error and 0 barely changed.
Earlier (2015-2019)
Latest (2020-2024)
Lower standingHigher standing
Position is the place's standing among cities and towns: further right is better, whichever way the measure counts.
Improved3
Uninsured−10 points14.5% → 4.4%
Uninsured residents (under 65)
14.5% → 4.4%2015-2019 → 2020-2024
−10 pointsBeyond the margin of error (±5.2 points)
Standing among cities and towns: 25 → 84 (0 lowest, 100 highest)
More favourable than 96% of cities and towns
Household income+31%$60,375 → $79,148
Median household income
$60,375 → $79,1482015-2019 → 2020-2024
+31%Beyond the margin of error (±$10,581)
Standing among cities and towns: 57 → 57 (0 lowest, 100 highest)
More favourable than 58% of cities and towns
Broadband+7.1 points85.7% → 92.8%
Broadband subscriptions
85.7% → 92.8%2015-2019 → 2020-2024
+7.1 pointsBeyond the margin of error (±6.5 points)
Standing among cities and towns: 65 → 62 (0 lowest, 100 highest)
Less favourable than 56% of cities and towns
Declined1
Price / income+0.5×1.9× → 2.4×
Home price to income ratio
1.9× → 2.4×2015-2019 → 2020-2024
+0.5×Beyond the margin of error (±0.5×)
Standing among cities and towns: 89 → 81 (0 lowest, 100 highest)
Less favourable than 53% of cities and towns
All 11 measures
Change of every measure of Elm Creek, Nebraska between two periods about five years apart
Measure
Before
After
Change
Reading
Favourable vs peers
Average commute time
24.1 min2015-2019
22.8 min2020-2024
−1.4 min
Within the margin of error
64%
Bachelor's degree or higher
22.3%2015-2019
25.6%2020-2024
+3.3 points
Within the margin of error
54%
Broadband subscriptions
85.7%2015-2019
92.8%2020-2024
+7.1 points
Improved
44%
Effective property tax rate
1.59%2015-2019
1.25%2020-2024
−0.3 points
Within the margin of error
78%
High school diploma or higher
94.1%2015-2019
97.3%2020-2024
+3.2 points
Within the margin of error
70%
Home price to income ratio
1.9×2015-2019
2.4×2020-2024
+0.5×
Declined
47%
Income inequality (Gini index)
0.3432015-2019
0.3802020-2024
+0.037
Within the margin of error
23%
Median household income
$60,3752015-2019
$79,1482020-2024
+31%
Improved
58%
Public transit commuters
0.0%2015-2019
0.0%2020-2024
0 points
Within the margin of error
60%
Rent as share of income
23.9%2015-2019
23.8%2020-2024
−0.1 points
Within the margin of error
56%
Uninsured residents (under 65)
14.5%2015-2019
4.4%2020-2024
−10 points
Improved
96%
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 14640 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Sources: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Values are the latest and the one five years earlier of the same publisher dataset; datasets that changed publisher in between are never compared.
Survey estimates (American Community Survey) compare the two most recent 5-year windows that do not share years, so the margin of error of the difference holds. The 2015-2019 window predates the pandemic and 2020-2024 includes it.
A change counts only when it is larger than 1.645 times the square root of the two standard errors squared, summed (a 90% margin). Measures published without a margin must change by at least 5% to count.
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 15651 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Standing is a percentile among the same places: 0 is the lowest value on the measure (or the worst when lower is better), 100 the best.
For comparison, Elm Creek, Nebraska itself moved +0.4 points in standing on average over the same 9 measures (standings of all places average about zero).
How the ranking works
Similarity is the root-mean-square difference of standings in the earlier period over the measures most places have. Places are ranked by measures that improved beyond the margin of error minus those that declined (a count that estimation noise in small places cannot inflate), then by the mean change of standing over the measures a place has in both periods. Only places with more improvements than declines and a rise in standing are listed. Standings are relative, so a place can improve in absolute terms and still lose standing.
Elm Creek, Nebraska is represented in the 119th Congress by these members.
The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Buffalo County, the county holding most of Elm Creek's residents.
Buffalo County has 1,777 employer establishments, 350 for every 10,000 residents (1.41× the US rate of 248; 1.23× Nebraska's), with 23,423 paid employees at an average annual pay of $47,432. The Census Bureau also counts 4,486 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.
Establishments
1,777
4,486 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents
350
US 248 · Nebraska 284
Paid employees
23,423
Average annual pay
$47,432
US $68,342
Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Buffalo County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation
County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)
Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 50,745 residents here, 336,755,052 in the United States. County Business Patterns counts establishments in 2023; the Nonemployer Statistics count businesses in 2024.
“More than typical” is a density at least 1.25 times the nation's per resident, “fewer” at most 0.8 times, with at least 10 establishments. It compares counts of businesses with counts of people: it says nothing about demand, incomes, size, quality or profit, and visitors and commuters are not residents.
The Census Bureau adds noise to employment and payroll to protect confidentiality, and withholds some figures: an industry with few establishments can show employees or pay as unavailable.
Industries overlap: a narrower industry (full-service restaurants) is part of a broader one (restaurants), so the rows do not add up.
Industries follow the North American Industry Classification System; the two surveys use different editions (NAICS 2017 and 2022), which this page matches industry by industry.
No federal contract obligations recorded here in FY2026.
