Census-designated place · Tompkins County, New York

South Lansing, New York

South Lansing is a census-designated place in Tompkins County, New York, part of the Ithaca, NY metro area. It has 1,496 residents. South Lansing, New York has a quality-of-life score of 71 out of 100 (high), ranking #4,495 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within New York it ranks #491 of 859 cities and towns. It ranks best on uninsured residents (under 65) (low), public EV charging ports (high) and students per teacher (low). It ranks worst on effective property tax rate (high), dental care shortage (high) and unemployment rate (high).

71High

Quality-of-life score: #4,495 of 15,651 cities and towns
New York: #491 of 859 in NY
Population: 1,496 (2020-2024)
Land area: 3 mi²
Density: 541.9 /mi²
FIPS code: 3669342

Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 73 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.

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Scores by category

Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.

Safety84#2,450/15,637
Economy36#10,078/15,631
Housing25#11,200/14,977
Health92#1,268/15,609
Healthcare62#5,939/15,650
Environment85#2,327/15,453
Education75#3,892/15,649
Infrastructure34#10,258/15,650
Community53#7,316/15,651
Leisure & amenities80#3,121/15,651

Strengths · Weaknesses

Indicators where South Lansing, New York ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Tompkins 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.

Strengths

Uninsured residents (under 65) · low0.0%
100/100New York 5.9%United States 9.8%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B27010
Public EV charging ports · high24.7 /10k
98/100New York 10.8 /10kUnited States 7.6 /10kOct 2026U.S. Department of EnergyTompkins County value
Students per teacher · low10.1×
98/100New York 12.0×United States 15.2×2024National Center for Education StatisticsTompkins County value
Preventable hospital stays · low1,615 /100k
95/100New York 2,733 /100kUnited States 2,769 /100k2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteTompkins County value
Hot days · low2 days
94/100New York 3 daysUnited States 42 days2016-2025NOAA National Centers for Environmental InformationTompkins County value
Adult obesity · low27.3%
88/100New York 32.9%United States 38.2%2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteModel-based estimate

Weaknesses

Effective property tax rate · high2.83%
1/100New York 1.30%United States 0.94%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B25090
Dental care shortage · high20.0
1/100New York 3.7United States 5.7Oct 2026Health Resources and Services AdministrationTompkins County value
Unemployment rate · high17.2%
2/100New York 4.3%United States 4.3%2020-2024U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Census table B23025High uncertainty
Child care cost burden · high44.3%
2/100New York 37.7%United States 27.9%2023 & 2024University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteTompkins County value
Mental health care shortage · high19.0
3/100New York 4.8United States 9.9Oct 2026Health Resources and Services AdministrationTompkins County value
New business applications · low7.5 /1k
4/100New York 15.1 /1kUnited States 16.6 /1k2025U.S. Census BureauTompkins County value

Trends

The largest changes over about five years, next to the country's over the same periods.

PopulationRising
944 (2016-2020) → 1,496 (2020-2024)
+58%4 yearsCensus table B01003US 331,578,104 → 340,003,797
Unemployment rateWorsening
0.0% (2016-2020) → 17.2% (2020-2024)
+17 pts4 yearsCensus table B23025US 8.1% → 4.0%
Poverty rateWorsening
3.8% (2016-2020) → 19.6% (2020-2024)
+16 pts4 yearsCensus table B17001US 11.9% → 12.1%
Bachelor's degree or higherImproving
30.5% (2016-2020) → 45.8% (2020-2024)
+15 pts4 yearsCensus table B15003US 32.9% → 35.7%
Child poverty rateWorsening
0.0% (2016-2020) → 8.5% (2020-2024)
+8.5 pts4 yearsCensus table B17001US 15.7% → 15.5%
Average commute timeWorsening
15.1 min (2016-2020) → 18.9 min (2020-2024)
+25%4 yearsCensus table B08013US 26.9 min → 26.4 min

What changed in five years

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.

There is not enough history to compare South Lansing, New York over five years.

Cities and towns like South Lansing, New York five years ago that improved

The places whose measures looked most like those of South Lansing, New York 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.

No place that looked like South Lansing, New York five years ago has more measures that improved than declined, with a higher standing among its peers today.

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.

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).

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Income

How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.

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Homes

Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.

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Getting to work

How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.

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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.

Pay in the Ithaca, NY

Local businesses

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.

The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Tompkins County, the county holding most of South Lansing's residents.

Tompkins County has 2,230 employer establishments, 213 for every 10,000 residents (0.86× the US rate of 248; 0.78× New York's), with 50,869 paid employees at an average annual pay of $51,629. The Census Bureau also counts 8,145 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.

Establishments: 2,230; 8,145 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents: 213; US 248 · New York 274
Paid employees: 50,869
Average annual pay: $51,629; US $68,342

Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Tompkins County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation

Restaurants and other eating places	192	18.4	1.00×About typical	3,000	$25,198	21
Ambulatory health care services	188	18	0.86×About typical	2,097	$78,237	548
Lessors of real estate	122	11.7	0.95×About typical	637	$50,024	795
Specialty trade contractors	99	9.5	0.61×Fewer than typical	634	$67,756	313
Full-service restaurants	90	8.6	1.12×About typical	1,586	$26,330	10
Offices of physicians	68	6.5	1.01×About typical	817	$111,984	97
Limited-service restaurants	64	6.1	0.76×Fewer than typical	869	$21,104	9
Religious organizations	62	5.9	1.07×About typical	357	$24,779	—
Construction of buildings	61	5.8	0.77×Fewer than typical	285	$54,481	170
Services to buildings and dwellings	61	5.8	0.87×About typical	310	$38,019	285
Offices of other health practitioners	57	5.5	0.90×About typical	259	$53,100	368
Schools, colleges and instruction	51	4.9	1.39×More than typical	22,515	$46,124	618

Rank places for an industry Open Tompkins County

County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)

Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 104,453 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.

Federal contracts performed here

In FY2026, an estimated $0 of federal contract obligations were for work performed in South Lansing, New York: $0 per resident (US $2,007).

Obligations: $0
Per resident: $0; US $2,007
Sole-source: —; US 30%
Single offer: —; US 8.7%

A signal is a reason to look closer, not evidence of wrongdoing: most sole-source awards are lawful and justified.

Top buying agencies

Top recipients

Spending by fiscal year

17KFY2017
1.1KFY2018
11.3KFY2019
1.5KFY2020
1.2KFY2021
1.2KFY2022
22.4KFY2023
634.5FY2024

What was bought

Source: Federal contract transactions (Federal Procurement Data System) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov), data current to Oct 9, 2026, loaded Oct 9, 2026.

How this is estimated

Agencies report each contract action's place of performance as a county and a ZIP code. A ZIP code's money is split among the cities it covers by the share of its land inside each (Census 2020 ZIP code tabulation areas); the part outside city limits stays with the county.

The place of performance is what the contracting agency reports, often the contractor's office rather than where the work happens.
Shares are of land, not of people or businesses: a ZIP code that is mostly rural land but has its offices in town gives the town less than it should.
ZIP codes that are not mapped areas (post office boxes, the unique ZIP codes of large federal sites and companies) stay with their county, unless one city covers nearly all of it.
Counts of actions and awards include those only partly in South Lansing, New York, so they do not add up across cities.

South Lansing, New York's figures are part of those of Tompkins County, NY ($16.5M in FY2026), never added to them: 0.0% of that total.

Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: South Lansing is mostly in Tompkins County.

See federal money in Tompkins County

Representation in Congress

Members serving today, with their record in the current Congress (party-unity votes cast with their caucus, roll calls missed). Not a grade.

Congress data is unavailable right now.

County

A city can lie in several counties. Some indicators are published for counties only: the page marks them.

Tompkins County84100% of residents

Metro area

The metro or micro area the city belongs to.

Ithaca, NY92

Other cities and towns in Tompkins County

Largest first.

Similar cities and towns

Closest indicator profiles across the country (no model: score distances).

Data and sources

Latest published value of each indicator; periods differ by source. Values flagged by their publisher are marked.

PLACES: Local Data for Better HealthCenters for Disease Control and Prevention · release 2025
Local Area Unemployment StatisticsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · release 2025
American Community Survey 5-Year EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2017-2024
Population Estimates ProgramU.S. Census Bureau · release 2025
Small Area Health Insurance EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
Small Area Income and Poverty EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
County Health Rankings & RoadmapsUniversity of Wisconsin Population Health Institute · release 2022-2025+2026-03-supplement

JSON · /api/v1/places/3669342