Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 8,525, laid out in 1853.
Elwood gives you more for your money than most places: homes are within reach, about $154K for a typical one, or 1.9 years of the Indianapolis metro’s $80K median household income. It grades C+ overall, ranked 429th of 585 in Indiana. The low prices come with trade-offs. CDC estimates put its residents' health behind 88% of the country, and the median household income is $53K, and 20% of residents live below the poverty line. On the plus side, it reports less crime per resident than 76% of U.S. towns. Elwood Downtown Historic District is on the National Register of Historic Places. Only 10 of the 593 Indiana towns we compare have a lower share of adults with a bachelor’s degree than Elwood. The biggest park or preserve is Callaway Park, at 24 acres.
Where Elwood beats most towns.
Elwood Downtown Historic DistrictWhere Elwood’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Indiana), ordered by how far Elwood is from typical.
Its grades run from A+ for cost of living (better than 96% of comparable towns) to D for health (better than 12%), so the C+ overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 310 in 1870, a peak of 12,950 in 1900, 8,410 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1940 and 2 maps from 1960 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Who provides power, water and the rest in Elwood, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
Ordered by what stands out in Elwood.
Elwood trades lower home prices for longer drives to work, has seen reported crime fall by a third or more and has added a third more jobs in ten years.
Nearly a third of adults get no exercise outside work in Elwood, above both Indiana’s towns (26%) and U.S. towns (25%). In Elwood, just over two in five adults have high blood pressure.
| Elwood | Indiana towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 22% | 17% | 14% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 26% | 23% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 32% | 26% | 25% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 17% | 15% | 14% |
| What stands out | Elwood | IN |
|---|---|---|
| More smokers | 21.9% | 15.7% |
| More adults with COPD | 11% | 8.1% |
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 20.3% | 15.4% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Homes are within reach (about $154K for the typical one, A+ for cost of living), but half of working residents commute more than 21 miles. At 1.9 years of the Indianapolis metro’s $80K median household income, the typical home (about $154K) costs less against local pay than in 93% of Indiana towns; that ratio is one input to that grade.
Elwood’s typical rent comes in at $860 a month. Typical home values rose 5.4% in the year to September 2026. Nearly two thirds of Elwood households own their home.
| Elwood | Indiana towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 65% | 76% | 73% |
| Median rent | $860 a month | $947 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Reported crimes fell from 65 to 39 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings. Violent crime is rare: 5 reported in 2025, 0.6 per 1,000 residents.
Elwood’s rate of thefts and burglaries stands at 4 per 1,000 residents. Its violent offense rate is 0.6 per 1,000 residents, against 1.4 in Indiana’s towns and 1.6 across U.S. towns.
| Elwood | Indiana towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 4 per 1,000 residents | 8.6 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 0.6 per 1,000 residents | 1.4 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Jobs based here grew from 1,944 in 2013 to 2,532.
Most working residents leave Elwood for work: only 17% work in town. Jobs in Elwood grew by 588 from 2013 to 2023, reaching 2,532. Also worth knowing: in Elwood, the average commute is 29 minutes. The top destinations are Indianapolis (17%), Anderson (7%) and Noblesville (7%).
| Elwood | Indiana towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 29 minutes | 24 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $53,000 | $71,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 17% | 11% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Expect July afternoons of 84° and January nights of 19°, with about 21 inches of snow a winter.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Of the losses FEMA expects in Elwood, 62% come from inland flooding and 14% from tornadoes. Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 55% of U.S. communities. Paid flood insurance claims here since 1980: 31.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Trails total 0.5 miles in 1 park or preserve. The density of trails for Elwood comes to 0.1 miles per square mile.
| Elwood | Indiana towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.1 miles per square mile | 0.2 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 2.8% | 1.9% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Callaway Park | — | 24 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
1 within 15 miles of the center of Elwood
About 3 of every 100 Elwood residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Indiana.
14 notable people were born in Elwood.
City in Indiana, United States
Elwood is a city in Madison and Tipton counties in the U.S. state of Indiana. The Madison County portion, which is nearly all of the city, is part of the Indianapolis–Carmel–Anderson metropolitan statistical area. The population of Elwood was 8,410 at the 2020 census.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Elwood grades C+ overall, better than 42% of U.S. towns and #429 of 585 in Indiana. It grades D for health, A− for safety and C for schools. Health is its weak spot, with a D.
Not for the area. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades A+.
Elwood was laid out in 1853 and has 1 place on the National Register of Historic Places. 14 notable people were born here, including Wendell Willkie and David Canary.
