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Place dossier plate
SheetNC-WASHINGTON-NC · Washington, NC 9,754 pop · income 9th pct · 13 tracts
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Washington
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Washington on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Elliston · lowest
41,719
Elliston · lowest
41,719 median HH income
27.0% of the leader · rank #1
Washington · this city
41,723
Washington · this city
41,723 median HH income
27.0% of the leader · rank #2
Greenville · near
41,724
Greenville · near
41,724 median HH income
27.0% of the leader · rank #3
Alva · near
41,728
Alva · near
41,728 median HH income
27.0% of the leader · rank #4
Montvale · near
41,732
Montvale · near
41,732 median HH income
27.0% of the leader · rank #5
Mount Airy · highest
154,514
Mount Airy · highest
154,514 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #6
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Washington on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 9,754.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Washington - the verdict
Nationally, Washington sits in the 9th percentile for household income and the 8th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
9th
percentile, household income
41st
percentile, home value
48th
percentile, median rent
8th
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Washington, NC
North Carolina's Washington is a small town, with 9,754 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in Washington report a median income of $41,723 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 14.3%. Washington's housing stock carries a median value of $193,800, and the median resident age is 49.4 years. Educational attainment runs 22.7% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 50.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 27 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Slowing), down 7% from five years earlier. Washington's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 3899.8 in FBI UCR data, above the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Living costs in North Carolina run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts North Carolina at 94.3 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Below Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,161 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $215 across North Carolina, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Workers in Washington report an average commute of 17.1 minutes, with 79.2% driving alone and 10.2% working from home. Natural-hazard exposure scores 66.7 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Washington's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from work and mobility to comparison shortlist to schools and households to reported crime to within-city variation to population change to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Washington, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, annual population history, local building permits.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Washington?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 79.2%. The reported mean trip to work is 17.1 minutes.
Which cities make useful reference points for Washington?
Within North Carolina, the closest population matches are Morehead City (9,696 residents, $53,718 income); Hillsborough (9,656 residents, $98,467 income); St. Stephens (9,409 residents, $57,882 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Fultondale, AL (9,753 residents); Mahomet, IL (9,755 residents); Fairview, TN (9,751 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
What does the education layer cover for Washington?
The NCES join finds 7 public schools within the city match. 22.7% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
What can 13 Census tracts reveal inside Washington?
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
PlainCities matches 13 Census tracts to this city.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Washington?
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 3899.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 71% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
3379.8
Violent rate
520.0
Total reported rate
3899.8
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Is Washington growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -151 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 27 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
-1.5%
2025 estimate
9,910
2020 estimate
10,061
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
How far does income reach against housing in Washington?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 14.3%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
Household income
$41,723
Home value
$193,800
Value / income
4.6×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 14.3% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
94.3 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, North Carolina average
F
City profile score · Washington, NC
30/100
5 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Cost of living B-
94.3 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Bachelor's+ share D
22.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
14.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
520 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income F
$41,723
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Washington profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 67/100 (B-) · 94.3 index
Bachelor's+ share: 42/100 (D) · 22.7%
Poverty rate: 24/100 (F) · 14.3%
Violent crime: 15/100 (F) · 520 /100k
Household income: 9/100 (F) · $41,723
Where Washington sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Washington's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Washington highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Washington, NC (this city): home $193,800, crime 3,900/100k
Fultondale, AL : home $181,900, crime 3,011/100k
Mahomet, IL : home $293,200, crime 437/100k
Fairview, TN : home $354,900, crime 591/100k
Keokuk, IA : home $93,700, crime 1,874/100k
Mount Airy, MD : home $474,800, crime 1,345/100k
Morehead City, NC : home $330,900, crime 3,434/100k
Hillsborough, NC : home $430,100, crime 4,904/100k
Rolesville, NC : home $467,400, crime 471/100k
Gibsonville, NC : home $262,400, crime 1,102/100k
How does Washington compare to other US cities?
Where Washington sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income9% higher than other cities
Home value41% pricier than other cities
Median rent48% pricier than other cities
Safety8% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just North Carolina and the picture shifts: Washington ranks #151 of 195 North Carolina cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Washington against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to North Carolina only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
North Carolina-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Washington near the bottom of North Carolina's cities
Among the 746 North Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Washington ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Washington only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#563 of 700
20th percentile in North Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 746
0th percentile in North Carolina
Median Home Value
#345 of 708
51st percentile in North Carolina
Poverty Rate
#257 of 746
65th percentile in North Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#349 of 746
53rd percentile in North Carolina
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within North Carolina only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
9th percentile nationally for median household income · 8th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Washington's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Washington's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Washington's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$193,800Among the most affordablemore affordable than 59% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. 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 ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Washington's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#12,271 of 15,516
More affordable than 21% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#9,364 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.6×, Washington sits in the moderate band:
national rank #12,271 of 15,516 and #9,364 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$41,723Washington, NC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Washington, NC median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Washington, NC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)22.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)14.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)50.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
9,754
Median Income
$41,723
Median Home Value
$193,800
Median Age
49.4
Poverty Rate
14.3%
Labor force participation
50.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
22.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3899.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
520.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3379.8
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Schools
Total Schools
7
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Washington's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
10,061 residents
2021
9,884 residents
2022
9,861 residents
2023
9,901 residents
2024
9,974 residents
2025
9,910 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Slowing
Total Permits (2024)
27
housing units authorized
Single-Family
27
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2.8
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
29
29
0
$6.3M
2020
17
17
0
$5.2M
2021
37
35
2
$5.7M
2022
54
54
0
$11.3M
2023
69
59
10
$15.1M
2024
27
27
0
$8.1M
Permit volume decreased 7% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
17.1 minutes
Drive Alone
79.2%
Carpool
6.3%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
2.3%
Work from Home
10.2%
Other
2.0%
Based on 4,027 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
North Carolina statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $215
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across North Carolina at $215 (electricity about $115 , water and sewer about $45 ).
These are North Carolina statewide averages, not a meter reading for Washington. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
North Carolina's BEA cost-of-living index is 94.3 (Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Washington is $1,161/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to North Carolina statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 66.7 / 100 (Moderate).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a North Carolina statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Washington sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Washington compares to similar-size North Carolina cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.