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Place dossier plate
SheetOR-LAKE-OSWEGO-OR · Lake Oswego, OR 40,367 pop · income 92nd pct
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 Lake Oswego
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Lake Oswego on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Pine Bluff · lowest
41,250
Pine Bluff · lowest
41,250 median HH income
25.1% of the leader · rank #1
Lake Oswego · this city
140,441
Lake Oswego · this city
140,441 median HH income
85.5% of the leader · rank #2
Druid Hills · near
140,466
Druid Hills · near
140,466 median HH income
85.5% of the leader · rank #3
Decatur · near
140,480
Decatur · near
140,480 median HH income
85.5% of the leader · rank #4
Cooper Landing · near
140,500
Cooper Landing · near
140,500 median HH income
85.5% of the leader · rank #5
Crossgate · near
140,500
Crossgate · near
140,500 median HH income
85.5% of the leader · rank #6
Bethany · highest
164,315
Bethany · highest
164,315 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
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 Lake Oswego 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: 40,367.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Lake Oswego - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Lake Oswego places in the 92nd percentile for household income and the 57th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
92nd
percentile, household income
96th
percentile, home value
66th
percentile, median rent
57th
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: Lake Oswego, OR
Oregon's Lake Oswego is a small city, with 40,367 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. The typical household in Lake Oswego brings in $140,441 a year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 1.7%. Typical homes in Lake Oswego are valued around $894,000, and the median resident age is 46.5 years. 75.1% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 58.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 24 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 70% from five years earlier. Lake Oswego reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 1165.9 crimes per 100,000 residents, below the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score).
Oregon carries a cost-of-living premium: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Oregon at 103.4 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Above Average). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,425 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $185 across Oregon, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Natural-hazard exposure scores 63.4 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Lake Oswego'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 population change to comparison shortlist to reported crime to work and mobility to schools and households to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Lake Oswego, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, matched public-school count, local building permits.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Population change
Is Lake Oswego 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 -1,154 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 24 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Which cities make useful reference points for Lake Oswego?
Within Oregon, the closest population matches are Grants Pass (39,183 residents, $56,877 income); Keizer (39,013 residents, $81,217 income); Oregon City (37,482 residents, $94,648 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are New Berlin, WI (40,384 residents); Pine Bluff, AR (40,436 residents); Crystal Lake, IL (40,436 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 can the FBI record say about safety in Lake Oswego?
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 1165.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 49% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
What does the journey to work look like in Lake Oswego?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 61.9%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Lake Oswego?
The NCES join finds 12 public schools within the city match. 75.1% 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.
Matched public schools
12
Bachelor's degree+
75.1%
Poverty estimate
1.7%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
How far does income reach against housing in Lake Oswego?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 6.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 1.7%, 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
$140,441
Home value
$894,000
Value / income
6.4×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
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.
Bachelor's+ share A+
75.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income A+
$140,441
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate A
1.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime A-
66 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Cost of living F
103.4 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Lake Oswego profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 100/100 (A+) · 75.1%
Household income: 93/100 (A+) · $140,441
Poverty rate: 88/100 (A) · 1.7%
Violent crime: 80/100 (A-) · 66 /100k
Cost of living: 25/100 (F) · 103.4 index
Where Lake Oswego sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Lake Oswego'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 - Lake Oswego highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Lake Oswego, OR (this city): home $894,000, crime 1,166/100k
New Berlin, WI : home $343,500, crime 1,055/100k
Pine Bluff, AR : home $86,400, crime 6,129/100k
Crystal Lake, IL : home $287,400, crime 1,208/100k
Findlay, OH : home $183,300, crime 1,948/100k
DeKalb, IL : home $202,900, crime 2,907/100k
Grants Pass, OR : home $364,200, crime 3,308/100k
Keizer, OR : home $396,700, crime 2,057/100k
Oregon City, OR : home $531,400, crime 1,556/100k
Redmond, OR : home $435,000, crime 2,563/100k
McMinnville, OR : home $391,100, crime 1,655/100k
How does Lake Oswego compare to other US cities?
Here's how Lake Oswego stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income92% higher than other cities
Home value96% pricier than other cities
Median rent66% pricier than other cities
Safety57% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Oregon alone, Lake Oswego ranks #19 of 85 Oregon cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Lake Oswego against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Oregon only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Oregon-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Lake Oswego near the bottom of Oregon's cities
Among the 395 Oregon cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Lake Oswego ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Lake Oswego only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#12 of 364
97th percentile in Oregon
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 395
0th percentile in Oregon
Median Home Value
#10 of 366
97th percentile in Oregon
Poverty Rate
#309 of 395
21st percentile in Oregon
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#9 of 395
97th percentile in Oregon
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 Oregon only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
92nd percentile nationally for median household income · 57th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Lake Oswego's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Lake Oswego'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 Lake Oswego's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$894,0004th percentilemore affordable than 4% 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
Lake Oswego's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,362 of 15,516
More affordable than 7% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,031 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 6.4×, Lake Oswego sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,362 of 15,516 and #3,031 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median, a comparison flag, not a verdict on any household.
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
$140,441Lake Oswego, OR median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Lake Oswego, OR median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Lake Oswego, OR.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)75.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)1.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)58.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
40,367
Median Income
$140,441
Median Home Value
$894,000
Median Age
46.5
Poverty Rate
1.7%
Labor force participation
58.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
75.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1165.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
65.6
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1100.3
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
12
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Lake Oswego's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
40,876 residents
2021
40,616 residents
2022
40,207 residents
2023
40,083 residents
2024
39,969 residents
2025
39,722 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
24
housing units authorized
Single-Family
24
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.6
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
80
65
15
$39.3M
2020
64
64
0
$35.8M
2021
47
47
0
$29.1M
2022
175
39
136
$51.4M
2023
33
21
12
$17.9M
2024
24
24
0
$19.4M
Permit volume decreased 70% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
61.9%
Carpool
4.0%
Public Transit
1.2%
Walk
1.3%
Work from Home
29.8%
Other
1.8%
Based on 18,928 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Oregon statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $185
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Oregon at $185 (electricity about $85 , water and sewer about $50 ).
These are Oregon statewide averages, not a meter reading for Lake Oswego. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Oregon's BEA cost-of-living index is 103.4 (Above Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Lake Oswego is $1,425/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Oregon statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 63.4 / 100 (Moderate).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Oregon statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Lake Oswego sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Lake Oswego compares to similar-size Oregon 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.