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Place dossier plate
SheetOR-SALEM-OR · Salem, OR 176,666 pop · income 52nd pct · 16 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 Salem
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Salem on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Eugene · lowest
63,836
Eugene · lowest
63,836 median HH income
49.3% of the leader · rank #1
Berea · near
71,896
Berea · near
71,896 median HH income
55.6% of the leader · rank #2
Wilton · near
71,898
Wilton · near
71,898 median HH income
55.6% of the leader · rank #3
Salem · this city
71,900
Salem · this city
71,900 median HH income
55.6% of the leader · rank #4
Pahala · near
71,908
Pahala · near
71,908 median HH income
55.6% of the leader · rank #5
Elkview · near
71,908
Elkview · near
71,908 median HH income
55.6% of the leader · rank #6
Cary · highest
129,399
Cary · highest
129,399 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 Salem 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: 176,666.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Salem - the verdict
Nationally, Salem sits in the 52nd percentile for household income and the 12th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
52nd
percentile, household income
76th
percentile, home value
66th
percentile, median rent
12th
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: Salem, OR
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 176,666 residents in Salem, a mid-sized U.S. city within Oregon. The typical household in Salem brings in $71,900 a year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 10.8%. Typical homes in Salem are valued around $382,400, and the median resident age is 35.7 years. Educational attainment runs 31.4% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 57.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 905 residential building permits were authorized in Salem (Slowing), down 12% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Salem's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 3335.5 in FBI UCR data, above the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Oregon carries a cost-of-living premium: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Oregon scores 103.4 (Above Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,425 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Oregon run around $185, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. 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 Salem'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 schools and households to population change to reported crime to within-city variation to comparison shortlist to work and mobility to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Salem, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares, annual population history, matched public-school count, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Salem?
The NCES join finds 58 public schools within the city match. 31.4% 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.
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +5,794 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +3.3% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 905 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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 16 Census tracts to this city.
Which cities make useful reference points for Salem?
Within Oregon, the closest population matches are Eugene (177,520 residents, $63,836 income); Gresham (112,818 residents, $73,608 income); Hillsboro (107,050 residents, $103,207 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Cary, NC (176,686 residents); Santa Rosa, CA (177,216 residents); Elk Grove, CA (177,221 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.
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 Salem?
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 3335.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 46% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
2803.3
Violent rate
532.2
Total reported rate
3335.5
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
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 68.4%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
1.8%
Work from home
14.0%
Drive alone
68.4%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 80,553 workers age 16+.
How far does income reach against housing in Salem?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 5.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 10.8%, 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
$71,900
Home value
$382,400
Value / income
5.3×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Above median income · poverty 10.8% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
103.4 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Oregon average
F
City profile score · Salem, OR
37/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share C+
31.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income C-
$71,900
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
10.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better 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.
Violent crime F
532 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Salem profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 60/100 (C+) · 31.4%
Household income: 51/100 (C-) · $71,900
Poverty rate: 37/100 (F) · 10.8%
Cost of living: 25/100 (F) · 103.4 index
Violent crime: 14/100 (F) · 532 /100k
Where Salem sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Salem'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 - Salem highlighted among 13 peers.Read the chart values
Salem, OR (this city): home $382,400, crime 3,336/100k
Cary, NC : home $525,200, crime 1,388/100k
Santa Rosa, CA : home $685,000, crime 1,663/100k
Elk Grove, CA : home $603,400, crime 1,422/100k
Ontario, CA : home $568,000, crime 2,090/100k
Rancho Cucamonga, CA : home $694,400, crime 2,105/100k
Aurora, IL : home $260,400, crime 1,518/100k
Eugene, OR : home $435,400, crime 3,574/100k
Gresham, OR : home $440,000, crime 2,837/100k
Hillsboro, OR : home $483,400, crime 2,747/100k
Bend, OR : home $646,800, crime 1,531/100k
Beaverton, OR : home $543,100, crime 3,026/100k
Medford, OR : home $387,000, crime 4,324/100k
How does Salem compare to other US cities?
Here's how Salem stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income52% higher than other cities
Home value76% pricier than other cities
Median rent66% pricier than other cities
Safety12% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Oregon and the picture shifts: Salem ranks #74 of 85 Oregon cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Salem 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 Salem near the bottom of Oregon's cities
Among the 395 Oregon cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Salem ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Salem only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#176 of 364
52nd percentile in Oregon
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 395
0th percentile in Oregon
Median Home Value
#153 of 366
58th percentile in Oregon
Poverty Rate
#105 of 395
73rd percentile in Oregon
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#103 of 395
74th 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
52nd percentile nationally for median household income · 12th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Salem's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Salem'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 Salem's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$382,40024th percentilemore affordable than 24% 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
Salem's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#13,347 of 15,516
More affordable than 14% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#493 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 5.3×, Salem sits in the pressured band:
national rank #13,347 of 15,516 and #493 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
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
$71,900Salem, OR median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Salem, 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 Salem, OR.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)31.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)10.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)57.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
176,666
Median Income
$71,900
Median Home Value
$382,400
Median Age
35.7
Poverty Rate
10.8%
Labor force participation
57.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
31.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3335.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
532.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2803.3
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
58
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Salem's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
175,985 residents
2021
178,280 residents
2022
179,060 residents
2023
179,544 residents
2024
180,479 residents
2025
181,779 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Slowing
Total Permits (2024)
905
housing units authorized
Single-Family
392
detached homes
Multifamily
513
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
5.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
1,034
432
602
$189.8M
2020
1,254
472
782
$219.3M
2021
846
447
399
$168.3M
2022
1,169
318
851
$202.4M
2023
686
360
326
$155.1M
2024
905
392
513
$204.9M
Permit volume decreased 12% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
68.4%
Carpool
10.4%
Public Transit
1.8%
Walk
3.0%
Work from Home
14.0%
Other
2.4%
Based on 80,553 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 Salem. 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 Salem 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 Salem sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Salem 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.