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Place dossier plate
SheetUT-OREM-UT · Orem, UT 97,048 pop · income 63rd 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 Orem
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Orem on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Portsmouth · lowest
58,972
Portsmouth · lowest
58,972 median HH income
46.7% of the leader · rank #1
Bayonne · near
81,285
Bayonne · near
81,285 median HH income
64.3% of the leader · rank #2
Ayer · near
81,286
Ayer · near
81,286 median HH income
64.3% of the leader · rank #3
Twin Lakes CD… · near
81,288
Twin Lakes CD… · near
81,288 median HH income
64.3% of the leader · rank #4
Orem · this city
81,292
Orem · this city
81,292 median HH income
64.3% of the leader · rank #5
Clatskanie · near
81,307
Clatskanie · near
81,307 median HH income
64.3% of the leader · rank #6
South Jordan · highest
126,400
South Jordan · highest
126,400 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 Orem 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: 97,048.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Orem - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Orem lands in the 63rd percentile for household income and the 45th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
63rd
percentile, household income
80th
percentile, home value
60th
percentile, median rent
45th
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: Orem, UT
97,048 people live in Orem, Utah - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Orem brings in $81,292 a year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 6.8%. Home values in Orem run a median of $439,000, and the median resident age is 26.9 years. 42.5% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 69.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 40 residential building permits were authorized in Orem (Construction Slowdown), down 95% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Orem reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 1534.3 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Utah tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Utah at 98.9 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Near Average). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,313 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $178 across Utah, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Commute times here average 17.0 minutes, with 66.8% driving alone and 15.2% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 36.2 out of 100 (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Orem'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 housing and income to schools and households to reported crime to comparison shortlist to population change to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Orem, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, matched public-school count, local building permits, commute-mode shares.
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. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Orem?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 5.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 6.8%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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.
The NCES join finds 24 public schools within the city match. 42.5% 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 joined FBI UCR record reports 1534.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 33% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Orem?
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.
Within Utah, the closest population matches are St. George (99,184 residents, $72,870 income); Sandy (94,723 residents, $111,242 income); Ogden (86,973 residents, $70,053 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Conroe, TX (96,976 residents); Fayetteville, AR (97,227 residents); Yakima, WA (96,810 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.
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.
Population change
Is Orem growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -3,186 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -3.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 40 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
2020 estimate
98,400
2025 estimate
95,214
Period change
-3.2%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 66.8%. The reported mean trip to work is 17.0 minutes.
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.
Drive alone
66.8%
Work from home
15.2%
Public transit
2.2%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 50,383 workers age 16+.
Above median income · poverty 6.8% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
98.9 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Utah average
C
City profile score · Orem, UT
57/100
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 B+
42.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income C+
$81,292
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate C-
6.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime C-
175 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Cost of living D
98.9 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Orem profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 77/100 (B+) · 42.5%
Household income: 61/100 (C+) · $81,292
Poverty rate: 54/100 (C-) · 6.8%
Violent crime: 52/100 (C-) · 175 /100k
Cost of living: 44/100 (D) · 98.9 index
Where Orem sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Orem'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 - Orem highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Orem, UT (this city): home $439,000, crime 1,534/100k
Conroe, TX : home $283,100, crime 1,877/100k
Fayetteville, AR : home $322,500, crime 2,795/100k
Yakima, WA : home $273,400, crime 2,589/100k
Portsmouth, VA : home $229,400, crime 4,613/100k
Suffolk, VA : home $329,600, crime 1,942/100k
St. George, UT : home $456,900, crime 1,213/100k
Ogden, UT : home $311,300, crime 2,431/100k
Layton, UT : home $437,400, crime 1,476/100k
Lehi, UT : home $567,100, crime 629/100k
South Jordan, UT : home $614,800, crime 982/100k
How does Orem compare to other US cities?
Here's how Orem stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income63% higher than other cities
Home value80% pricier than other cities
Median rent60% pricier than other cities
Safety45% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at Utah, Orem ranks #50 of 67 Utah cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Orem against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Utah only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Utah-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Orem near the bottom of Utah's cities
Among the 310 Utah cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Orem ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Orem only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#162 of 293
45th percentile in Utah
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 310
0th percentile in Utah
Median Home Value
#119 of 301
60th percentile in Utah
Poverty Rate
#93 of 310
69th percentile in Utah
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#60 of 310
80th percentile in Utah
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 Utah only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
63rd percentile nationally for median household income · 45th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Orem's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Orem'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 Orem's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$439,00020th percentilemore affordable than 20% 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
Orem's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#13,452 of 15,516
More affordable than 13% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#509 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 5.4×, Orem sits in the pressured band:
national rank #13,452 of 15,516 and #509 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
$81,292Orem, UT median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Orem, UT median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Orem, UT.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)42.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)6.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)69.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
97,048
Median Income
$81,292
Median Home Value
$439,000
Median Age
26.9
Poverty Rate
6.8%
Labor force participation
69.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
42.5%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1534.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
174.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1359.8
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
24
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Orem's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
98,400 residents
2021
98,199 residents
2022
96,312 residents
2023
96,390 residents
2024
96,342 residents
2025
95,214 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
40
housing units authorized
Single-Family
34
detached homes
Multifamily
6
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
753
112
641
$163.2M
2020
155
143
12
$46.7M
2021
269
125
144
$59.9M
2022
375
56
319
$82.5M
2023
49
45
4
$26.3M
2024
40
34
6
$25.7M
Permit volume decreased 95% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
17.0 minutes
Drive Alone
66.8%
Carpool
12.2%
Public Transit
2.2%
Walk
2.0%
Work from Home
15.2%
Other
1.6%
Based on 50,383 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Utah statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $178
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Utah at $178 (electricity about $85 , water and sewer about $45 ).
These are Utah statewide averages, not a meter reading for Orem. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Utah's BEA cost-of-living index is 98.9 (Near Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Orem is $1,313/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Utah statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 36.2 / 100 (Very Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Utah statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Orem sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Orem compares to similar-size Utah 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.