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Place dossier plate
SheetWA-BELLEVUE-WA · Bellevue, WA 151,199 pop · income 96th pct · 495 tracts
Nearest income peer: Eastvale, CA (+ $22 income $)
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 Bellevue
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Bellevue on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Jackson · lowest
43,238
Jackson · lowest
43,238 median HH income
26.8% of the leader · rank #1
Taylor Lake · near
161,191
Taylor Lake · near
161,191 median HH income
99.8% of the leader · rank #2
Medicine Lake · near
161,250
Medicine Lake · near
161,250 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #3
Bellevue · this city
161,300
Bellevue · this city
161,300 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #4
Eastvale · near
161,322
Eastvale · near
161,322 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #5
Atlantic Beach · near
161,344
Atlantic Beach · near
161,344 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #6
Greenlawn · highest
161,442
Greenlawn · highest
161,442 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 Bellevue 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: 151,199.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Bellevue - the verdict
Bellevue ranks in the 96th percentile for household income and the 11th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
96th
percentile, household income
98th
percentile, home value
70th
percentile, median rent
11th
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: Bellevue, WA
Washington's Bellevue is a mid-sized U.S. city, with 151,199 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $161,300 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 4.4%. Typical homes in Bellevue are valued around $1,203,100, and the median resident age is 38.3 years. About 71.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 64.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 589 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Rapid Growth), up 46% from five years earlier. Bellevue's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 3478.1 incidents per 100,000 residents, above the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Washington carries a cost-of-living premium: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Washington at 107.0 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Above Average). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,472 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $188 across Washington, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 70.0 out of 100 (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Bellevue'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 reported crime to population change to within-city variation to schools and households to work and mobility to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Bellevue, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Bellevue?
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 7.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 4.4%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Bellevue?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 3478.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 53% higher 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.
What can 495 Census tracts reveal inside Bellevue?
PlainCities matches 495 Census tracts to this city.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Bellevue?
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 Washington, the closest population matches are Kent (135,015 residents, $90,416 income); Everett (111,083 residents, $81,502 income); Vancouver (192,696 residents, $78,156 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Charleston, SC (152,014 residents); Roseville, CA (152,438 residents); Escondido, CA (149,913 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 Bellevue growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +2,410 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.6% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 589 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 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.
2020 estimate
151,783
2025 estimate
154,193
Period change
+1.6%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
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 30 public schools within the city match. 71.4% 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.
Poverty estimate
4.4%
Bachelor's degree+
71.4%
Matched public schools
30
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in Bellevue?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 47.0%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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
47.0%
Work from home
32.8%
Public transit
5.9%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 79,331 workers age 16+.
Top-decile income · poverty 4.4% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
107.0 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, Washington average
B-
City profile score · Bellevue, WA
69/100
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.
Household income A+
$161,300
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share A+
71.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate B-
4.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime C+
139 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Cost of living F
107.0 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Bellevue profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 100/100 (A+) · $161,300
Bachelor's+ share: 98/100 (A+) · 71.4%
Poverty rate: 69/100 (B-) · 4.4%
Violent crime: 61/100 (C+) · 139 /100k
Cost of living: 15/100 (F) · 107.0 index
Where Bellevue sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Bellevue'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 - Bellevue highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Bellevue, WA (this city): home $1,203,100, crime 3,478/100k
Charleston, SC : home $469,100, crime 2,379/100k
Roseville, CA : home $630,600, crime 1,640/100k
Escondido, CA : home $663,500, crime 1,919/100k
Joliet, IL : home $248,600, crime 1,595/100k
Surprise, AZ : home $396,000, crime 985/100k
Kent, WA : home $537,500, crime 4,261/100k
Everett, WA : home $532,300, crime 3,484/100k
Vancouver, WA : home $440,300, crime 3,990/100k
Spokane Valley, WA : home $344,300, crime 3,758/100k
Renton, WA : home $631,400, crime 3,653/100k
Federal Way, WA : home $499,600, crime 4,918/100k
How does Bellevue compare to other US cities?
Where Bellevue sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income96% higher than other cities
Home value98% pricier than other cities
Median rent70% pricier than other cities
Safety11% 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 Washington alone, Bellevue ranks #126 of 156 Washington 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 Bellevue against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Washington only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Washington-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Bellevue near the bottom of Washington's cities
Among the 599 Washington cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Bellevue ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Bellevue only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#28 of 565
95th percentile in Washington
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 599
0th percentile in Washington
Median Home Value
#10 of 565
98th percentile in Washington
Poverty Rate
#346 of 598
41st percentile in Washington
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#12 of 599
98th percentile in Washington
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 Washington only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
96th percentile nationally for median household income · 11th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Bellevue's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Bellevue'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 Bellevue's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$1,203,1002nd percentilemore affordable than 2% 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
Bellevue's home-value-to-income ratio: 7.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,868 of 15,516
More affordable than 4% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#674 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 7.5×, Bellevue sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,868 of 15,516 and #674 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
$161,300Bellevue, WA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Bellevue, WA median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Bellevue, WA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)71.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)4.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)64.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
151,199
Median Income
$161,300
Median Home Value
$1,203,100
Median Age
38.3
Poverty Rate
4.4%
Labor force participation
64.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
71.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3478.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
138.6
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3339.5
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
30
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Bellevue's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
151,783 residents
2021
149,440 residents
2022
151,056 residents
2023
151,483 residents
2024
152,958 residents
2025
154,193 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Rapid Growth
Total Permits (2024)
589
housing units authorized
Single-Family
254
detached homes
Multifamily
335
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
3.9
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
404
195
209
$180.0M
2020
333
214
119
$154.2M
2021
2,367
200
2,167
$534.7M
2022
452
317
135
$270.2M
2023
802
187
615
$283.2M
2024
589
254
335
$274.2M
Permit volume increased 46% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
47.0%
Carpool
7.3%
Public Transit
5.9%
Walk
4.8%
Work from Home
32.8%
Other
2.2%
Based on 79,331 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Washington statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $188
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Washington at $188 (electricity about $85 , water and sewer about $55 ).
These are Washington statewide averages, not a meter reading for Bellevue. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Washington's BEA cost-of-living index is 107.0 (Above Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Bellevue is $1,472/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Washington statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 70.0 / 100 (High).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Washington statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Bellevue sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Bellevue compares to similar-size Washington 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.