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Place dossier plate
SheetWA-BOTHELL-WA · Bothell, WA 48,610 pop · income 91st 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 Bothell
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Bothell on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Stillwater · lowest
42,015
Stillwater · lowest
42,015 median HH income
29.2% of the leader · rank #1
Route 7 Gatew… · near
132,188
Route 7 Gatew… · near
132,188 median HH income
91.9% of the leader · rank #2
Short Pump · near
132,194
Short Pump · near
132,194 median HH income
91.9% of the leader · rank #3
Westport · near
132,206
Westport · near
132,206 median HH income
91.9% of the leader · rank #4
Wading River · near
132,213
Wading River · near
132,213 median HH income
91.9% of the leader · rank #5
Bothell · this city
132,232
Bothell · this city
132,232 median HH income
91.9% of the leader · rank #6
Poway · highest
143,825
Poway · highest
143,825 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 Bothell 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: 48,610.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Bothell - the verdict
Nationally, Bothell sits in the 91st percentile for household income and the 47th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
91st
percentile, household income
96th
percentile, home value
70th
percentile, median rent
47th
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: Bothell, WA
Washington's Bothell is a small city, with 48,610 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $132,232 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 3.4%. Home values in Bothell run a median of $871,300, and the median resident age is 38.0 years. About 58.6% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 68.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 206 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Rapid Growth), up 23% from five years earlier. Bothell reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 1478.9 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Washington carries a cost-of-living premium: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Washington scores 107.0 (Above Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,472 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Washington's average monthly utility costs around $188 (state average). On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 70.0 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Bothell'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 housing and income to reported crime to comparison shortlist to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Bothell, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, matched public-school count, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, 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. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Bothell?
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. 58.6% 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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +4,025 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +8.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 206 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Bothell?
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 6.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.4%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Bothell?
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 Burien (51,331 residents, $90,597 income); Bremerton (44,531 residents, $74,399 income); Edmonds (42,783 residents, $116,095 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Tuckahoe, VA (48,610 residents); Cedar Hill, TX (48,547 residents); Poway, CA (48,515 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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Bothell?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1478.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 35% 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.
Total reported rate
1478.9
Violent rate
110.0
Property rate
1368.9
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What does the journey to work look like in Bothell?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 55.4%. 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
55.4%
Work from home
30.2%
Public transit
4.3%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 25,210 workers age 16+.
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+
$132,232
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share A+
58.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate B+
3.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime B-
110 /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.
Bothell profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 91/100 (A+) · $132,232
Bachelor's+ share: 91/100 (A+) · 58.6%
Poverty rate: 76/100 (B+) · 3.4%
Violent crime: 68/100 (B-) · 110 /100k
Cost of living: 15/100 (F) · 107.0 index
Where Bothell sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Bothell'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 - Bothell highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Bothell, WA (this city): home $871,300, crime 1,479/100k
Cedar Hill, TX : home $273,200, crime 1,953/100k
Poway, CA : home $971,500, crime 718/100k
Hattiesburg, MS : home $153,600, crime 3,687/100k
Leesburg, VA : home $617,700, crime 1,830/100k
Stillwater, OK : home $230,900, crime 1,733/100k
Burien, WA : home $609,300, crime 3,820/100k
Bremerton, WA : home $409,500, crime 3,249/100k
Edmonds, WA : home $840,200, crime 3,261/100k
Puyallup, WA : home $507,000, crime 4,244/100k
Olympia, WA : home $457,900, crime 4,000/100k
Lynnwood, WA : home $635,800, crime 6,329/100k
How does Bothell compare to other US cities?
Where Bothell sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income91% higher than other cities
Home value96% pricier than other cities
Median rent70% pricier than other cities
Safety47% 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 Washington, Bothell ranks #56 of 156 Washington 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 Bothell 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 Bothell near the bottom of Washington's cities
Among the 599 Washington cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Bothell ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Bothell only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#75 of 565
87th percentile in Washington
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 599
0th percentile in Washington
Median Home Value
#36 of 565
94th percentile in Washington
Poverty Rate
#387 of 598
34th percentile in Washington
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#37 of 599
94th 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
91st percentile nationally for median household income · 47th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Bothell's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Bothell'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 Bothell's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$871,3004th 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
Bothell's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,473 of 15,516
More affordable than 7% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,059 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 6.6×, Bothell sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,473 of 15,516 and #3,059 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
$132,232Bothell, WA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Bothell, 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 Bothell, WA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)58.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)68.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
48,610
Median Income
$132,232
Median Home Value
$871,300
Median Age
38.0
Poverty Rate
3.4%
Labor force participation
68.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
58.6%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1478.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
110.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1368.9
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
Bothell's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
48,174 residents
2021
48,123 residents
2022
49,144 residents
2023
50,576 residents
2024
51,432 residents
2025
52,199 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Rapid Growth
Total Permits (2024)
206
housing units authorized
Single-Family
206
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
4.2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
167
167
0
$48.4M
2020
194
172
22
$70.1M
2021
268
214
54
$102.1M
2022
1,263
309
954
$254.3M
2023
179
179
0
$69.8M
2024
206
206
0
$99.6M
Permit volume increased 23% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
55.4%
Carpool
7.5%
Public Transit
4.3%
Walk
1.5%
Work from Home
30.2%
Other
1.1%
Based on 25,210 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 Bothell. 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 Bothell 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 Bothell sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Bothell 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.