Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetWA-BRIER-WA · Brier, WA 6,507 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 Brier
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Brier on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
San Antonio c… · lowest
23,757
San Antonio c… · lowest
23,757 median HH income
16.4% of the leader · rank #1
Prairie Grove · near
138,229
Prairie Grove · near
138,229 median HH income
95.4% of the leader · rank #2
Centerville · near
138,235
Centerville · near
138,235 median HH income
95.5% of the leader · rank #3
Indian Springs · near
138,250
Indian Springs · near
138,250 median HH income
95.5% of the leader · rank #4
Brier · this city
138,256
Brier · this city
138,256 median HH income
95.5% of the leader · rank #5
Alloway · near
138,260
Alloway · near
138,260 median HH income
95.5% of the leader · rank #6
Normandy Park · highest
144,821
Normandy Park · highest
144,821 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 Brier 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: 6,507.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Brier - the verdict
Brier ranks in the 92nd percentile for household income and the 89th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
92nd
percentile, household income
95th
percentile, home value
70th
percentile, median rent
89th
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: Brier, WA
Brier is a small town in Washington, home to 6,507 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Brier report a median income of $138,256 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 1.6%. Home values in Brier run a median of $824,500, and the median resident age is 45.9 years. About 46.8% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 62.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 13 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Rapid Growth), up 44% from five years earlier. Brier reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 420.0 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: the state registers 107.0 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Above Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,472 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $188 across Washington, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Brier'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 work and mobility to housing and income to comparison shortlist to reported crime to schools and households to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Brier, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, matched public-school count, local building permits, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates.
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.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Brier?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 65.8%. 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Brier?
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 6.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 1.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Brier?
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 Union Gap (6,511 residents, $58,958 income); Woodland (6,513 residents, $83,193 income); Lake Shore (6,601 residents, $132,102 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are West Hattiesburg, MS (6,509 residents); Huntingburg, IN (6,504 residents); Byron, MN (6,510 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Brier?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 420.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 82% 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.
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 Brier?
The matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
The NCES join finds 2 public schools within the city match. 46.8% 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
1.6%
Bachelor's degree+
46.8%
Matched public schools
2
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +51 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 13 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
2020 estimate
6,546
2025 estimate
6,597
Period change
+0.8%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
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+
$138,256
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime A+
16 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate A
1.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share A-
46.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
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.
Brier profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 93/100 (A+) · $138,256
Violent crime: 93/100 (A+) · 16 /100k
Poverty rate: 89/100 (A) · 1.6%
Bachelor's+ share: 81/100 (A-) · 46.8%
Cost of living: 15/100 (F) · 107.0 index
Where Brier sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Brier'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 - Brier highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Brier, WA (this city): home $824,500, crime 420/100k
Huntingburg, IN : home $126,500, crime 582/100k
Moraine, OH : home $128,100, crime 6,992/100k
Union Gap, WA : home $186,200, crime 8,652/100k
Woodland, WA : home $384,100, crime 2,825/100k
Normandy Park, WA : home $943,500, crime 1,380/100k
Steilacoom, WA : home $594,600, crime 868/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Brier compare to other US cities?
Here's how Brier 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 value95% pricier than other cities
Median rent70% pricier than other cities
Safety89% 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, Brier ranks #2 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 Brier 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 Brier near the bottom of Washington's cities
Among the 599 Washington cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Brier ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Brier only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#63 of 565
89th percentile in Washington
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 599
0th percentile in Washington
Median Home Value
#47 of 565
92nd percentile in Washington
Poverty Rate
#450 of 598
24th percentile in Washington
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#93 of 599
84th 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
92nd percentile nationally for median household income · 89th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Brier's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Brier'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 Brier's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$824,5005th percentilemore affordable than 5% 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
Brier's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,073 of 15,516
More affordable than 9% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#10,446 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 6.0×, Brier sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,073 of 15,516 and #10,446 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$138,256Brier, WA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Brier, 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 Brier, WA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)46.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)1.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)62.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
6,507
Median Income
$138,256
Median Home Value
$824,500
Median Age
45.9
Poverty Rate
1.6%
Labor force participation
62.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
46.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
420.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
15.6
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
404.5
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
2
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Brier's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
6,546 residents
2021
6,536 residents
2022
6,497 residents
2023
6,509 residents
2024
6,572 residents
2025
6,597 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Rapid Growth
Total Permits (2024)
13
housing units authorized
Single-Family
13
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
9
9
0
$6.8M
2020
13
13
0
$9.0M
2021
4
4
0
$3.8M
2022
10
10
0
$8.9M
2023
13
13
0
$19.2M
2024
13
13
0
$11.7M
Permit volume increased 44% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
65.8%
Carpool
2.4%
Public Transit
4.6%
Walk
0.2%
Work from Home
25.1%
Other
1.9%
Based on 3,274 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 Brier. 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 Brier 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 Brier sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Brier 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.