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Place dossier plate
SheetWA-CHEWELAH-WA · Chewelah, WA 2,552 pop · income 28th 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 Chewelah
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Chewelah on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Madison · lowest
43,095
Madison · lowest
43,095 median HH income
33.4% of the leader · rank #1
Chewelah · this city
55,516
Chewelah · this city
55,516 median HH income
43.0% of the leader · rank #2
Bladenboro · near
55,517
Bladenboro · near
55,517 median HH income
43.0% of the leader · rank #3
Seven Points · near
55,517
Seven Points · near
55,517 median HH income
43.0% of the leader · rank #4
Elsa · near
55,519
Elsa · near
55,519 median HH income
43.0% of the leader · rank #5
Happy Valley · near
55,521
Happy Valley · near
55,521 median HH income
43.0% of the leader · rank #6
Meadow Glade · highest
129,167
Meadow Glade · highest
129,167 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Chewelah on ACS population and median household income
. 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: 2,552.
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Chewelah places in the 28th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
28th
percentile, household income
50th
percentile, home value
70th
percentile, median rent
📝 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: Chewelah, WA
Washington's Chewelah is a small town, with 2,552 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in Chewelah report a median income of $55,516 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 8.9%. Chewelah's housing stock carries a median value of $226,900, and the median resident age is 48.4 years. About 21.9% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 48.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 8 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 60% from five years earlier. The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 46.3°F with 21.4 inches of precipitation per year.
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. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,472 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Washington run around $188, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. 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 Chewelah'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 housing and income to comparison shortlist to work and mobility to population change to climate and hazard context; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Chewelah, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, local building permits.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Chewelah?
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 21.9% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Chewelah?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 8.9%, 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Chewelah?
Within Washington, the closest population matches are Carson (2,553 residents, $70,347 income); Navy Yard (2,542 residents, $67,546 income); Brush Prairie (2,563 residents, $115,511 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Butler, AL (2,552 residents); Thunderbolt, GA (2,552 residents); Madison, ME (2,552 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Chewelah?
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 72.5%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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 Chewelah growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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 +239 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +9.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 8 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+9.7%
2025 estimate
2,712
2020 estimate
2,473
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 46.3°F, with 21.4 inches of precipitation. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Washington is 70.0 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
Mean temperature
46.3°F
Annual precipitation
21.4 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
70.0
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
Below median income · poverty 8.9% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
107.0 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, Washington average
F
City profile score · Chewelah, WA
31/100
4 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.
Poverty rate D
8.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share D
21.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$55,516
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); 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.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Chewelah profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 44/100 (D) · 8.9%
Bachelor's+ share: 40/100 (D) · 21.9%
Household income: 28/100 (F) · $55,516
Cost of living: 15/100 (F) · 107.0 index
How does Chewelah compare to other US cities?
Chewelah measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income28% higher than other cities
Home value50% pricier than other cities
Median rent70% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Chewelah 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 Chewelah near the bottom of Washington's cities
Among the 599 Washington cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Chewelah ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Chewelah only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#476 of 565
16th percentile in Washington
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 599
0th percentile in Washington
Median Home Value
#471 of 565
17th percentile in Washington
Poverty Rate
#188 of 598
68th percentile in Washington
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#368 of 599
38th 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
28th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Chewelah's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$226,900Among the most affordablemore affordable than 50% 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
Chewelah's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,937 of 15,516
More affordable than 30% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#8,515 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.1×, Chewelah sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,937 of 15,516 and #8,515 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
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
$55,516Chewelah, WA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Chewelah, 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 Chewelah, WA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)21.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)8.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)48.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,552
Median Income
$55,516
Median Home Value
$226,900
Median Age
48.4
Poverty Rate
8.9%
Labor force participation
48.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
21.9%
Climate
Avg Temperature
46.3°F
Annual Precipitation
21.4"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Chewelah's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,473 residents
2021
2,550 residents
2022
2,614 residents
2023
2,668 residents
2024
2,692 residents
2025
2,712 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
8
housing units authorized
Single-Family
8
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
3.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
5
5
0
$1.3M
2020
12
8
4
$3.4M
2021
19
19
0
$6.8M
2022
22
18
4
$6.4M
2023
12
12
0
$4.7M
2024
8
8
0
$2.2M
Permit volume increased 60% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
72.5%
Carpool
10.3%
Public Transit
0.8%
Walk
3.1%
Work from Home
12.6%
Other
0.7%
Based on 1,067 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 Chewelah. 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 Chewelah 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 Chewelah sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Chewelah 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, NOAA Climate Normals, 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.