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Place dossier plate
SheetWA-FORKS-WA · Forks, WA 3,413 pop · income 14th pct · 25 tracts
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 Forks
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Forks on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Goldendale · lowest
41,621
Goldendale · lowest
41,621 median HH income
24.1% of the leader · rank #1
Forks · this city
46,389
Forks · this city
46,389 median HH income
26.8% of the leader · rank #2
Bunker Hill · near
46,389
Bunker Hill · near
46,389 median HH income
26.8% of the leader · rank #3
Monmouth · near
46,389
Monmouth · near
46,389 median HH income
26.8% of the leader · rank #4
Dudley · near
46,389
Dudley · near
46,389 median HH income
26.8% of the leader · rank #5
Portage · near
46,389
Portage · near
46,389 median HH income
26.8% of the leader · rank #6
Fox Island · highest
172,917
Fox Island · highest
172,917 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 Forks 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: 3,413.
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Forks places in the 14th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
14th
percentile, household income
41st
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: Forks, WA
3,413 people live in Forks, Washington - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Forks brings in $46,389 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 19.4%. Typical homes in Forks are valued around $193,900, and the median resident age is 37.8 years. About 22.0% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 55.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 6 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Rapid Growth), up 20% from five years earlier. The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 50.4°F with 119.9 inches of precipitation per year and 7.9 inches of snowfall.
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. 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 Forks'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 climate and hazard context to housing and income to work and mobility to population change to schools and households to comparison shortlist to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Forks, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What physical conditions frame life in Forks?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 50.4°F, with 119.9 inches of precipitation and 7.9 inches of annual snowfall. 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Forks?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 19.4%, 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 Forks?
Within Washington, the closest population matches are Elma (3,452 residents, $66,194 income); Goldendale (3,458 residents, $41,621 income); Fox Island (3,365 residents, $172,917 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Jewett City, CT (3,412 residents); Ringgold, GA (3,412 residents); Fort Branch, IN (3,412 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.
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.
PlainCities matches 25 Census tracts to this city.
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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Forks?
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 67.0%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.9%
Work from home
10.7%
Drive alone
67.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 1,529 workers age 16+.
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 +90 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +2.6% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 6 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
+2.6%
2025 estimate
3,488
2020 estimate
3,398
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
The NCES join finds 5 public schools within the city match. 22.0% 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.
Matched public schools
5
Bachelor's degree+
22.0%
Poverty estimate
19.4%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
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 D
22.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$46,389
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.
Poverty rate F
19.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Forks profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 40/100 (D) · 22.0%
Household income: 15/100 (F) · $46,389
Cost of living: 15/100 (F) · 107.0 index
Poverty rate: 14/100 (F) · 19.4%
How does Forks compare to other US cities?
Where Forks sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income14% higher than other cities
Home value41% 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 Forks 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 Forks near the bottom of Washington's cities
Among the 599 Washington cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Forks ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Forks only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#532 of 565
6th percentile in Washington
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 599
0th percentile in Washington
Median Home Value
#516 of 565
9th percentile in Washington
Poverty Rate
#47 of 598
92nd percentile in Washington
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#366 of 599
39th 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
14th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Forks's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$193,900Among the most affordablemore affordable than 59% 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
Forks's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,188 of 15,516
More affordable than 28% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#8,680 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.2×, Forks sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,188 of 15,516 and #8,680 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
$46,389Forks, WA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Forks, 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 Forks, WA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)22.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)19.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)55.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
3,413
Median Income
$46,389
Median Home Value
$193,900
Median Age
37.8
Poverty Rate
19.4%
Labor force participation
55.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
22.0%
Climate
Avg Temperature
50.4°F
Annual Precipitation
119.9"
Annual Snowfall
7.9"
Schools
Total Schools
5
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Forks's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
3,398 residents
2021
3,448 residents
2022
3,439 residents
2023
3,433 residents
2024
3,462 residents
2025
3,488 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Rapid Growth
Total Permits (2024)
6
housing units authorized
Single-Family
6
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.8
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
5
5
0
$1.0M
2020
11
11
0
$1.7M
2021
9
9
0
$1.6M
2022
14
14
0
$1.7M
2023
2
2
0
$0.5M
2024
6
6
0
$1.4M
Permit volume increased 20% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
67.0%
Carpool
10.5%
Public Transit
0.9%
Walk
10.9%
Work from Home
10.7%
Based on 1,529 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 Forks. 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 Forks 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 Forks sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Forks 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.