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Place dossier plate
SheetWA-FORT-LEWIS-WA · Fort Lewis, WA 13,983 pop · income 27th 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 Fort Lewis
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Fort Lewis on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Greenwood · lowest
34,659
Greenwood · lowest
34,659 median HH income
17.5% of the leader · rank #1
Bradenville · near
54,896
Bradenville · near
54,896 median HH income
27.8% of the leader · rank #2
Pine Crest · near
54,900
Pine Crest · near
54,900 median HH income
27.8% of the leader · rank #3
Lancaster · near
54,901
Lancaster · near
54,901 median HH income
27.8% of the leader · rank #4
Fort Lewis · this city
54,902
Fort Lewis · this city
54,902 median HH income
27.8% of the leader · rank #5
Franklin · near
54,904
Franklin · near
54,904 median HH income
27.8% of the leader · rank #6
Snoqualmie · highest
197,531
Snoqualmie · highest
197,531 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 Fort Lewis 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: 13,983.
Nationally, Fort Lewis sits in the 27th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
27th
percentile, household income
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: Fort Lewis, WA
13,983 people live in Fort Lewis, Washington - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Fort Lewis report a median income of $54,902 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 16.0%. The median resident age is 23.0 years. About 22.5% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 17.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
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. 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 Fort Lewis'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 comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Fort Lewis, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for matched public-school count, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history; 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 Fort Lewis?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 61.1%. 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. 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Fort Lewis?
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.
Within Washington, the closest population matches are Artondale (14,051 residents, $156,908 income); Elk Plain (13,863 residents, $101,250 income); East Wenatchee (14,114 residents, $81,050 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Greenwood, MS (13,983 residents); Beach Park, IL (13,988 residents); Sharonville, OH (13,989 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.
Below median income · poverty 16.0% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
107.0 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, Washington average
F
City profile score · Fort Lewis, WA
25/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share D
22.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$54,902
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
16.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better 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.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Fort Lewis profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 42/100 (D) · 22.5%
Household income: 27/100 (F) · $54,902
Poverty rate: 21/100 (F) · 16.0%
Cost of living: 15/100 (F) · 107.0 index
How does Fort Lewis compare to other US cities?
Where Fort Lewis sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income27% higher 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 Fort Lewis 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 Fort Lewis near the bottom of Washington's cities
Among the 599 Washington cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Fort Lewis ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Fort Lewis only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#481 of 565
15th percentile in Washington
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 599
0th percentile in Washington
Poverty Rate
#70 of 598
88th percentile in Washington
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#352 of 599
41st 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
27th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Income distribution context
$54,902Fort Lewis, WA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Fort Lewis, 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 Fort Lewis, WA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)22.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)16.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)17.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
13,983
Median Income
$54,902
Median Home Value
N/A
Median Age
23.0
Poverty Rate
16.0%
Labor force participation
17.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
22.5%
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
61.1%
Carpool
15.1%
Public Transit
0.2%
Walk
20.2%
Work from Home
2.9%
Based on 8,216 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 Fort Lewis. 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 Fort Lewis 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 Fort Lewis sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Fort Lewis 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, 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.