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Place dossier plate
SheetWA-KENT-WA · Kent, WA 135,015 pop · income 71st 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 Kent
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Kent on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Yakima · lowest
59,228
Yakima · lowest
59,228 median HH income
36.7% of the leader · rank #1
Mechanicstown · near
90,414
Mechanicstown · near
90,414 median HH income
56.1% of the leader · rank #2
Kent · this city
90,416
Kent · this city
90,416 median HH income
56.1% of the leader · rank #3
Windsor Locks · near
90,417
Windsor Locks · near
90,417 median HH income
56.1% of the leader · rank #4
Alburnett · near
90,417
Alburnett · near
90,417 median HH income
56.1% of the leader · rank #5
Millville · near
90,417
Millville · near
90,417 median HH income
56.1% of the leader · rank #6
Bellevue · highest
161,300
Bellevue · highest
161,300 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 Kent 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: 135,015.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Kent - the verdict
Kent ranks in the 71st percentile for household income and the 6th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
71st
percentile, household income
86th
percentile, home value
70th
percentile, median rent
6th
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: Kent, WA
135,015 people live in Kent, Washington - a mid-sized U.S. city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Kent report a median income of $90,416 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 7.8%. Home values in Kent run a median of $537,500, and the median resident age is 35.3 years. About 29.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 64.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 184 residential building permits were authorized in Kent (Construction Slowdown), down 53% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Kent's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 4260.8 incidents per 100,000 residents, above the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 53.8°F with 40.1 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. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,472 per month. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Washington's average monthly utility costs around $188 (state average). The average commute for Kent workers runs 26.7 minutes, with 69.8% driving alone and 11.5% working from home. Natural-hazard exposure scores 70.0 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Kent'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 population change to comparison shortlist to housing and income to schools and households to reported crime to work and mobility to climate and hazard context; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Kent, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, matched public-school count.
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
Is Kent growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -483 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 184 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Kent?
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 Bellevue (151,199 residents, $161,300 income); Everett (111,083 residents, $81,502 income); Spokane Valley (105,460 residents, $70,722 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Stamford, CT (135,806 residents); Elizabeth, NJ (135,887 residents); Victorville, CA (135,983 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Kent?
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 5.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 7.8%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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 29 public schools within the city match. 29.4% 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.
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 Kent?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 4260.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 87% higher 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
4260.8
Violent rate
489.7
Property rate
3771.0
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 69.8%. The reported mean trip to work is 26.7 minutes.
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.
Drive alone
69.8%
Work from home
11.5%
Public transit
5.1%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 66,301 workers age 16+.
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.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 53.8°F, with 40.1 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.
FEMA risk index (state avg)
70.0
Annual precipitation
40.1 in
Mean temperature
53.8°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
Above median income · poverty 7.8% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
107.0 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, Washington average
D
City profile score · Kent, WA
42/100
5 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.
Household income B
$90,416
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share C
29.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate D
7.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
490 /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.
Kent profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 70/100 (B) · $90,416
Bachelor's+ share: 57/100 (C) · 29.4%
Poverty rate: 48/100 (D) · 7.8%
Violent crime: 17/100 (F) · 490 /100k
Cost of living: 15/100 (F) · 107.0 index
Where Kent sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Kent'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 - Kent highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Kent, WA (this city): home $537,500, crime 4,261/100k
Stamford, CT : home $614,300, crime 1,383/100k
Elizabeth, NJ : home $393,500, crime 3,066/100k
Victorville, CA : home $342,500, crime 3,145/100k
Midland, TX : home $298,600, crime 1,977/100k
Coral Springs, FL : home $502,700, crime 1,230/100k
Bellevue, WA : home $1,203,100, crime 3,478/100k
Everett, WA : home $532,300, crime 3,484/100k
Spokane Valley, WA : home $344,300, crime 3,758/100k
Renton, WA : home $631,400, crime 3,653/100k
Federal Way, WA : home $499,600, crime 4,918/100k
Yakima, WA : home $273,400, crime 2,589/100k
How does Kent compare to other US cities?
Kent measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income71% higher than other cities
Home value86% pricier than other cities
Median rent70% pricier than other cities
Safety6% 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, Kent ranks #138 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 Kent 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 Kent near the bottom of Washington's cities
Among the 599 Washington cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Kent ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Kent only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#243 of 565
57th percentile in Washington
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 599
0th percentile in Washington
Median Home Value
#173 of 565
69th percentile in Washington
Poverty Rate
#225 of 598
62nd percentile in Washington
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#242 of 599
59th 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
71st percentile nationally for median household income · 6th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Kent's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Kent'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 Kent's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$537,50014th percentilemore affordable than 14% 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
Kent's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,057 of 15,516
More affordable than 9% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#573 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 5.9×, Kent sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,057 of 15,516 and #573 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
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
$90,416Kent, WA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Kent, 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 Kent, WA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)29.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)7.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)64.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
135,015
Median Income
$90,416
Median Home Value
$537,500
Median Age
35.3
Poverty Rate
7.8%
Labor force participation
64.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
29.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
4260.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
489.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3771.0
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
53.8°F
Annual Precipitation
40.1"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
29
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Kent's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
135,354 residents
2021
133,966 residents
2022
133,303 residents
2023
133,088 residents
2024
134,138 residents
2025
134,871 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
184
housing units authorized
Single-Family
184
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
389
310
79
$119.0M
2020
377
313
64
$118.9M
2021
424
343
81
$131.0M
2022
362
277
85
$107.6M
2023
126
90
36
$47.6M
2024
184
184
0
$92.4M
Permit volume decreased 53% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
26.7 minutes
Drive Alone
69.8%
Carpool
11.1%
Public Transit
5.1%
Walk
1.4%
Work from Home
11.5%
Other
1.1%
Based on 66,301 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 Kent. 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 Kent 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 Kent sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Kent 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, 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.