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Place dossier plate
SheetWA-MOSES-LAKE-WA · Moses Lake, WA 25,594 pop · income 52nd pct · 23 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 Moses Lake
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Moses Lake on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Inkster · lowest
39,632
Inkster · lowest
39,632 median HH income
19.6% of the leader · rank #1
Kent Acres · near
71,848
Kent Acres · near
71,848 median HH income
35.5% of the leader · rank #2
Center Point · near
71,848
Center Point · near
71,848 median HH income
35.5% of the leader · rank #3
Moses Lake · this city
71,854
Moses Lake · this city
71,854 median HH income
35.5% of the leader · rank #4
Billings · near
71,855
Billings · near
71,855 median HH income
35.5% of the leader · rank #5
Wildwood · near
71,858
Wildwood · near
71,858 median HH income
35.5% of the leader · rank #6
Mercer Island · highest
202,359
Mercer Island · highest
202,359 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 Moses Lake 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: 25,594.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Moses Lake - the verdict
Nationally, Moses Lake sits in the 52nd percentile for household income and the 5th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
52nd
percentile, household income
61st
percentile, home value
70th
percentile, median rent
5th
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: Moses Lake, WA
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 25,594 residents in Moses Lake, a small city within Washington. Households in Moses Lake report a median income of $71,854 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 12.4%. Moses Lake's housing stock carries a median value of $278,100, and the median resident age is 32.3 years. Educational attainment runs 21.7% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 60.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 164 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Growing), up 19% from five years earlier. Moses Lake's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 4631.2 in FBI UCR data, above the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
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). 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 Moses Lake'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 population change to comparison shortlist to schools and households to within-city variation to reported crime to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Moses Lake, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits, matched public-school count.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Moses Lake?
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 81.0%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Is Moses Lake 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 +2,037 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +8.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 164 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Which cities make useful reference points for Moses Lake?
Within Washington, the closest population matches are Mill Creek East (25,461 residents, $183,466 income); Mercer Island (25,282 residents, $202,359 income); Tumwater (26,519 residents, $93,635 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Inkster, MI (25,602 residents); South Bradenton, FL (25,585 residents); Nocatee, FL (25,581 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. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
What can 23 Census tracts reveal inside Moses Lake?
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 23 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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Moses Lake?
The NCES join finds 9 public schools within the city match. 21.7% 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
9
Bachelor's degree+
21.7%
Poverty estimate
12.4%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Moses Lake?
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.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 4631.2 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 103% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
4236.8
Violent rate
394.4
Total reported rate
4631.2
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
How far does income reach against housing in Moses Lake?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 12.4%, 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. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
Household income
$71,854
Home value
$278,100
Value / income
3.9×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Above median income · poverty 12.4% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
107.0 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, Washington average
F
City profile score · Moses Lake, WA
32/100
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 C-
$71,854
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
21.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
12.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
394 /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.
Moses Lake profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 51/100 (C-) · $71,854
Bachelor's+ share: 39/100 (F) · 21.7%
Poverty rate: 30/100 (F) · 12.4%
Violent crime: 23/100 (F) · 394 /100k
Cost of living: 15/100 (F) · 107.0 index
Where Moses Lake sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Moses Lake'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 - Moses Lake highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Moses Lake, WA (this city): home $278,100, crime 4,631/100k
Inkster, MI : home $75,700, crime 2,941/100k
Cliffside Park, NJ : home $577,200, crime 770/100k
Starkville, MS : home $265,900, crime 2,119/100k
Mercer Island, WA : home $1,884,200, crime 1,278/100k
Tumwater, WA : home $438,000, crime 2,274/100k
Bainbridge Island, WA : home $1,076,200, crime 989/100k
Camas, WA : home $656,100, crime 781/100k
Oak Harbor, WA : home $421,700, crime 991/100k
How does Moses Lake compare to other US cities?
Where Moses Lake sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income52% higher than other cities
Home value61% pricier than other cities
Median rent70% pricier than other cities
Safety5% 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, Moses Lake ranks #145 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 Moses Lake 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 Moses Lake near the bottom of Washington's cities
Among the 599 Washington cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Moses Lake ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Moses Lake only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#372 of 565
34th percentile in Washington
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 599
0th percentile in Washington
Median Home Value
#422 of 565
25th percentile in Washington
Poverty Rate
#114 of 598
81st percentile in Washington
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#373 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
52nd percentile nationally for median household income · 5th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Moses Lake's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Moses Lake'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 Moses Lake's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$278,10039th percentilemore affordable than 39% 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
Moses Lake's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,288 of 15,516
More affordable than 34% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,856 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.9×, Moses Lake sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,288 of 15,516 and #1,856 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$71,854Moses Lake, WA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Moses Lake, 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 Moses Lake, WA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)21.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)12.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)60.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
25,594
Median Income
$71,854
Median Home Value
$278,100
Median Age
32.3
Poverty Rate
12.4%
Labor force participation
60.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
21.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
4631.2
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
394.4
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
4236.8
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
9
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Moses Lake's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
25,432 residents
2021
25,722 residents
2022
25,932 residents
2023
26,370 residents
2024
26,995 residents
2025
27,469 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Growing
Total Permits (2024)
164
housing units authorized
Single-Family
164
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
6.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
138
132
6
$30.2M
2020
126
124
2
$27.5M
2021
180
178
2
$39.4M
2022
175
175
0
$38.4M
2023
146
146
0
$32.1M
2024
164
164
0
$36.0M
Permit volume increased 19% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
81.0%
Carpool
11.0%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
1.9%
Work from Home
5.4%
Other
0.7%
Based on 11,743 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 Moses Lake. 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 Moses Lake 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 Moses Lake sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Moses Lake 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.