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Place dossier plate
SheetWA-RENTON-WA · Renton, WA 105,279 pop · income 76th 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 Renton
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Renton on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Yakima · lowest
59,228
Yakima · lowest
59,228 median HH income
41.3% of the leader · rank #1
Littleton · near
96,611
Littleton · near
96,611 median HH income
67.3% of the leader · rank #2
Renton · this city
96,626
Renton · this city
96,626 median HH income
67.3% of the leader · rank #3
Schertz · near
96,633
Schertz · near
96,633 median HH income
67.3% of the leader · rank #4
Rohnert Park · near
96,635
Rohnert Park · near
96,635 median HH income
67.3% of the leader · rank #5
Quasset Lake · near
96,641
Quasset Lake · near
96,641 median HH income
67.3% of the leader · rank #6
Kirkland · highest
143,533
Kirkland · highest
143,533 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 Renton 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: 105,279.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Renton - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Renton lands in the 76th percentile for household income and the 10th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
76th
percentile, household income
90th
percentile, home value
70th
percentile, median rent
10th
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: Renton, WA
Renton is a mid-sized U.S. city in Washington, home to 105,279 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $96,626 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 5.1%. Home values in Renton run a median of $631,400, and the median resident age is 36.5 years. About 39.0% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 67.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 73 residential building permits were authorized in Renton (Construction Slowdown), down 57% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Renton's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 3652.6 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: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Washington at 107.0 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Above Average). 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). Workers in Renton report an average commute of 24.1 minutes, with 63.0% driving alone and 20.0% working from home. 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 Renton'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 schools and households to housing and income to work and mobility to comparison shortlist to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Renton, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, 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 Renton growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -1,754 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.6% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 73 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
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 28 public schools within the city match. 39.0% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Renton?
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 6.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 5.1%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Renton?
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 Spokane Valley (105,460 residents, $70,722 income); Everett (111,083 residents, $81,502 income); Federal Way (99,232 residents, $82,144 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are San Tan Valley, AZ (105,231 residents); Burbank, CA (105,165 residents); Brockton, MA (105,080 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.
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 Renton?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 63.0%. The reported mean trip to work is 24.1 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. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Drive alone
63.0%
Work from home
20.0%
Public transit
4.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 56,211 workers age 16+.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Renton?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 3652.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 60% 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
3652.6
Violent rate
339.2
Property rate
3313.4
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
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+
$96,626
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share B
39.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate B-
5.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
339 /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.
Renton profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 75/100 (B+) · $96,626
Bachelor's+ share: 73/100 (B) · 39.0%
Poverty rate: 65/100 (B-) · 5.1%
Violent crime: 27/100 (F) · 339 /100k
Cost of living: 15/100 (F) · 107.0 index
Where Renton sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Renton'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 - Renton highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Renton, WA (this city): home $631,400, crime 3,653/100k
Burbank, CA : home $1,041,100, crime 3,462/100k
Brockton, MA : home $405,500, crime 1,945/100k
Inglewood, CA : home $744,300, crime 4,289/100k
El Cajon, CA : home $632,800, crime 1,935/100k
Spokane Valley, WA : home $344,300, crime 3,758/100k
Everett, WA : home $532,300, crime 3,484/100k
Federal Way, WA : home $499,600, crime 4,918/100k
Yakima, WA : home $273,400, crime 2,589/100k
Bellingham, WA : home $577,400, crime 4,107/100k
Kirkland, WA : home $1,022,500, crime 2,073/100k
How does Renton compare to other US cities?
Where Renton sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income76% higher than other cities
Home value90% pricier than other cities
Median rent70% pricier than other cities
Safety10% 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, Renton ranks #128 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 Renton 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 Renton near the bottom of Washington's cities
Among the 599 Washington cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Renton ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Renton only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#211 of 565
63rd percentile in Washington
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 599
0th percentile in Washington
Median Home Value
#117 of 565
79th percentile in Washington
Poverty Rate
#315 of 598
47th percentile in Washington
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#143 of 599
76th 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
76th percentile nationally for median household income · 10th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Renton's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Renton'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 Renton's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$631,40010th percentilemore affordable than 10% 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
Renton's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,453 of 15,516
More affordable than 7% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#622 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 6.5×, Renton sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,453 of 15,516 and #622 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
$96,626Renton, WA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Renton, 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 Renton, WA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)39.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)5.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)67.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
105,279
Median Income
$96,626
Median Home Value
$631,400
Median Age
36.5
Poverty Rate
5.1%
Labor force participation
67.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
39.0%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3652.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
339.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3313.4
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
28
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Renton's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
106,729 residents
2021
105,325 residents
2022
104,172 residents
2023
103,960 residents
2024
104,579 residents
2025
104,975 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
73
housing units authorized
Single-Family
73
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
168
104
64
$57.9M
2020
263
158
105
$77.5M
2021
97
48
49
$31.6M
2022
820
63
757
$156.3M
2023
55
45
10
$26.6M
2024
73
73
0
$37.6M
Permit volume decreased 57% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
24.1 minutes
Drive Alone
63.0%
Carpool
9.5%
Public Transit
4.0%
Walk
1.7%
Work from Home
20.0%
Other
1.8%
Based on 56,211 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 Renton. 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 Renton 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 Renton sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Renton 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.