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Place dossier plate
SheetWA-RIDGEFIELD-WA · Ridgefield, WA 12,576 pop · income 86th 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 Ridgefield
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Ridgefield on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Lindsay · lowest
50,563
Lindsay · lowest
50,563 median HH income
25.3% of the leader · rank #1
Jefferson Hil… · near
117,518
Jefferson Hil… · near
117,518 median HH income
58.7% of the leader · rank #2
Cherry Hill M… · near
117,535
Cherry Hill M… · near
117,535 median HH income
58.7% of the leader · rank #3
Emmett · near
117,539
Emmett · near
117,539 median HH income
58.7% of the leader · rank #4
Ridgefield · this city
117,550
Ridgefield · this city
117,550 median HH income
58.7% of the leader · rank #5
Wellman · near
117,578
Wellman · near
117,578 median HH income
58.7% of the leader · rank #6
Lantana · highest
200,147
Lantana · highest
200,147 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 Ridgefield 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: 12,576.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Ridgefield - the verdict
Nationally, Ridgefield sits in the 86th percentile for household income and the 58th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
86th
percentile, household income
89th
percentile, home value
70th
percentile, median rent
58th
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: Ridgefield, WA
Ridgefield is a small town in Washington, home to 12,576 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $117,550 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 4.7%. Typical homes in Ridgefield are valued around $590,200, and the median resident age is 34.9 years. Educational attainment runs 38.0% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 59.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 374 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 52% from five years earlier. Ridgefield reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 1156.9 crimes per 100,000 residents, below the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than 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. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,472 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Washington run around $188, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 70.0 out of 100 (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Ridgefield'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 schools and households to comparison shortlist to work and mobility to population change to housing and income to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Ridgefield, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares, local building permits, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates.
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
What does the education layer cover for Ridgefield?
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 38.0% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Ridgefield?
Within Washington, the closest population matches are Sedro-Woolley (12,633 residents, $72,140 income); Enumclaw (12,663 residents, $116,563 income); Edgewood (12,683 residents, $114,342 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Richton Park, IL (12,576 residents); Castle Pines, CO (12,573 residents); Geneva, NY (12,573 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 does the journey to work look like in Ridgefield?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 73.1%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Is Ridgefield 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 +5,257 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +48.3% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 374 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Ridgefield?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 5.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 4.7%, 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.
Household income
$117,550
Home value
$590,200
Value / income
5.0×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Ridgefield?
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 1156.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 49% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1073.4
Violent rate
83.5
Total reported rate
1156.9
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 A
$117,550
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime B+
84 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share B
38.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate B-
4.7%
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.
Ridgefield profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 85/100 (A) · $117,550
Violent crime: 75/100 (B+) · 84 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 72/100 (B) · 38.0%
Poverty rate: 67/100 (B-) · 4.7%
Cost of living: 15/100 (F) · 107.0 index
Where Ridgefield sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Ridgefield'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 - Ridgefield highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Ridgefield, WA (this city): home $590,200, crime 1,157/100k
Richton Park, IL : home $200,400, crime 2,437/100k
Geneva, NY : home $140,300, crime 3,109/100k
Lindsay, CA : home $268,400, crime 1,904/100k
Cloquet, MN : home $200,100, crime 700/100k
Enumclaw, WA : home $498,700, crime 1,478/100k
Edgewood, WA : home $664,000, crime 2,236/100k
Kelso, WA : home $302,300, crime 2,163/100k
Liberty Lake, WA : home $506,000, crime 1,682/100k
How does Ridgefield compare to other US cities?
Where Ridgefield sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income86% higher than other cities
Home value89% pricier than other cities
Median rent70% pricier than other cities
Safety58% 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, Ridgefield ranks #42 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 Ridgefield 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 Ridgefield near the bottom of Washington's cities
Among the 599 Washington cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Ridgefield ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Ridgefield only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#117 of 565
79th percentile in Washington
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 599
0th percentile in Washington
Median Home Value
#143 of 565
75th percentile in Washington
Poverty Rate
#331 of 598
44th percentile in Washington
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#150 of 599
75th 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
86th percentile nationally for median household income · 58th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Ridgefield's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Ridgefield'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 Ridgefield's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$590,20011th percentilemore affordable than 11% 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
Ridgefield's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#12,923 of 15,516
More affordable than 17% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,618 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 5.0×, Ridgefield sits in the pressured band:
national rank #12,923 of 15,516 and #2,618 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$117,550Ridgefield, WA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Ridgefield, 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 Ridgefield, WA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)38.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)4.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)59.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
12,576
Median Income
$117,550
Median Home Value
$590,200
Median Age
34.9
Poverty Rate
4.7%
Labor force participation
59.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
38.0%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1156.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
83.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1073.4
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
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Ridgefield's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
10,875 residents
2021
12,237 residents
2022
13,841 residents
2023
14,720 residents
2024
15,314 residents
2025
16,132 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
374
housing units authorized
Single-Family
226
detached homes
Multifamily
148
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
29.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
784
364
420
$147.3M
2020
674
670
4
$188.9M
2021
725
648
77
$204.1M
2022
362
362
0
$117.8M
2023
244
242
2
$94.2M
2024
374
226
148
$128.2M
Permit volume decreased 52% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
73.1%
Carpool
8.6%
Public Transit
0.9%
Walk
0.4%
Work from Home
16.3%
Other
0.7%
Based on 5,318 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 Ridgefield. 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 Ridgefield 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 Ridgefield sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Ridgefield 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.