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Place dossier plate
SheetWA-ROCKFORD-WA · Rockford, WA 407 pop · income 50th 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 Rockford
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Rockford on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Irving · lowest
46,250
Irving · lowest
46,250 median HH income
32.3% of the leader · rank #1
Rockford · this city
70,625
Rockford · this city
70,625 median HH income
49.3% of the leader · rank #2
County Line · near
70,625
County Line · near
70,625 median HH income
49.3% of the leader · rank #3
Vona · near
70,625
Vona · near
70,625 median HH income
49.3% of the leader · rank #4
Menlo · near
70,625
Menlo · near
70,625 median HH income
49.3% of the leader · rank #5
Goose Lake · near
70,625
Goose Lake · near
70,625 median HH income
49.3% of the leader · rank #6
Aberdeen Gard… · highest
143,125
Aberdeen Gard… · highest
143,125 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 Rockford 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: 407.
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Rockford places in the 50th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
50th
percentile, household income
60th
percentile, home value
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: Rockford, WA
407 people live in Rockford, Washington - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Rockford households earn a median of $70,625 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 1.7%. Home values in Rockford run a median of $270,300, and the median resident age is 50.2 years. About 22.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 59.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 1 residential building permits were authorized in Rockford (Construction Slowdown), down 75% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data.
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). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,472 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $188 across Washington, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Rockford'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 housing and income to work and mobility to population change to schools and households to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Rockford, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Rockford?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 1.7%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What does the journey to work look like in Rockford?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 76.7%. 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.
Is Rockford growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +106 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +20.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 1 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 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Rockford?
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 Aberdeen Gardens (406 residents, $143,125 income); Gorst (405 residents, $117,813 income); Jamestown (409 residents, $111,111 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Miccosukee, FL (407 residents); Irving, IL (407 residents); Loraine, IL (407 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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Rockford?
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 3 public schools within the city match. 22.4% 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.
Poverty estimate
1.7%
Bachelor's degree+
22.4%
Matched public schools
3
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
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.
Poverty rate A
1.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income C-
$70,625
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share D
22.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
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).
Rockford profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 88/100 (A) · 1.7%
Household income: 50/100 (C-) · $70,625
Bachelor's+ share: 41/100 (D) · 22.4%
Cost of living: 15/100 (F) · 107.0 index
How does Rockford compare to other US cities?
Here's how Rockford stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income50% higher than other cities
Home value60% pricier 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 Rockford 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 Rockford near the bottom of Washington's cities
Among the 599 Washington cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Rockford ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Rockford only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#383 of 565
32nd percentile in Washington
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 599
0th percentile in Washington
Median Home Value
#433 of 565
23rd percentile in Washington
Poverty Rate
#446 of 598
25th percentile in Washington
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#354 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
50th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Rockford's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$270,30040th percentilemore affordable than 40% 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
Rockford's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,154 of 15,516
More affordable than 35% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#8,017 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.8×, Rockford sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,154 of 15,516 and #8,017 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$70,625Rockford, WA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Rockford, 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 Rockford, WA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)22.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)1.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)59.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
407
Median Income
$70,625
Median Home Value
$270,300
Median Age
50.2
Poverty Rate
1.7%
Labor force participation
59.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
22.4%
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
Rockford's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
526 residents
2021
546 residents
2022
582 residents
2023
612 residents
2024
625 residents
2025
632 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
1
housing units authorized
Single-Family
1
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2.5
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
4
4
0
$1.1M
2020
8
8
0
$2.2M
2021
9
9
0
$2.5M
2022
6
6
0
$1.7M
2023
4
4
0
$1.2M
2024
1
1
0
$0.3M
Permit volume decreased 75% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
76.7%
Carpool
20.2%
Public Transit
1.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
2.1%
Based on 193 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 Rockford. 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 Rockford 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 Rockford sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Rockford 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, 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.