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Place dossier plate
SheetWA-RUSTON-WA · Ruston, WA 1,293 pop · income 85th 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 Ruston
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Ruston on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Coldwater · lowest
41,484
Coldwater · lowest
41,484 median HH income
36.4% of the leader · rank #1
North Merritt… · near
113,897
North Merritt… · near
113,897 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #2
Hurstbourne · near
113,906
Hurstbourne · near
113,906 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #3
Manvel · near
113,938
Manvel · near
113,938 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #4
Ruston · this city
113,971
Ruston · this city
113,971 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #5
Boiling Sprin… · near
114,013
Boiling Sprin… · near
114,013 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #6
Norton Center · highest
114,051
Norton Center · highest
114,051 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 Ruston 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: 1,293.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Ruston - the verdict
Nationally, Ruston sits in the 85th percentile for household income and the 2nd percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
85th
percentile, household income
95th
percentile, home value
70th
percentile, median rent
2nd
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: Ruston, WA
Ruston is a small town in Washington, home to 1,293 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Ruston households earn a median of $113,971 annually, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 4.3%. Typical homes in Ruston are valued around $808,200, and the median resident age is 47.8 years. Educational attainment runs 58.0% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 59.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 2 residential building permits were authorized in Ruston (Stable), up 0% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Ruston's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 6378.8 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: the state registers 107.0 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Above Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. 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 Ruston workers runs 26.1 minutes, with 71.1% driving alone and 18.8% working from home. 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 Ruston'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 comparison shortlist to reported crime to population change to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Ruston, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Ruston?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 7.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 4.3%, 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Ruston?
Within Washington, the closest population matches are McMillin (1,298 residents, $107,305 income); Soap Lake (1,286 residents); Point Roberts (1,275 residents, $80,197 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Steele, AL (1,293 residents); Plano, KY (1,293 residents); Coldwater, MS (1,293 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 the FBI record say about safety in Ruston?
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 6378.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 180% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -4 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 2 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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Ruston?
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 71.1%. The reported mean trip to work is 26.1 minutes.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
18.8%
Drive alone
71.1%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 675 workers age 16+.
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.
Bachelor's+ share A+
58.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income A-
$113,971
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate B
4.3%
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.
Violent crime F
1,570 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Ruston profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 91/100 (A+) · 58.0%
Household income: 83/100 (A-) · $113,971
Poverty rate: 70/100 (B) · 4.3%
Cost of living: 15/100 (F) · 107.0 index
Violent crime: 0/100 (F) · 1,570 /100k
Where Ruston sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Ruston'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 - Ruston highlighted among 25 peers.Read the chart values
Ruston, WA (this city): home $808,200, crime 6,379/100k
Steele, AL : home $101,700, crime 598/100k
Antrim, NH : home $259,400, crime 959/100k
Saxonburg, PA : home $195,600, crime 146/100k
Soap Lake, WA : home $156,300, crime 3,127/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Ruston compare to other US cities?
Here's how Ruston stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income85% higher than other cities
Home value95% pricier than other cities
Median rent70% pricier than other cities
Safety2% 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, Ruston ranks #152 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 Ruston 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 Ruston near the bottom of Washington's cities
Among the 599 Washington cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Ruston ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Ruston only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#131 of 565
77th percentile in Washington
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 599
0th percentile in Washington
Median Home Value
#51 of 565
91st percentile in Washington
Poverty Rate
#353 of 598
40th percentile in Washington
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#39 of 599
93rd 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
85th percentile nationally for median household income · 2nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Ruston's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Ruston'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 Ruston's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$808,2005th percentilemore affordable than 5% 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
Ruston's home-value-to-income ratio: 7.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,711 of 15,516
More affordable than 5% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#10,822 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 7.1×, Ruston sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,711 of 15,516 and #10,822 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$113,971Ruston, WA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Ruston, 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 Ruston, WA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)58.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)4.3%
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
1,293
Median Income
$113,971
Median Home Value
$808,200
Median Age
47.8
Poverty Rate
4.3%
Labor force participation
59.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
58.0%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
6378.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
1570.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
4808.6
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.
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Ruston's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
1,056 residents
2021
1,055 residents
2022
1,041 residents
2023
1,035 residents
2024
1,048 residents
2025
1,052 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Stable
Total Permits (2024)
2
housing units authorized
Single-Family
2
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.5
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
2
2
0
$0.9M
2020
4
4
0
$1.8M
2021
2
2
0
$0.9M
2022
2
2
0
$0.9M
2023
1
1
0
$0.5M
2024
2
2
0
$0.9M
Permit volume increased 0% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
26.1 minutes
Drive Alone
71.1%
Carpool
5.2%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
1.6%
Work from Home
18.8%
Other
3.3%
Based on 675 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 Ruston. 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 Ruston 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 Ruston sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Ruston 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, 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.