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Place dossier plate
SheetWA-SEATAC-WA · SeaTac, WA 31,143 pop · income 58th 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 SeaTac
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest SeaTac on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Jackson · lowest
42,848
Jackson · lowest
42,848 median HH income
29.0% of the leader · rank #1
Mary Esther · near
76,510
Mary Esther · near
76,510 median HH income
51.9% of the leader · rank #2
Boulevard · near
76,513
Boulevard · near
76,513 median HH income
51.9% of the leader · rank #3
SeaTac · this city
76,517
SeaTac · this city
76,517 median HH income
51.9% of the leader · rank #4
Columbus Junc… · near
76,518
Columbus Junc… · near
76,518 median HH income
51.9% of the leader · rank #5
The Villages · near
76,523
The Villages · near
76,523 median HH income
51.9% of the leader · rank #6
Maple Valley · highest
147,546
Maple Valley · highest
147,546 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 SeaTac 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: 31,143.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
SeaTac - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, SeaTac places in the 58th percentile for household income and the 6th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
58th
percentile, household income
84th
percentile, home value
70th
percentile, median rent
6th
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: SeaTac, WA
SeaTac is a small city in Washington, home to 31,143 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $76,517 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 8.4%. Typical homes in SeaTac are valued around $483,200, and the median resident age is 36.8 years. About 26.6% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 63.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 375 residential building permits were authorized in SeaTac (Building Boom), up 2579% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. SeaTac's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 4353.7 crimes per 100,000 residents, above 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: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Washington at 107.0 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Above Average). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,472 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Washington's average monthly utility costs around $188 (state average). Commute times here average 22.9 minutes, with 60.0% driving alone and 10.8% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. 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 SeaTac'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 reported crime to work and mobility to schools and households to comparison shortlist to housing and income to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For SeaTac, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, 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.
1. Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in SeaTac?
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 4353.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 91% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
What does the journey to work look like in SeaTac?
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 60.0%. The reported mean trip to work is 22.9 minutes.
The NCES join finds 8 public schools within the city match. 26.6% 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 SeaTac?
Within Washington, the closest population matches are Pullman (31,939 residents, $45,097 income); Des Moines (32,545 residents, $89,787 income); Orchards (29,716 residents, $96,893 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Haines City, FL (31,156 residents); Port Chester, NY (31,162 residents); Lawndale, CA (31,113 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.
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 SeaTac?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 6.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 8.4%, 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. 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
$76,517
Home value
$483,200
Value / income
6.3×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
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 +3,184 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +10.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 375 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+10.1%
2025 estimate
34,578
2020 estimate
31,394
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Above median income · poverty 8.4% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
107.0 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, Washington average
F
City profile score · SeaTac, WA
38/100
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
$76,517
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share C-
26.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate D
8.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
410 /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.
SeaTac profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 56/100 (C) · $76,517
Bachelor's+ share: 52/100 (C-) · 26.6%
Poverty rate: 46/100 (D) · 8.4%
Violent crime: 22/100 (F) · 410 /100k
Cost of living: 15/100 (F) · 107.0 index
Where SeaTac sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
SeaTac'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 - SeaTac highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
SeaTac, WA (this city): home $483,200, crime 4,354/100k
Haines City, FL : home $250,700, crime 926/100k
Lawndale, CA : home $726,000, crime 2,459/100k
Santa Paula, CA : home $559,300, crime 1,201/100k
Jackson, MI : home $94,700, crime 4,797/100k
Pullman, WA : home $401,700, crime 952/100k
Des Moines, WA : home $539,800, crime 3,146/100k
Walla Walla, WA : home $356,600, crime 2,498/100k
Maple Valley, WA : home $672,000, crime 1,580/100k
How does SeaTac compare to other US cities?
Where SeaTac sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income58% higher than other cities
Home value84% pricier than other cities
Median rent70% pricier than other cities
Safety6% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at Washington, SeaTac ranks #142 of 156 Washington cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares SeaTac 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 SeaTac near the bottom of Washington's cities
Among the 599 Washington cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, SeaTac ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares SeaTac only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#325 of 565
42nd percentile in Washington
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 599
0th percentile in Washington
Median Home Value
#210 of 565
63rd percentile in Washington
Poverty Rate
#201 of 598
66th percentile in Washington
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#286 of 599
52nd 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
58th percentile nationally for median household income · 6th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
SeaTac's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
SeaTac'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 SeaTac's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$483,20016th percentilemore affordable than 16% 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
SeaTac's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,336 of 15,516
More affordable than 8% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,028 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 6.3×, SeaTac sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,336 of 15,516 and #3,028 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
$76,517SeaTac, WA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context SeaTac, 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 SeaTac, WA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)26.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)8.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)63.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
31,143
Median Income
$76,517
Median Home Value
$483,200
Median Age
36.8
Poverty Rate
8.4%
Labor force participation
63.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
26.6%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
4353.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
410.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3943.7
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
8
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
SeaTac's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
31,394 residents
2021
31,609 residents
2022
31,941 residents
2023
32,953 residents
2024
33,697 residents
2025
34,578 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
375
housing units authorized
Single-Family
20
detached homes
Multifamily
355
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
12
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
14
10
4
$5.4M
2020
25
16
9
$7.9M
2021
22
20
2
$7.3M
2022
699
14
685
$73.1M
2023
147
17
130
$29.0M
2024
375
20
355
$78.4M
Permit volume increased 2579% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
22.9 minutes
Drive Alone
60.0%
Carpool
15.7%
Public Transit
6.9%
Walk
4.3%
Work from Home
10.8%
Other
2.3%
Based on 14,896 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 SeaTac. 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 SeaTac 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 SeaTac sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How SeaTac 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.