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Place dossier plate
SheetWA-SHELTON-WA · Shelton, WA 10,619 pop · income 36th pct · 19 tracts
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 Shelton
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Shelton on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Waggaman · lowest
59,566
Waggaman · lowest
59,566 median HH income
39.6% of the leader · rank #1
Augusta · near
60,581
Augusta · near
60,581 median HH income
40.3% of the leader · rank #2
Little Rock · near
60,583
Little Rock · near
60,583 median HH income
40.3% of the leader · rank #3
Redfield · near
60,586
Redfield · near
60,586 median HH income
40.3% of the leader · rank #4
Shelton · this city
60,589
Shelton · this city
60,589 median HH income
40.3% of the leader · rank #5
Bryant · near
60,592
Bryant · near
60,592 median HH income
40.3% of the leader · rank #6
Felida · highest
150,430
Felida · highest
150,430 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 Shelton 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: 10,619.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Shelton - the verdict
Nationally, Shelton sits in the 36th percentile for household income and the 17th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
36th
percentile, household income
65th
percentile, home value
70th
percentile, median rent
17th
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: Shelton, WA
Washington's Shelton is a small town, with 10,619 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Shelton households earn a median of $60,589 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 16.3%. Shelton's housing stock carries a median value of $296,100, and the median resident age is 31.6 years. 18.8% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 53.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 42 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 31% from five years earlier. Shelton's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 2872.0 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: 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. Monthly utility costs average around $188 across Washington, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Commute times here average 24.6 minutes, with 73.8% driving alone and 9.2% working from home, per Census ACS commuting 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 Shelton'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 comparison shortlist to within-city variation to work and mobility to schools and households to population change to reported crime to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Shelton, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Shelton?
Within Washington, the closest population matches are Yelm (10,618 residents, $88,279 income); Mount Vista (10,635 residents, $101,189 income); Lake Morton-Berrydale (10,591 residents, $127,074 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Waggaman, LA (10,617 residents); Crestwood, IL (10,622 residents); Santa Clara, OR (10,623 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.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
PlainCities matches 19 Census tracts to this city.
What does the journey to work look like in Shelton?
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 73.8%. The reported mean trip to work is 24.6 minutes.
The NCES join finds 12 public schools within the city match. 18.8% 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.
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.
Population change
Is Shelton 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 +487 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +4.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 42 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
+4.7%
2025 estimate
10,921
2020 estimate
10,434
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Shelton?
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 2872.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 26% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
2396.4
Violent rate
475.6
Total reported rate
2872.0
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
How far does income reach against housing in Shelton?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 16.3%, 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.
Household income
$60,589
Home value
$296,100
Value / income
4.9×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Below median income · poverty 16.3% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
107.0 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, Washington average
F
City profile score · Shelton, WA
24/100
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 F
$60,589
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
18.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
16.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
476 /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.
Shelton profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 35/100 (F) · $60,589
Bachelor's+ share: 31/100 (F) · 18.8%
Poverty rate: 20/100 (F) · 16.3%
Violent crime: 17/100 (F) · 476 /100k
Cost of living: 15/100 (F) · 107.0 index
Where Shelton sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Shelton'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 - Shelton highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Shelton, WA (this city): home $296,100, crime 2,872/100k
Crestwood, IL : home $187,700, crime 2,291/100k
Pella, IA : home $259,600, crime 1,060/100k
Winterville, NC : home $226,600, crime 805/100k
Yelm, WA : home $439,100, crime 2,153/100k
Sumner, WA : home $478,500, crime 3,653/100k
Airway Heights, WA : home $286,900, crime 4,268/100k
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 Shelton compare to other US cities?
Here's how Shelton stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income36% higher than other cities
Home value65% pricier than other cities
Median rent70% pricier than other cities
Safety17% 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, Shelton ranks #109 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 Shelton 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 Shelton near the bottom of Washington's cities
Among the 599 Washington cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Shelton ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Shelton only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#441 of 565
22nd percentile in Washington
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 599
0th percentile in Washington
Median Home Value
#404 of 565
28th percentile in Washington
Poverty Rate
#68 of 598
89th percentile in Washington
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#413 of 599
31st 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
36th percentile nationally for median household income · 17th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Shelton's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Shelton'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 Shelton's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$296,10035th percentilemore affordable than 35% 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
Shelton's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#12,695 of 15,516
More affordable than 18% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,550 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 4.9×, Shelton sits in the moderate band:
national rank #12,695 of 15,516 and #2,550 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$60,589Shelton, WA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Shelton, 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 Shelton, WA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)18.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)16.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)53.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
10,619
Median Income
$60,589
Median Home Value
$296,100
Median Age
31.6
Poverty Rate
16.3%
Labor force participation
53.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
18.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2872.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
475.6
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2396.4
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
12
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Shelton's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
10,434 residents
2021
10,651 residents
2022
10,683 residents
2023
10,650 residents
2024
10,749 residents
2025
10,921 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
42
housing units authorized
Single-Family
42
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
61
59
2
$13.4M
2020
71
69
2
$15.6M
2021
16
16
0
$3.9M
2022
12
12
0
$2.7M
2023
7
7
0
$1.4M
2024
42
42
0
$10.5M
Permit volume decreased 31% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
24.6 minutes
Drive Alone
73.8%
Carpool
13.0%
Public Transit
0.8%
Walk
2.5%
Work from Home
9.2%
Other
0.7%
Based on 4,059 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 Shelton. 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 Shelton 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 Shelton sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Shelton 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.