City safety & data profile

CheneyWA

Cheney, WA is a 12K-resident city in Spokane County with a median household income of $54,503.

Spokane County, Washington. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Cheney, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Cheney has a population larger than 10% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, and a median home value of $395,900.

Data updated 2026-09-05

12K
Population (place)
Bottom 11%
By size
$54,503
Median income (place)
$395,900
Median home (place)
31.3%
Poverty rate (place)
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The read on Cheney

Cheney posts a median household income higher than 14% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks.

Bottom 15%
by median income, US cities

Where Cheney income ranks nationally

Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)

$54,503 Bottom 14% higher than 14% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Cheney $0 $260,000 every profiled place, bucketed by value

Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. 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, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year

Largest cities in WA

Population among 109 WA places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.

residents

What this shows Seattle is the largest WA city on this list; Sammamish leads median income.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

Highest median incomes in WA

Median household income among the same 109-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.

median

What this shows Sammamish posts the highest place-level median income in WA; Seattle is largest by headcount.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

The quick read

Reading Cheney, WA beyond the headline numbers

Cheney sits inside Spokane County, Washington, at roughly 47.49°N, -117.58°W. Population 11,534, $54,503 median household income. Median home value $395,900, median rent $1,156. Poverty rate 31.3%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

31.3% of Cheney, WA residents live below the poverty line, placing it in the hardest-hit quarter of reporting cities. Read every median on this page against that: half the households are above it, and a large minority are far below.

The median home in Cheney costs around 7.3 times what a median household earns in a year -- the most expensive quarter of reporting cities, and far enough ahead of local pay that ownership is largely closed to median earners.

Remote work covers 8.3% of Cheney workers, under the midpoint for reporting cities.

Among the CDC measures on this page, frequent mental distress departs furthest from its peer median: 23.6% in Cheney, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.

2.2% of Cheney workers commute by public transit, a larger share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.

Cheney's median age is 24.4 years, in the youngest quarter of reporting cities.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Cheney from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.

Population (place)
11,534
Cheney · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$54,503
-39% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$395,900
-4% vs avg
Median Age (place)
24.4
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Spokane County): Cheney's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.

20132024
Population
549K+16%
Median Income
$78,582+60%
Median Home Value
$410,700+122%
Poverty Rate
11.7%-24%
Unemployment
5.3%-46%

Economics

Economics indicators for Cheney, WA
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$1,156/mo
Poverty Rate
31.3% +152% vs avg
Unemployment 12.8%
Bachelor's Degree+ 38%
Work From Home 8.3%
Public Transit 2.2%

Population

White 76.6%
African American 1.1%
Asian 3.5%
Two or More Ethnicities 8.1%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

Short Sleep Duration
34.7%
Obesity
32.8%
Frequent Mental Distress
23.6%
High Blood Pressure
21.1%
Binge Drinking
19.8%
Physical Inactivity
19.5%
Current Asthma
12.7%
Frequent Physical Distress
12.2%
Current Smoking
10.9%
Lack of Health Insurance
9.5%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 57.7%
Annual Checkup 66.5%

Other Measures

Diabetes
6.7%
Coronary Heart Disease
3.8%
Stroke
2.2%

What alerts and safety updates affect Cheney?

No area-tagged alerts are on record for Cheney right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet WA-CHENEY · Cheney

Cheney: no area-tagged alerts on record — state hubs carry the live CAP stream.

  • FEED-QUIET No tagged alerts
  • LEAD-NONE Feed idle
  • DESK-IDLE Awaiting feed

Counts reflect published articles tagged to Cheney; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Washington state hubs · Methodology

Read with this city profile

Frequently Asked Questions 5

What is the population of Cheney, WA?
Cheney, WA has a population of 11,534 people, located in Spokane County, Washington.
What is the median household income in Cheney?
The median household income in Cheney, WA is $54,503 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 31.3%.
What is the median home value in Cheney?
The median home value in Cheney, WA is $395,900. Median rent is $1,156/month.
What are the top health concerns in Cheney?
The top health indicators in Cheney include Short Sleep Duration (34.7%), Obesity (32.8%), Frequent Mental Distress (23.6%). Data from CDC PLACES.
What is the median age in Cheney?
The median age in Cheney, WA is 24.4 years. 38% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

Two ACS-derived peer sets for Cheney, both outside Washington so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside WA (31.3% here).

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside WA ($54,503 here).

Compare Cheney with another city

Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.

Quick picks:

Nearby Cities 8

Using Cheney's profile

Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.

  • Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Cheney area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
  • Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
  • Compare Cheney against Washington peers on any ranking lens. Explore Washington

Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city. County-level trends are labeled when shown.

Data Sources

All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Spokane County) where that is the smallest published unit.

Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.