City safety & data profile
Des MoinesWA
Des Moines, WA is a 31K-resident city in King County with a median household income of $92,483.
King County, Washington. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Des Moines, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Des Moines has a population larger than 65% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, and a median home value of $597,000.
Data updated 2026-09-03
- 31K
- Population (place)
- Top 35%
- By size
- $92,483
- Median income (place)
- $597,000
- Median home (place)
- 12.1%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Des Moines
Des Moines posts a median household income higher than 63% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks.
- Top 37%
- by median income, US cities
Where Des Moines income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$92,483 Top 37% higher than 63% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles
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.
- Seattle
Seattle, WA
780,995 residents
- Spokane 229,447
Spokane, WA
229,447 residents
- Tacoma 222,906
Tacoma, WA
222,906 residents
- Vancouver 196,442
Vancouver, WA
196,442 residents
- Bellevue 139,820
Bellevue, WA
139,820 residents
- Kent 126,952
Kent, WA
126,952 residents
- Everett 108,010
Everett, WA
108,010 residents
- Renton 100,242
Renton, WA
100,242 residents
- Federal Way 95,171
Federal Way, WA
95,171 residents
- Spokane Valley 94,919
Spokane Valley, WA
94,919 residents
What this shows Seattle is the largest WA city on this list; Sammamish leads median income.
Highest median incomes in WA
Median household income among the same 109-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.
- Sammamish
Sammamish, WA
$239,690 median
- Mercer Island
Mercer Island, WA
$219,069 median
- Snoqualmie
Snoqualmie, WA
$214,107 median
- Cottage Lake
Cottage Lake, WA
$213,106 median
- Mill Creek E…
Mill Creek East, WA
$192,937 median
- Maltby
Maltby, WA
$185,457 median
- Union Hill-N…
Union Hill-Novelty Hill, WA
$185,369 median
- Bainbridge I…
Bainbridge Island, WA
$172,188 median
- Bellevue
Bellevue, WA
$165,576 median
- Woodinville
Woodinville, WA
$164,398 median
What this shows Sammamish posts the highest place-level median income in WA; Seattle is largest by headcount.
The quick read
Reading Des Moines, WA beyond the headline numbers
Des Moines sits inside King County, Washington, at roughly 47.40°N, -122.32°W. Population 31,221, $92,483 median household income. Median home value $597,000, median rent $1,799. Poverty rate 12.1%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
Poverty in Des Moines, WA stands at 12.1%, above the midpoint of reporting cities. A median income can look comfortable while a share this size sits well beneath it, which is why the two figures belong together.
The median home in Des Moines costs around 6.5 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.
14.7% of Des Moines workers are remote, above the midpoint of reporting cities.
Among the CDC measures on this page, obesity departs furthest from its peer median: 26.6% in Des Moines, the lowest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.
4.6% of Des Moines workers commute by public transit, a larger share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Des Moines 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.
10-Year Trends 2013–2024
County-level trend (King County): Des Moines'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.
Economics
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Median Rent | |
| Poverty Rate | 12.1% |
| Unemployment | 7.5% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 33.4% |
| Work From Home | 14.7% |
| Public Transit | 4.6% |
Population
Health Profile 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
What alerts and safety updates affect Des Moines?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Des Moines right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet WA-DES-MOINES-WA · Des Moines
Des Moines: 1 tagged alert; lead category NWS weather alert.
- VOL-TRACE 1 on record
- WX-LED 100% weather
- DESK-MIX NOAA
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Houston
Tagged alert mix: Des Moines
Published notices carrying this city slug or location tag
- Weather Alerts
Weather Alerts
1
What this shows 1 tagged notice on record for Des Moines.
Nearest tagged-volume peer: Houston, TX (1 tagged · Δ0)
Counts reflect published articles tagged to Des Moines; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Washington state hubs · Methodology
Cities with a similar tagged alert volume 4
Nearest published-notice counts on Areazine (1 tagged here), a feed-density peer set, not an ACS demographic match.
Read with this city profile
Frequently Asked Questions 5
What is the population of Des Moines, WA? ▼
What is the median household income in Des Moines? ▼
What is the median home value in Des Moines? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Des Moines? ▼
What is the median age in Des Moines? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Des Moines, both outside Washington so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside WA (12.1% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside WA ($92,483 here).
Compare Des Moines 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.
Nearby Cities 8
Using Des Moines'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 Des Moines 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 Des Moines 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 (King 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.