City safety & data profile
OlympiaWA
Olympia, WA is a 56K-resident city in Thurston County with a median household income of $81,302.
Thurston County, Washington. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Olympia, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Olympia has a population larger than 82% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $486,200, and 2 hospitals serving the surrounding area.
- 56K
- Population (place)
- Top 18%
- By size
- $81,302
- Median income (place)
- $486,200
- Median home (place)
- 14%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Olympia
Olympia posts a median household income higher than 51% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 2 hospitals serve the Olympia area.
- Top 49%
- by median income, US cities
- 2
- hospitals in & near Olympia
Composite score · Olympia, WA
55/100
4 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2024
A transparent index Areazine derives from Census ACS medians (income, poverty, bachelor's share) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when published, not an official Census Bureau or FBI rating. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability rating, not a recommendation to move to or avoid any place. Missing inputs drop out and redistribute weight. How it is calculated.
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS 5-Year Estimates.
Median household income vs cities tracked on Areazine; ACS 5-Year Estimates.
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents. State-level rate (per-city UCR reporting is incomplete/voluntary): every city in the state shares this value; lower is stronger on this axis.
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis. ACS 5-Year Estimates.
Curious how Olympia stacks up nationwide? See the full tables: Healthiest Cities in America (health outcomes only) · Community Wellbeing Cities (this page's blended composite).
Where Olympia income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$81,302 Top 49% higher than 51% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles
Each bar is a $20,000-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
Population ranking: WA
Ranked by headcount across the 109 WA places Areazine tracks with both population and income data. Tooltip carries the income rank.
- 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 tops this pool by population; the income lead belongs to Sammamish instead.
Income ranking: 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 East
Mill Creek East, WA
$192,937 median
- Maltby
Maltby, WA
$185,457 median
- Union Hill-Novelty Hill
Union Hill-Novelty Hill, WA
$185,369 median
- Bainbridge Island
Bainbridge Island, WA
$172,188 median
- Bellevue
Bellevue, WA
$165,576 median
- Woodinville
Woodinville, WA
$164,398 median
What this shows Income honors go to Sammamish here -- by headcount, that title belongs to Seattle.
The quick read
Reading Olympia, WA beyond the headline numbers
Olympia sits inside Thurston County, Washington, at roughly 47.04°N, -122.90°W. Population 55,733, $81,302 median household income. Median home value $486,200, median rent $1,599. Poverty rate 14%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
2 hospitals in/around Olympia, 3/5 avg rating, 2 with an ER. Climate: 50.5°F annual average, 50.8" precipitation.
25.6% of Olympia workers report working from home, the highest quarter of reporting cities. Where that share runs this high, local income increasingly reflects employers located somewhere else.
The median home in Olympia costs around 6.0 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.
Among the CDC measures on this page, physical inactivity departs furthest from its peer median: 16.5% in Olympia, the lowest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.
7.2% unemployment puts Olympia in the toughest quarter of reporting cities for job availability.
A bachelor's degree or higher is common in Olympia: 51.8% of adults, the highest quarter of reporting cities -- a labor pool skewed toward credentialed work.
Poverty in Olympia, WA stands at 14%, 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.
Median rent in Olympia, WA runs $1,599/month, above the midpoint for reporting cities -- worth weighing against the income figures on this page.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Olympia 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.
Looking Back a Decade 2013–2024
County-level trend (Thurston County): Olympia'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.
Money & Work
The clearest outlier in Olympia's numbers is poverty rate: 14.0%, which is 13% above what's typical across the tracked-city set. Median household income also diverges: $81,302, 9% below average.
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Median Rent | |
| Poverty Rate | 14% +13% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 7.2% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 51.8% |
| Work From Home | 25.6% |
| Public Transit | 1.9% |
Population
Community Health 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
Local Hospitals 2 total
CMS Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating (1-5): a composite score across dozens of reported measures, not a single outcome guarantee for any patient. It isn't adjusted for patient case mix and isn't directly comparable across hospital types, a critical-access facility and a large teaching hospital aren't rated on the same measure set.
Climate
NOAA 1991-2020 NormalsCost of Living
BEA 20243.7% above national average
Metro area: Olympia-Tumwater, WA (MSA)
Source: BEA Regional Price Parities via FRED. RPP of 100 = national average.
Flood Insurance Claims History
FEMA NFIP, county-level71 flood insurance claims have been filed in Thurston County since 2016, with $2.0M paid out by the NFIP.
1 claims trace back to 2025-12-AtmosphericRiver, the biggest named event in the county's flood-claim history.
Source: FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) claims, via OpenFEMA. County-level data: individual claims are not attributed to a specific city or address by FEMA.
What alerts and safety updates affect Olympia?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Olympia right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet WA-OLYMPIA · Olympia
Olympia: 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 Olympia; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Washington state hubs · Methodology
Related reading
What People Ask 9
What is the population of Olympia, WA? ▼
What is the median household income in Olympia? ▼
What is the median home value in Olympia? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Olympia? ▼
How many hospitals are in Olympia? ▼
What is the median age in Olympia? ▼
What is the climate like in Olympia? ▼
What is the cost of living in Olympia? ▼
What is the flood claim history for Olympia? ▼
Similar poverty or income, nationwide 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Olympia, both outside Washington so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside WA (14% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside WA ($81,302 here).
Compare Olympia 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.
In the Area 8
Turning this into a research checklist
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 Olympia area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
- Income and poverty rate tell different stories, two places sharing a median can still diverge sharply on poverty.
- Compare Olympia against Washington peers on any ranking lens. Explore Washington
Place-level figures for population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) come from U.S. Census ACS; health data is CDC PLACES; hospital counts cover facilities in and around the city. Any county-level trend is labeled as such.
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 (Thurston 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 2026-09-16.