City safety & data profile
Saint HelensOR
Saint Helens, OR is a 13K-resident city in Columbia County with a median household income of $82,865.
Columbia County, Oregon. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Saint Helens, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Saint Helens has a population larger than 17% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $394,200, and 5 hospitals serving the surrounding area.
- 13K
- Population (place)
- Bottom 18%
- By size
- $82,865
- Median income (place)
- $394,200
- Median home (place)
- 10%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Saint Helens
Saint Helens posts a median household income higher than 53% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 5 hospitals serve the Saint Helens area.
- Top 47%
- by median income, US cities
- 5
- hospitals in & near Saint Helens
Composite score · Saint Helens, OR
42/100
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.
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis. 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.
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS 5-Year Estimates.
Curious how Saint Helens stacks up nationwide? See the full tables: Healthiest Cities in America (health outcomes only) · Community Wellbeing Cities (this page's blended composite).
Where Saint Helens income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$82,865 Top 47% higher than 53% 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
Biggest cities by headcount in OR
Ranked by headcount across the 57 OR places Areazine tracks with both population and income data. Tooltip carries the income rank.
- Portland
Portland, OR
652,503 residents
- Eugene 176,654
Eugene, OR
176,654 residents
- Salem 175,535
Salem, OR
175,535 residents
- Gresham 110,553
Gresham, OR
110,553 residents
- Hillsboro 102,347
Hillsboro, OR
102,347 residents
- Beaverton 96,577
Beaverton, OR
96,577 residents
- Bend 87,014
Bend, OR
87,014 residents
- Medford 79,805
Medford, OR
79,805 residents
- Springfield 60,870
Springfield, OR
60,870 residents
- Corvallis 55,780
Corvallis, OR
55,780 residents
What this shows By headcount, Portland ranks #1 here -- income honors go to Bethany.
OR cities ranked by median household income
Median household income among the same 57-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.
- Bethany
Bethany, OR
$167,735 median
- Cedar Mill
Cedar Mill, OR
$164,079 median
- West Linn
West Linn, OR
$146,507 median
- Lake Oswego
Lake Oswego, OR
$141,549 median
- Oak Hills
Oak Hills, OR
$127,179 median
- Damascus
Damascus, OR
$122,500 median
- Happy Valley
Happy Valley, OR
$122,151 median
- Sherwood
Sherwood, OR
$109,966 median
- Sandy
Sandy, OR
$108,984 median
- Tigard
Tigard, OR
$108,823 median
What this shows Bethany leads this pool on median income; Portland is the population leader instead.
The quick read
Reading Saint Helens, OR beyond the headline numbers
Saint Helens sits inside Columbia County, Oregon, at roughly 45.86°N, -122.81°W. Population 12,883, $82,865 median household income. Median home value $394,200, median rent $1,413. Poverty rate 10%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
5 hospitals in/around Saint Helens (nearest 13.2 mi away), 3.8/5 avg rating, 3 with an ER. Climate: 51.6°F annual average.
Among the CDC measures on this page, current asthma departs furthest from its peer median: 12.7% in Saint Helens, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,722 cities reporting that measure.
16.9% of Saint Helens adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, the lowest quarter of reporting cities.
Unemployment in Saint Helens sits at 3.6%, below the midpoint of reporting cities.
A median home in Saint Helens runs about 4.8 times median household income, above the midpoint. Multiples in this range usually mean buyers are arriving from outside the local wage base.
Public transit carries 0.1% of Saint Helens workers, a smaller share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.
At 10%, poverty in Saint Helens, OR runs below the midpoint of reporting cities -- enough to matter locally, not enough to dominate the city's profile.
13.2% of Saint Helens workers are remote, above the midpoint of reporting cities.
Median rent in Saint Helens, OR runs $1,413/month, below the midpoint for reporting cities.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Saint Helens 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 (Columbia County): Saint Helens'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
The clearest outlier in Saint Helens's numbers is poverty rate: 10.0%, which is 19% below what's typical across the tracked-city set. Median rent runs 8% below average too, at $1,413/mo.
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Median Rent | |
| Poverty Rate | 10% -19% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 3.6% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 16.9% |
| Work From Home | 13.2% |
| Public Transit | 0.1% |
Headcount
Health Profile 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
Nearby Hospital Options 5 within 25 mi
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 20245.4% above national average
Metro area: Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA (MSA)
Source: BEA Regional Price Parities via FRED. RPP of 100 = national average.
NFIP Flood Claim History
FEMA NFIP, county-levelSince 2016, NFIP has paid out $204K across 11 flood insurance claims filed in Columbia County.
Most claims in this county are not tied to a single named storm or hurricane in the NFIP record.
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 Saint Helens?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Saint Helens right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet OR-SAINT-HELENS · Saint Helens
Saint Helens: 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 Saint Helens; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Oregon state hubs · Methodology
Related reading
What People Ask 9
What is the population of Saint Helens, OR? ▼
What is the median household income in Saint Helens? ▼
What is the median home value in Saint Helens? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Saint Helens? ▼
What hospitals are near Saint Helens? ▼
What is the median age in Saint Helens? ▼
What is the climate like in Saint Helens? ▼
What is the cost of living in Saint Helens? ▼
Has Saint Helens had flood insurance claims? ▼
Similar poverty or income, nationwide 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Saint Helens, both outside Oregon so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside OR (10% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside OR ($82,865 here).
Compare Saint Helens 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.
Cities Close By 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 Saint Helens 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 Saint Helens against Oregon peers on any ranking lens. Explore Oregon
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 (Columbia 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.