City safety & data profile
SalemOR
Salem, OR is a 176K-resident city in Marion County with a median household income of $75,487.
Marion County, Oregon. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Salem, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Salem has a population larger than 97% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $416,900, and 2 hospitals serving the surrounding area.
- 176K
- Population (place)
- Top 3%
- By size
- $75,487
- Median income (place)
- $416,900
- Median home (place)
- 14.4%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Salem
Salem posts a median household income higher than 44% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 2 hospitals serve the Salem area.
- Bottom 45%
- by median income, US cities
- 2
- hospitals in & near Salem
Composite score · Salem, OR
43/100
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.
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.
Median household income vs cities tracked on Areazine; ACS 5-Year Estimates.
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis. ACS 5-Year Estimates.
See the full national tables: Healthiest Cities in America (health outcomes only) · Community Wellbeing Cities (this page's blended composite).
Where Salem income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$75,487 Bottom 44% higher than 44% 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: OR
57 OR places (10,000+ residents, ACS income on record), sorted by population. Hover a bar for its income rank in this pool.
- 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.
Income ranking: OR
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 posts the highest place-level median income in OR; Portland is largest by headcount.
The quick read
Reading Salem, OR beyond the headline numbers
Salem sits inside Marion County, Oregon, at roughly 44.94°N, -123.04°W. Population 175,535, $75,487 median household income. Median home value $416,900, median rent $1,400. Poverty rate 14.4%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
2 hospitals in/around Salem, 3/5 avg rating, 1 with an ER. Climate: 54.1°F annual average, 40.4" precipitation.
Among the CDC measures on this page, current asthma departs furthest from its peer median: 12.4% in Salem, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,722 cities reporting that measure.
The median home in Salem costs around 5.5 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.
Poverty in Salem, OR stands at 14.4%, 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.
Unemployment in Salem sits at 5.8%, above the midpoint of reporting cities.
15.8% of Salem workers are remote, above the midpoint of reporting cities.
31.5% of Salem adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, below the midpoint of reporting cities.
Median rent in Salem, OR runs $1,400/month, below the midpoint for reporting cities.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Salem 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.
The 10-Year Trend 2013–2024
County-level trend (Marion County): Salem'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.
Economic Snapshot
The clearest outlier in Salem's numbers is poverty rate: 14.4%, which is 16% above what's typical across the tracked-city set. Median household income runs 16% below average too, at $75,487.
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Median Rent | |
| Poverty Rate | 14.4% +16% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 5.8% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 31.5% |
| Work From Home | 15.8% |
| Public Transit | 1.6% |
Headcount
Health Profile 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
Hospital Access 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 20243.6% above national average
Metro area: Salem, OR (MSA)
Source: BEA Regional Price Parities via FRED. RPP of 100 = national average.
NFIP Flood Claim History
FEMA NFIP, county-levelMarion County has recorded 25 National Flood Insurance Program claims totaling $285K in payouts since 2016.
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 Salem?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Salem right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet OR-SALEM-OR · Salem
Salem: 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: Salem
Published notices carrying this city slug or location tag
- Weather Alerts
Weather Alerts
1
What this shows 1 tagged notice on record for Salem.
Nearest tagged-volume peer: Houston, TX (1 tagged · Δ0)
Counts reflect published articles tagged to Salem; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Oregon 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.
Common Questions 9
What is the population of Salem, OR? ▼
What is the median household income in Salem? ▼
What is the median home value in Salem? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Salem? ▼
How many hospitals are in Salem? ▼
What is the median age in Salem? ▼
What is the climate like in Salem? ▼
What is the cost of living in Salem? ▼
How many flood insurance claims has Marion County filed? ▼
Comparable cities by poverty or income, nationwide 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Salem, both outside Oregon so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside OR (14.4% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside OR ($75,487 here).
Compare Salem 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 Salem 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 Salem against Oregon peers on any ranking lens. Explore Oregon
U.S. Census ACS supplies the place-level population and economics figures (income, home value, poverty, education); CDC PLACES supplies health; hospital counts reflect nearby facilities. County-level trends carry their own label.
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 (Marion 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.