City safety & data profile

SalemVA

Salem, VA is a 25K-resident city in Salem city with a median household income of $66,725.

Salem city, Virginia. 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 56% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $258,600, and 2 hospitals serving the surrounding area.

Data updated 2026-09-06

25K
Population (place)
Top 44%
By size
$66,725
Median income (place)
$258,600
Median home (place)
10.2%
Poverty rate (place)
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The read on Salem

Salem posts a median household income higher than 32% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 2 hospitals serve the Salem area.

Bottom 33%
by median income, US cities
2
hospitals in & near Salem

Where Salem income ranks nationally

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

$66,725 Bottom 32% higher than 32% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Salem $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 VA

Population among 102 VA places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.

residents

What this shows Virginia Beach is the largest VA city on this list; Great Falls leads median income.

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

Highest median incomes in VA

Median household income among the same 102-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.

median

What this shows Great Falls posts the highest place-level median income in VA; Virginia Beach is largest by headcount.

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

The quick read

Reading Salem, VA beyond the headline numbers

Salem sits inside Salem city, Virginia, at roughly 37.29°N, -80.05°W. Population 25,432, $66,725 median household income. Median home value $258,600, median rent $1,133. Poverty rate 10.2%, 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, 2 with an ER.

At 10.2%, poverty in Salem, VA runs below the midpoint of reporting cities -- enough to matter locally, not enough to dominate the city's profile.

The median home in Salem costs roughly 3.9 times median household income, below the midpoint for reporting cities, so ownership remains reachable on a typical local wage.

Remote work covers 10.8% of Salem workers, under the midpoint for reporting cities.

Among the CDC measures on this page, coronary heart disease departs furthest from its peer median: 7% in Salem, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,757 cities reporting that measure.

Public transit carries 0.1% of Salem workers, a smaller share than at least three quarters of 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.

Population (place)
25,432
Salem · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$66,725
-25% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$258,600
-37% vs avg
Median Age (place)
40
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Salem city): 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.

20132024
Population
26K+3%
Median Income
$66,725+37%
Median Home Value
$258,600+52%
Poverty Rate
10.2%-13%
Unemployment
3.6%-50%

Economics

Economics indicators for Salem, VA
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$1,133/mo
Poverty Rate
10.2% -18% vs avg
Unemployment 3.6%
Bachelor's Degree+ 33%
Work From Home 10.8%
Public Transit 0.1%

Population

White 82.5%
African American 8.7%
Asian 2%
Two or More Ethnicities 2%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

Short Sleep Duration
36.4%
High Blood Pressure
36.1%
Obesity
35%
Physical Inactivity
24.1%
Frequent Mental Distress
17%
Binge Drinking
15%
Frequent Physical Distress
13.8%
Current Smoking
12.9%
Diabetes
12.3%
Current Asthma
10.9%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 68.7%
Annual Checkup 79.2%

Other Measures

Lack of Health Insurance
7.6%
Coronary Heart Disease
7%
Stroke
3.6%

Hospitals 2 total

Rating Distribution
★★★★★
0
★★★★
1
★★★
0
★★
1
★
0
Average Rating
3/5
Total Hospitals
2
With ER
2
SALEM VA MEDICAL CENTER
SALEM · Acute Care - Veterans Administration · ER
★★★★☆
LEWISGALE MEDICAL CENTER
SALEM · Acute Care Hospitals · ER
★★☆☆☆

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 VA-SALEM-VA · 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

Value

What this shows 1 tagged notice on record for Salem.

Source Areazine publication corpus As of Live tagged feed

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 Virginia 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.

Houston, TX 1 alerts Washington, DC 1 alerts Nashville, TN 1 alerts Portland, OR 1 alerts

Read with this city profile

Understanding Weather Alerts

Watch vs warning vs advisory, how NOAA labels map to action
All safety guides →

Frequently Asked Questions 6

What is the population of Salem, VA? ▼
Salem, VA has a population of 25,432 people, located in Salem city, Virginia.
What is the median household income in Salem? ▼
The median household income in Salem, VA is $66,725 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 10.2%.
What is the median home value in Salem? ▼
The median home value in Salem, VA is $258,600. Median rent is $1,133/month.
What are the top health concerns in Salem? ▼
The top health indicators in Salem include Short Sleep Duration (36.4%), High Blood Pressure (36.1%), Obesity (35%). Data from CDC PLACES.
How many hospitals are in Salem? ▼
Salem has 2 hospitals with an average rating of 3/5 stars. 2 have emergency departments.
What is the median age in Salem? ▼
The median age in Salem, VA is 40 years. 33% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

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

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside VA (10.2% here).

Vancouver, WA 10.2% Fairfield, CA 10.2% Orem, UT 10.2% Deltona, FL 10.2%

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside VA ($66,725 here).

Cudahy, WI $66,719 Wilmington, NC $66,738 Seagoville, TX $66,743 Walla Walla, WA $66,748

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.

Quick picks:

Nearby Cities 8

Cave Spring, VA 25K Roanoke, VA 100K Hollins, VA 15K Blacksburg, VA 44K Christiansburg, VA 22K Radford, VA 17K Martinsville, VA 14K Timberlake, VA 12K
All cities in Virginia → Compare Salem vs Cave Spring → All comparisons → Browse all cities

Using Salem'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 Salem 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 Salem against Virginia peers on any ranking lens. Explore Virginia

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 (Salem city) 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.