City safety & data profile
TumwaterWA
Tumwater, WA is a 19K-resident city in Thurston County with a median household income of $95,212.
Thurston County, Washington. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Tumwater, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Tumwater has a population larger than 41% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $472,200, and 5 hospitals serving the surrounding area.
- 19K
- Population (place)
- Bottom 42%
- By size
- $95,212
- Median income (place)
- $472,200
- Median home (place)
- 7%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Tumwater
Tumwater posts a median household income higher than 65% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 5 hospitals serve the Tumwater area.
- Top 35%
- by median income, US cities
- 5
- hospitals in & near Tumwater
Composite score · Tumwater, WA
64/100
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.
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.
Curious how Tumwater stacks up nationwide? See the full tables: Healthiest Cities in America (health outcomes only) · Community Wellbeing Cities (this page's blended composite).
Where Tumwater income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$95,212 Top 35% higher than 65% 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
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 tops this pool by population; the income lead belongs to Sammamish instead.
Top earners by city in WA
Median household income across 109 tracked WA places. Hover a bar for its 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 Sammamish posts the highest place-level median income in WA; Seattle is largest by headcount.
The quick read
Reading Tumwater, WA beyond the headline numbers
Tumwater sits inside Thurston County, Washington, at roughly 47.01°N, -122.91°W. Population 19,190, $95,212 median household income. Median home value $472,200, median rent $1,779. Poverty rate 7%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
5 hospitals in/around Tumwater (nearest 5.6 mi away), 2.8/5 avg rating, 4 with an ER. Climate: 50.5°F annual average, 50.8" precipitation.
27.7% of Tumwater 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.
Among the CDC measures on this page, physical inactivity departs furthest from its peer median: 16.4% in Tumwater, the lowest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.
A median home in Tumwater runs about 5.0 times median household income, above the midpoint. Multiples in this range usually mean buyers are arriving from outside the local wage base.
Median rent in Tumwater, WA runs $1,779/month, above the midpoint for reporting cities -- worth weighing against the income figures on this page.
42.9% of Tumwater adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, above the midpoint of reporting cities.
At 7%, poverty in Tumwater, WA runs below the midpoint of reporting cities -- enough to matter locally, not enough to dominate the city's profile.
Unemployment in Tumwater sits at 5.2%, above the midpoint of reporting cities.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Tumwater 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.
A Decade of Change 2013–2024
County-level trend (Thurston County): Tumwater'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 Tumwater's numbers is poverty rate: 7.0%, which is 44% below what's typical across the tracked-city set. Median rent also diverges: $1,779/mo, 16% above average.
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Median Rent | |
| Poverty Rate | 7% -44% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 5.2% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 42.9% |
| Work From Home | 27.7% |
| Public Transit | 0.5% |
By the Numbers
Community Health 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
Closest Hospitals 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 20243.7% above national average
Metro area: Olympia-Tumwater, WA (MSA)
Source: BEA Regional Price Parities via FRED. RPP of 100 = national average.
Flood Claims on Record
FEMA NFIP, county-levelSince 2016, NFIP has paid out $2.0M across 71 flood insurance claims filed in Thurston County.
The largest single contributor was 2025-12-AtmosphericRiver, accounting for 1 claim.
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 Tumwater?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Tumwater right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet WA-TUMWATER · Tumwater
Tumwater: 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 Tumwater; 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 Tumwater, WA? ▼
What is the median household income in Tumwater? ▼
What is the median home value in Tumwater? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Tumwater? ▼
What hospitals are near Tumwater? ▼
What is the median age in Tumwater? ▼
What is the climate like in Tumwater? ▼
What is the cost of living in Tumwater? ▼
How many flood insurance claims has Thurston County filed? ▼
Cities nationwide with a comparable poverty or income figure 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Tumwater, both outside Washington so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside WA (7% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside WA ($95,212 here).
Compare Tumwater 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 Tumwater 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 Tumwater 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.