Wasco County, OR

County Profile

26,552 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Wasco County, OR.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

45out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 4% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity780th of 1,255 counties measured50
Schools941st of 973 counties measured9
GrowthTop 48% of 1,226 counties measured51
Housing affordability1051st of 1,255 counties measured71
ClimateTop 42% of 1,254 counties measured70
Physical resilience1179th of 1,255 counties measured16
Access1142nd of 1,255 counties measured49
Economic stability689th of 1,255 counties measured59
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.4% and median household income $64,175, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 5.7 times median household income, against a historic benchmark near three — while rent takes 19% of it.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by wildfire, inland flooding and earthquake.

At a glance

Population
26,552
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$64,175
Bottom 48% nationally
Density
11/sq mi
2381.1 sq mi of land
Median age
41.0
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Wasco County
Oregon
Metro area
The Dalles, OR
Nearest major airport
PDX
75 mi · Portland Intl
Median home value
$367,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.4% is lower than 42% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 1.7% over the past year, to 14,891 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$3,054$64,175Bottom 48%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$4,706$38,408Top 32%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate11.6%Bottom 36%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute20.2 minBottom 16%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher22.4%Top 49%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment14,891Bottom 12%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)13.4%Top 1%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.7%Bottom 26%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force15,578Bottom 12%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation60.0%Top 44%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.1%Top 44%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate4.4%Top 42%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.73.6
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.4% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202464k58k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $64,175 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.

19% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 30% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 17.0 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
11
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
17.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
19.3%
Bottom 10% in Oregon
Reading proficiency
30.3%
Bottom 1% in Oregon
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
The Dalles High SchoolNorth Wasco County SD 2179519.9
The Dalles Middle SchoolNorth Wasco County SD 2151317.112%
Dry Hollow Elementary SchoolNorth Wasco County SD 2142419.335%35%
Chenowith Elementary SchoolNorth Wasco County SD 2141814.95%15%
Dufur SchoolDufur SD 2935217.6
Colonel Wright Elementary SchoolNorth Wasco County SD 2129116.225%25%
Innovations AcademyNorth Wasco County SD 2123216.6
Mosier Community School · charterNorth Wasco County SD 2116111.530%70%
South Wasco County Middle/High SchoolSouth Wasco County SD 113817.3
South Wasco County Elementary SchoolSouth Wasco County SD 18013.330%
Big Muddy ElementaryJefferson County SD 509J33.0

91.6% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Oregon’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,008 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.7 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
18.8%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,008
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$367,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income5.72Top 5%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate67.5%Bottom 21%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2812,198Bottom 49%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$91$1,008Top 30%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$17,134$367,400Top 11%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.8%Top 30%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate13.4%Bottom 46%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
51/ 100
Top 48% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing — 4 consecutive years, measured from 2020 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has been broadly flat since 2020, at 26,507 in 2024.

Permit activity has fallen for 4 consecutive years.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 2.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
52
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.0
Bottom 34% nationally
Year over year
+30%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202427k26k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
2020202120222023202420259639
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−53%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 88°F and January a low of 31°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 13.7 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 23, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station THE DALLES MUNI AP, 31.4 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND2.7"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index52.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation13.7"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low31°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high88°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index23.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing39°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
23
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
52
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

16 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are wildfire, inland flooding and earthquake.

WildfireHigh
Volcanic activityModerate
EarthquakeHigh
AvalancheModerate
Inland floodingElevated
Heat waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: ice storm, landslide, cold wave, winter weather, lightning, drought, hail, strong wind, tornado.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Wasco County records 3.1 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 13.9 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 64.6 per 100,000 residents in Wasco County.

Homicide
3.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
13.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
64.6
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
18.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Wasco County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Wasco County rather than Wasco County itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes and full cost of living
No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

1 major airport lies within 100 miles, the nearest 75 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Portland IntlPDX75 mi11,000 ft
Mahlon Sweet FldEUG124 mi8,009 ft
Grant County IntlMWH167 mi13,503 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
45
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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

Cities in Wasco County, OR