Hermiston, Oregon

Area Profile

19,546 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Hermiston, in Umatilla County.

56out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 32% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3108th of 3,904 published cities42
GrowthTop 36% of 2,973 published cities58
Housing affordabilityTop 42% of 4,223 published cities86
Climate2928th of 4,223 published cities64
Physical resilience2673rd of 4,182 published cities46
Access4164th of 4,226 published cities36
Economic stabilityTop 41% of 4,226 published cities64
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 5.4% and the Opportunity signal places Hermiston in the bottom 20%.

76 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 1% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.

The nearest major airport is 95 miles away, which is farther than most measured US cities.

At a glance

Population
19,546
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$66,998
Top 50% nationally
Density
2,311/sq mi
8.5 sq mi of land
Median age
30.9
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Umatilla County
Oregon
Metro area
Hermiston-Pendleton, OR
Nearest major airport
MWH
95 mi · Grant County Intl
Median home value
$266,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.4% is lower than 15% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.3% over the past year, to 35,807 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,849$66,998Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,323$28,684Bottom 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate10.1%Bottom 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute20.4 minBottom 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher16.7%Bottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment35,807Bottom 42%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.3%Top 44%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.3%Top 35%June 2026
Labor force37,851Bottom 42%June 2026
Labor force participation68.1%Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.1%Top 45%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.4%Top 15%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202467k61k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $66,998 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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Umatilla County, OR, which contains this city.

There are 16.7 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
9
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Hermiston High SchoolHermiston SD 81,70520.1
Armand Larive Middle SchoolHermiston SD 872216.8
Sandstone Middle SchoolHermiston SD 860919.6
Rocky Heights Elementary SchoolHermiston SD 844214.3
West Park Elementary SchoolHermiston SD 840814.6
Loma Vista ElementaryHermiston SD 839713.7
Sunset Elementary SchoolHermiston SD 837814.0
Desert View Elementary SchoolHermiston SD 835115.3
Highland Hills Elementary SchoolHermiston SD 830814.0

91.9% 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 $1,088 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.0 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
19.5%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.0×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,088
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$266,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.98Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate61.7%Bottom 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4217,014Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$81$1,088Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$20,173$266,700Top 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.5%Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.4%Bottom 35%2024 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
58/ 100
Top 36% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, measured from 2022 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 grown 1% since 2020, reaching 19,746 in 2024.

Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before.

Population is still rising, but more slowly than in the preceding year.

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

At 3.9 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
76
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
3.9
Top 36% nationally
Year over year
+1%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202420k19k
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
20222023202420259777
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−19%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 93°F and January a low of 29°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 8.6 inches.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station HERMISTON MUNI AP, 1.3 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND1.1"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation8.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low29°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high93°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing41°F1991-2020 Normals

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.

Physical risk

46 / 100
Physical resilience

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

WildfireHigh
LandslideModerate
EarthquakeHigh
Heat waveElevated
Inland floodingModerate
AvalancheModerate

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

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

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.

Crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. Reported crime is also easy to misread: agency participation varies year to year, and a city that draws a large daytime workforce carries incidents its residents did not generate.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. 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.

Access

1 major airport lies within 100 miles, the nearest 95 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Grant County IntlMWH95 mi13,503 ft
Spokane IntlGEG149 mi8,199 ft
Portland IntlPDX161 mi11,000 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
56
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Other cities in Hermiston-Pendleton, OR

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
PendletonUmatilla County16,95053vs Hermiston

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

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)
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them

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.

ZIP codes in Hermiston

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
9783828,512$69,59954