Ontario, Oregon
Area Profile
11,842 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Ontario, in Malheur County.
How this area ranks
Data updated · 13 sourcesUnemployment is 4.7% and median household income $46,308, putting employment conditions in the middle range of cities measured. The unemployment rate is published for Malheur County, OR, which contains Ontario, rather than for Ontario alone.
In the public schools here, 30% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 16.5 students for every teacher.
Residential permitting has slowed: 30 units authorized over the past twelve months, 35% below the prior year. That follows a longer stretch moving the other way, through 2025.
These sentences are written by fixed rules from the measurements below — a statement appears because a number crossed a stated threshold, and the values behind it are stored with it. No figure anywhere on this site is invented, estimated or inferred to fill a gap. How this works.
At a glance
Jobs & opportunity
Unemployment across Malheur County, OR, which contains Ontario, is 4.7% — higher than in all but 36% of the 4,226 measured US cities.
Employment across Malheur County, OR, which contains Ontario, grew 0.7% over the past year, to 12,812 employed residents.
Median household income of $46,308 is lower than in 83% of measured US cities.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Income of new arrivalsMalheur County, OR’s figurefiling years 2022–2023 | $41,023 | 1st percentileof 4,101 | filing years 2022–2023 |
| Income of those who leftMalheur County, OR’s figurefiling years 2022–2023 | $49,386 | 6th percentileof 4,101 | filing years 2022–2023 |
| Median household income ±$8,9442024 ACS 5-Year | $46,308 | Bottom 17%of 29,223 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per capita income ±$2,4542024 ACS 5-Year | $26,056 | Bottom 23%of 31,420 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Poverty rate ±5%2024 ACS 5-Year | 20.2% | Bottom 22%of 31,773 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Average commute ±2.3 min2024 ACS 5-Year | 15.9 min | Top 7%of 31,543 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher ±3%2024 ACS 5-Year | 15.7% | Bottom 37%of 31,919 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Drove alone to work ±7%2024 ACS 5-Year | 76.3% | 47th percentileof 31,433 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| EmploymentMalheur County, OR’s figureJuly 2026 | 12,812 | Bottom 8%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Employment change (3 years)Malheur County, OR’s figureJuly 2026 | +4.0% | Top 9%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Employment change (year over year)Malheur County, OR’s figureJuly 2026 | +0.7% | Top 22%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Labor forceMalheur County, OR’s figureJuly 2026 | 13,448 | 8th percentileof 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Labor force participation ±4%2024 ACS 5-Year | 71.6% | Bottom 30%of 31,513 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Public transit to work ±0.4%2024 ACS 5-Year | 0.0% | 1st percentileof 31,433 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Unemployment change (year over year)Malheur County, OR’s figureJuly 2026 | −1.2% | Top 7%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Unemployment rateMalheur County, OR’s figureJuly 2026 | 4.7% | Bottom 36%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Worked from home ±3%2024 ACS 5-Year | 7.7% | 50th percentileof 31,433 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
Median household income, successive ACS releases
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Malheur County, OR, which contains this city.
30% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 50% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.
There are 16.5 students for every full-time teacher across 7 public schools, more than in most measured places.
| School | District | Students | Per teacher | Math | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ontario High School | Ontario SD 8C | 709 | 18.2 | 17% | 62% |
| Ontario Middle School | Ontario SD 8C | 471 | 15.2 | 43% | 57% |
| Four Rivers Community School · charter | Oregon Department of Education | 367 | 18.4 | 37% | 47% |
| Alameda Intermediate School | Ontario SD 8C | 355 | 16.1 | 38% | 47% |
| Aiken Elementary School | Ontario SD 8C | 333 | 15.9 | 27% | 37% |
| May Roberts Primary School | Ontario SD 8C | 302 | 14.4 | 27% | 38% |
| Annex Charter School · charter | Annex SD 29 | 131 | 16.4 | 37% | 37% |
87.1% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with, not how the schools perform, so it is shown and not scored.
Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data, placed by ZIP code — which schools are in this place, not which one a particular address is zoned for. A dash in a proficiency column is a gap in the federal file, not a bad result. Proficiency is measured against Oregon’s own standard, so it is ranked within state. How to read school figures.
Housing & affordability
How it’s calculated — housing affordability →The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s house price index for the non-metropolitan parts of Oregon is up 36% over five years, and up 3.0% over the last year. It follows repeat sales of the same homes, so it measures price change rather than which homes happened to sell.
Homeowners here who pay a tax bill pay a median of $1,814 a year in real estate taxes, about 0.77% of the median home value.
HUD’s Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom, set near the 40th percentile of recent new leases, is $1,081, some 34% above the $804 tenants already here pay.
At HUD’s Fair Market Rent of $1,081 a month for a two-bedroom, keeping rent to 30% of income takes a household income of about $43,200 a year, about 93% of the median household income here of $46,308.
The typical renter household here spends 27% of its income on rent, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened. Median gross rent runs $804 a month.
A median home at $236,300 costs 3.8 times the median income of its owner-occupied households, $62,422, above the historic benchmark of about 3 times income.
The figures above are measured against Ontario’s median household income of $46,308, which describes the place rather than you. Enter your own and the ratio is recomputed against it. It stays in this browser.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home price change (1 year)the non-metropolitan parts of Oregon’s figure2026 Q2 | +3.0% | 48th percentileof 4,154 | 2026 Q2 |
| Home price change (5 years)the non-metropolitan parts of Oregon’s figure2026 Q2 | +35.6% | 30th percentileof 4,154 | 2026 Q2 |
| Home price change (10 years)the non-metropolitan parts of Oregon’s figure2026 Q2 | +105.2% | 69th percentileof 4,154 | 2026 Q2 |
| Home price to income ±0.92024 ACS 5-Year | 3.8 | Bottom 20%of 26,815 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Homeownership rate ±5%2024 ACS 5-Year | 55.6% | 15th percentileof 31,717 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Housing units ±2252024 ACS 5-Year | 4,938 | 88th percentileof 32,177 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Market rent, one bedroomFY2026 | $942 | Top 18%of 4,072 | FY2026 |
| Market rent, three bedroomFY2026 | $1,503 | Top 18%of 4,072 | FY2026 |
| Market rent, two bedroomFY2026 | $1,081 | Top 13%of 4,072 | FY2026 |
| Median gross rent ±$512024 ACS 5-Year | $804 | Top 29%of 23,120 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median home value ±$22,0112024 ACS 5-Year | $236,300 | 62nd percentileof 29,111 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median property taxes ±$1212024 ACS 5-Year | $1,814 | 51st percentileof 26,440 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Owner household income ±$13,2812024 ACS 5-Year | $62,422 | Bottom 27%of 27,548 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Property tax rate ±0.09%2024 ACS 5-Year | 0.77% | 35th percentileof 20,543 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Rent as a share of income ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 26.6% | Top 40%of 22,950 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Seasonal and second homes ±212024 ACS 5-Year | 0 | 1st percentileof 32,330 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Second homes2024 ACS 5-Year | 0.0% | 1st percentileof 31,895 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacancy rate2024 ACS 5-Year | 7.4% | 52nd percentileof 31,769 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacant housing units ±1492024 ACS 5-Year | 363 | 86th percentileof 32,330 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
These measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with. They compare housing cost with local earnings only: transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not in them. How to read affordability, the two rent figures.
Growth & development
How it’s calculated — growth →Development Momentum
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 2% since 2020, reaching 11,957 in 2024.
New construction is predominantly single-family: of 30 units permitted over the past twelve months, none were in buildings of five or more homes.
Federal tax returns show Malheur County, which contains Ontario, lost about 0.2% of its residents through moves within the US in the most recent year, counting those who arrived against those who left. Households that moved in reported an average income of $41,023, below the $49,386 of households that moved out.
At 2.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.
Population, annual estimates
People moving in and out
Where newcomers came from
- Payette County, ID 322 people · 24% of arrivals
- Canyon County, ID 209 people · 16% of arrivals
- Ada County, ID 134 people · 10% of arrivals
- Washington County, ID 53 people · 4.0% of arrivals
Where people who left went
- Payette County, ID 293 people · 21% of departures
- Canyon County, ID 272 people · 20% of departures
- Ada County, ID 158 people · 12% of departures
Based on the address on federal tax returns, compared with the same filers a year earlier. It counts people who file, and sees a move only when the address on a return changes. Domestic moves only: people arriving from abroad are left out. This is the figure for Malheur County, OR. IRS Statistics of Income, filing years 2022–2023.
Housing units permitted per year
Weather & climate
5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 95°F and January a low of 24°F.
Normal annual precipitation is 9.5 inches.
Precipitation
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| Annual precipitation1991-2020 Normals | 9.5" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low1991-2020 Normals | 24°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high1991-2020 Normals | 95°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months1991-2020 Normals | 5 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Seasonal temperature swing1991-2020 Normals | 47°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. How to read climate and air quality.
Physical risk
The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, wildfire and earthquake, with inland flooding alone responsible for 63% of it.
Low or minimal exposure: lightning, drought, ice storm, strong wind, cold wave, tornado, coastal flooding, tsunami, hurricane.
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.
Below these are deaths rather than offenses, published for the county. The two measure different things and are not comparable with each other.
Ontario's police department reported 441 violent offenses per 100,000 residents, higher than most places with a department reporting. Property crime runs at 3,965.
Malheur County has a modeled homicide rate of about 2.9 per 100,000 residents a year, because the CDC suppresses counts this small, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.
Firearm deaths of all intents run at about 18.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, since the figure counts suicides and accidents as well as homicides.
Drug overdose deaths run at about 15.1 per 100,000 residents in Malheur County.
Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides, so the firearm figure and the homicide figure above it count some of the same deaths twice over. They overlap and should not be added together.
Offenses are reported to the FBI by Ontario’s own police department and shown only where it reported every month of the year; a partial year is withheld rather than scaled up. Reported crime is what police recorded, which is not the same as what happened. Death rates are crude rates — deaths divided by population, not adjusted for age — except where a count was too small for the CDC to publish and it modeled the rate, which the card marks. They come from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC by county and not below it. So they describe the county around Ontario (Malheur County) rather than Ontario itself. Neither is part of the Area Score. How to read crime rates and death rates.
What this profile does not cover
Each of these is absent for a reason, not by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them; the weighting is on the methodology page.
- Cost of living
- Price parities are published for metropolitan areas, and this place lies outside one.
- Air quality
- The EPA publishes an air-quality index only where a monitor sits. There is none in this county, and a modeled value would be a different kind of number from the measured ones everywhere else on this page.
- Taxes
- Income and sales taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Property taxes are shown in the housing section but are not part of the score. Cost of living is published where the Bureau of Economic Analysis measures it, though not for this place. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
- Anything about a specific address
- Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house.
Access
1 major airport lies within 100 miles, the nearest Boise Air Trml/Gowen Fld at 49 miles.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broadband access ±3%2024 ACS 5-Year | 88.8% | Bottom 46%of 31,588 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Distance to major airportNASR current cycle | 49 mi | Bottom 13%of 4,226 | NASR current cycle |
| Major airports within 100 milesNASR current cycle | 1 | Bottom 1%of 4,226 | NASR current cycle |
| No internet access ±3%2024 ACS 5-Year | 8.1% | Bottom 47%of 31,588 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boise Air Trml/Gowen Fld | BOI | 49 mi | 10,000 ft |
| Joslin Fld/Magic Valley Rgnl | TWF | 165 mi | 8,704 ft |
| Pocatello Rgnl | PIH | 233 mi | 9,059 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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Similar places
Matched on AreaProfile signals, not geographyCompare
Put Ontario side by side with a similar place.
Moving to Ontario from somewhere else?
You get the difference in prices, rent and weather, and the income that would keep pace.
Data & methodology
| Used for | Source | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| Access | Federal Aviation Administration Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service | NASR current cycle |
| Safety | Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer Summarized offense counts by law enforcement agency | 2025 calendar year |
| Physical risk | Federal Emergency Management Agency National Risk Index | National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0) |
| Demographics, Income | Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income Division U.S. Population Migration Data (county to county) | filing years 2022–2023 |
| Climate | NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly) | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics | July 2026 |
| Development | U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey | 12 months ending July 2026 |
| Access, Demographics, Housing, Income, Jobs | U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File) | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Demographics | U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program | July 1, 2024 estimate |
| Safety | U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics Provisional county-level mortality by intent | March 2025 to February 2026; May 2025 to April 2026 |
| Schools | U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments | 2018-19 school year; 2024-25 school year |
| Housing | U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research Fair Market Rents | FY2026 |
| Housing | U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index (traditional, all-transactions) | 2026 Q2 |
| Current conditions | NOAA National Weather Service National Weather Service current conditions | Live observation, read when the page opens |
Profile recalculated October 8, 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 every source with how often each updates.
ZIP codes in Ontario
1 ZIP areaEvery ZIP area in Ontario with census figures of its own, largest first. The ones linked below diverge enough from the city as a whole to carry a full profile; the rest track Ontario closely, so their figures are here rather than on a page that would repeat this one. An Area Score is calculated for published profiles only, which is why it is blank on those rows.
| ZIP | Population | Median household income | Median home value | Area Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 97914 | 19,713 | $50,857 | $249,200 | — |