The Dalles, Oregon

Area Profile

15,917 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for The Dalles, in Wasco County.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signal: growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity2343rd of 3,904 published cities51
Schools2522nd of 2,668 published cities15
Housing affordability2745th of 4,223 published cities71
Climate2126th of 4,223 published cities70
Physical resilience3795th of 4,182 published cities13
Access4037th of 4,226 published cities52
Economic stability2580th of 4,226 published cities55
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.4% and median household income $62,614, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

In the public schools here, 18% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 17.6 students for every teacher.

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

At a glance

Population
15,917
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$62,614
Bottom 43% nationally
Density
2,381/sq mi
6.7 sq mi of land
Median age
38.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Wasco County
Oregon
Metro area
The Dalles, OR
Nearest major airport
PDX
70 mi · Portland Intl
Median home value
$360,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.4% is lower than 48% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

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

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$5,474$62,614Bottom 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$7,626$40,289Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate11.0%Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute17.5 minBottom 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher22.7%Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment14,891Bottom 14%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)13.4%Top 1%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.7%Bottom 26%June 2026
Labor force15,578Bottom 14%June 2026
Labor force participation61.3%Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.1%Top 45%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.4%Top 48%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202463k57k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $62,614 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 Wasco County, OR, which contains this city.

18% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 25% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 17.6 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
6
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
17.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
18.2%
Bottom 18% in Oregon
Reading proficiency
24.7%
Bottom 3% 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%
Colonel Wright Elementary SchoolNorth Wasco County SD 2129116.225%25%
Innovations AcademyNorth Wasco County SD 2123216.6

94.8% 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 $993 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.8 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
19.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$993
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$360,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income5.76Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate63.2%Bottom 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2036,964Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$118$993Top 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$22,419$360,800Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.0%Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.3%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 →

Population has fallen 1% since 2020, reaching 15,884 in 2024.

Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202416k16k
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.

No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.

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, 1.6 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

13 / 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 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.

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 · under 10 deaths
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 The Dalles rather than The Dalles 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
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences 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. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
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 70 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Portland IntlPDX70 mi11,000 ft
Seattle-Tacoma IntlSEA139 mi11,901 ft
Grant County IntlMWH141 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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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)
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.

ZIP codes in The Dalles

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
9705820,360$62,181