Aberdeen, Washington

Area Profile

17,088 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Aberdeen, in Grays Harbor County.

50out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 16% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3652nd of 3,904 published cities30
Growth1530th of 2,973 published cities50
Housing affordability2883rd of 4,223 published cities69
Climate2188th of 4,223 published cities70
Physical resilience2317th of 4,182 published cities52
Access4053rd of 4,226 published cities51
Economic stability3780th of 4,226 published cities34
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 5.2% and the Opportunity signal places Aberdeen in the bottom 6%.

Rent takes 24% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 4.5 times that income.

A typical July reaches 67°F and a typical January falls to 38°F, on thirty-year normals.

At a glance

Population
17,088
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$52,195
Bottom 26% nationally
Density
1,572/sq mi
10.9 sq mi of land
Median age
37.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Grays Harbor County
Washington
Metro area
Aberdeen, WA
Nearest major airport
SEA
78 mi · Seattle-Tacoma Intl
Median home value
$237,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.2% is lower than 19% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.9% over the past year, to 27,431 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$2,322$52,195Bottom 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,986$28,521Bottom 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate23.8%Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute22.6 minBottom 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher15.2%Bottom 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment27,431Bottom 35%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.3%Bottom 28%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.9%Bottom 47%June 2026
Labor force28,943Bottom 35%June 2026
Labor force participation54.9%Bottom 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.4%Top 32%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.2%Top 19%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202452k44k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $52,195 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 Grays Harbor County, WA, which contains this city.

There are 17.8 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
13
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
17.8
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
J M Weatherwax High SchoolAberdeen School District91920.4
Miller Junior HighAberdeen School District65620.5
Stevens Elementary SchoolAberdeen School District33219.5
McDermoth ElementaryAberdeen School District28816.9
A J West ElementaryAberdeen School District28114.8
Robert Gray ElementaryAberdeen School District21017.5
Wishkah Valley Elementary/High SchoolWishkah Valley School District17810.5
Harbor Junior/Senior High SchoolAberdeen School District12818.3
Central Park ElementaryAberdeen School District11112.3
Hopkins ElementaryAberdeen School District10320.6
Harbor Open DoorsAberdeen School District4949.0
Twin Harbors A Branch of New Market Skills CenterAberdeen School District31

70.8% 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 Washington’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 $1,049 takes 24% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.5 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
24.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,049
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$237,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.55Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate56.5%Bottom 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3507,040Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$65$1,049Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$12,203$237,300Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income24.1%Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.2%Bottom 39%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
50/ 100
Ranks 1530 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is broadly steady, 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 been broadly flat since 2020, at 17,044 in 2024.

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

At 1.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
17
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.0
Bottom 31% nationally
Year over year
+70%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202417k17k
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
2022202320242025115.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+120%).

Weather & climate

4 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 67°F and January a low of 38°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 68.8 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 20, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

30°50°70°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station HOQUIAM BOWERMAN AP, 5.6 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND10.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index36.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation68.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low38°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high67°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months41991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index20.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing19°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
20
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
36
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

52 / 100
Physical resilience

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

Coastal floodingHigh
EarthquakeHigh
LandslideModerate
Inland floodingElevated
AvalancheModerate

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

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.

Grays Harbor County records 0.0 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, lower than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 16.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 50.5 per 100,000 residents in Grays Harbor County.

Homicide
0.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
16.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
50.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
24.6
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 Grays Harbor 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 Aberdeen rather than Aberdeen 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

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 78 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Seattle-Tacoma IntlSEA78 mi11,901 ft
Boeing Fld/King County IntlBFI80 mi10,007 ft
Portland IntlPDX112 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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Put Aberdeen side by side with a similar place.

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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
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 Aberdeen

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
9852024,888$58,15351