Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Home to 2 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
St. Helens is a solid, middle-of-the-road choice. It grades C− overall, 84th among Oregon's 142 graded towns, with no subject far below average. Its best mark is health: it is healthier than 48% of U.S. towns. Expect to pay for it: the typical home is worth about $419K, 4.3 years of the Portland metro’s $97K median household income. On history, just 3 of Oregon’s 228 towns do better. McCormick Park, at 67 acres with 1.8 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve. Only 8 of the 142 Oregon towns we compare have a higher average trip to work than St. Helens.
Where St. Helens beats most towns.
Where St. Helens’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Oregon), ordered by how far St. Helens is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Its founding year, 1845, comes before those of 93% of the Oregon towns we grade with a known year.
Census counts: 209 in 1880, 13,817 in 2020. The archive holds 9 old photos and papers going back to 1880 and 4 maps from 1943 on.
2 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around St. Helens. Close and well known come first.
Big draw38 mi MountainMount St. Helens
24 mi Stadium & arenaModa Center
24 mi Stadium & arenaProvidence Park
39 mi WaterfallMultnomah Falls
22 mi City parkForest Park
23 mi MuseumPittock MansionMount St. Helens: U.S. Forest Service- Pacific Northwest Region, Public domain · Moda Center: Lugnuts, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Providence Park: Pdx.rollingthunder, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Multnomah Falls: John Fowler from Placitas, NM, USA, CC BY 2.0 · Forest Park: EncMstr, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Pittock Mansion: PittockBack.jpg: Cacophony derivative work: Tiptoety talk, CC BY-SA 3.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in St. Helens, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Oct 2, 2026.
Ordered by what stands out in St. Helens.
Public schools: St Helens SD 502. The largest public high school is St Helens High School, with 823 students. Of its 6 schools, two are listed below, each with the reason.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| St Helens Middle SchoolLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 563 | B+ |
| St Helens High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 823 | B− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within OR on state tests and graduation
6.8 miles of trail wind through 13 parks and preserves. In St. Helens, the trail network density is 1.2 miles per square mile, above both Oregon’s towns (0.8) and U.S. towns (0.4).
| St. Helens | Oregon towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 1.2 miles per square mile | 0.8 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 3.9% | 4.4% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. McCormick Park | 1.8 mi | 67 |
| 2. Sand Island Marine Park | 1.8 mi | 61 |
| 3. Saint Helens Waterfront Park | 0.8 mi | 22 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
The average commute for its 6,942 working residents takes 30.3 minutes, against 23 across Oregon.
The top destinations are Portland (27%), Hillsboro (8%) and Beaverton (3%). Just 16% of St. Helens’s working residents have a job in town. Jobs based in St. Helens grew to 3,776 in 2023, 295 more than in 2013. The median commute is under 24 miles.
| St. Helens | Oregon towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Working residents who work in town | 16% | 9.5% | 8% |
| Work from home | 13% | 14% | 11% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Expected losses in St. Helens break down as 67% from earthquakes and 20% from inland flooding. Compared with 77% of U.S. communities, expected storm and flood damage locally is higher. Federal disaster aid has reached households in St. Helens after 4 declared disasters, most recently in 2008.
FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
In St. Helens, the midsummer high is 81°F, where Oregon’s towns sit at 82°F and U.S. towns at 85°F.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
The typical home value in St. Helens is about $419,000, down 0.8% in a year, 15% below the Oregon typical home. A home in St. Helens typically sold within 8 days of listing. St. Helens: 62% of households are owner-occupiers.
| St. Helens | Oregon towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 62% | 65% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,413 a month | $1,415 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Within Oregon, it does better than 70% of towns. The property offense rate for St. Helens comes to 9.2 per 1,000 residents.
| St. Helens | Oregon towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2024) | 9.2 per 1,000 residents | 19 | 11.5 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2024) | 2.7 per 1,000 residents | 2.3 | 1.7 |
FBI crime data, 2024 · crimes reported to police
Among adults in St. Helens, 17% binge drink. This Oregon town beats the Oregon average on 1 of 26 CDC measures and trails it on 3. Two figures for adults here: 29% have been diagnosed with depression, 20% report frequent mental distress.
| St. Helens | Oregon towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 70% | 73% | 79% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 27% | 23% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 20% | 18% | 17% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 13% | 14% |
| What stands out | St. Helens | OR |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 8.1% | 8.9% |
| More smokers | 15.6% | 12% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
None within 15 miles of St. Helens; the nearest are
About 3 of every 100 St. Helens residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Oregon.
2 places in St. Helens on the National Register of Historic Places.
City in and county seat of Columbia County, Oregon
St. Helens is a city in and the county seat of Columbia County, Oregon. It was founded by Captain Henry Montgomery Knighton, a native of New England, in 1845, as "Plymouth". The name was changed to St. Helens in the latter part of 1850 for its view of Mount St. Helens, roughly 39 miles (63 km) away in Washington. The city is about 28 miles (45 km) northwest of Portland. As of the 2020 census, St. Helens had a population of 13,817.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
One town shares a border with St. Helens.
| Town | OR rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Helens | #84 | C− | C | C+ | C− | B− |
| Columbia City | — | — | C | — | C− | B− |
Columbia City has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Columbia City reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare St. Helens with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
St. Helens grades C− overall, better than 19% of U.S. towns and #84 of 142 in Oregon. It grades B− for health, C+ for safety and C− for schools. Schools is its weak spot, with a C−.
Within Oregon, it does better than 70% of towns.
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C.
2 notable people were born here, including David Mayo and Rob Mallicoat.
.jpg){kind=link}
