Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 15,167, settled in 1917.
Fort Lewis earns a D, ranked 250th of 285 in Washington. In its favor, residents are healthier than 75% of U.S. towns on CDC estimates. Fort Lewis’ mean commuting time is 11 minutes, below both the Washington town median (27 minutes) and the median of U.S. towns (25 minutes). The typical home is worth about , years of the Seattle metro’s $115K median household income. On the outdoors, just 25 of Washington’s 397 towns do worse.
Where Fort Lewis beats most towns.
11,046 counted in 2010 and 14,052 in 2020.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Washington), ordered by how far Fort Lewis is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 38,054 in 1970, 14,052 in 2020. The archive holds 9 old photos and papers going back to 1917 and 5 maps from 1948 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Fort Lewis. Close and well known come first.
Big draw38 mi LookoutSpace Needle
Big draw38 mi Stadium & arenaClimate Pledge Arena
Big draw36 mi Stadium & arenaLumen Field
12 mi Stadium & arenaTacoma Dome
36 mi Stadium & arenaT-Mobile Park
37 mi Ancient siteSeattle UndergroundSpace Needle: Another Believer, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Climate Pledge Arena: Sea Cow, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Lumen Field: "Smart Destinations", GoSeattleCard.com, and Go Seattle Card Blog, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Tacoma Dome: Broran28, Public domain · T-Mobile Park: MyName (Cacophony), CC BY-SA 3.0 · Seattle Underground: Mark Hursh, CC BY-SA 3.0
Fort Lewis is unincorporated, so Pierce County and regional agencies provide most services.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Sep 30, 2026.
Ordered by what stands out in Fort Lewis.
Fort Lewis has fewer 90° days than nearly all U.S. towns, is healthier than towns with similar incomes and trades workers with Seattle and other neighbors.
One of its 3 schools is below, with the reason it’s listed. The Clover Park School District runs its public schools. The 3 public schools in Fort Lewis teach 1,585 students between them.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rainier Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 576 | – |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within WA on state tests and graduation
Against the 8,593 U.S. towns with household incomes like Fort Lewis’s, it is healthier than 96%, so its B+ isn’t only a matter of income. Within Washington it is less healthy than 51% of the 285 graded towns: Washington sets a high bar.
Only 4 of the 285 Washington towns we compare have a higher share of adults who binge drink than Fort Lewis. The share of adults in Fort Lewis who have high blood pressure: 16%. Of 31 CDC measures, Fort Lewis beats the Washington average on 9 and trails it on 18.
| Fort Lewis | Washington towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 3.3% | 9.8% | 12% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 25% | 17% | 17% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 24% | 17% | 16% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 31% | 35% |
| What stands out | Fort Lewis | WA |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 1.2% | 7.9% |
| Fewer adults with heart disease | 1.4% | 5.4% |
| More adults without reliable transportation | 15.5% | 7.2% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Compared with 71% of U.S. communities, expected storm and flood damage in Fort Lewis is higher. FEMA puts 64% of the town’s expected hazard losses down to earthquakes, and 29% to inland flooding.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
The Olympia Ap weather station, 18 miles away, records that about 6 days a year reach 90°, fewer than in 95% of U.S. towns. July afternoons average 77.1°, cooler than in 97% of U.S. towns; January nights average 35.5°.
About 4 inches of snow falls in a winter. For Fort Lewis, the January low is 36°F.
| Fort Lewis | Washington towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| July high | 77°F | 77°F | 85°F |
| January low | 36°F | 35°F | 22°F |
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Fort Lewis has about as many jobs (1,492) as working residents, but only 51 people both live and work here. The average commute takes 11.4 minutes, against 26.6 across Washington.
The top destinations are Seattle (11%), Tacoma (7%) and Lakewood (6%). Employers in Fort Lewis added 424 jobs between 2013 and 2023, to 1,492. Fort Lewis’ typical household income stands at $59,000. For half of commuters, work is under 34 miles away.
| Fort Lewis | Washington towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 3.4% | 15% | 11% |
| Median household income | $59,000 | $98,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 13% | 7.9% | 9.6% |
| Working residents who work in town | 3% | 5% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Just 0 of its 6,537 acres are conserved, so there is little public open land in Fort Lewis itself; its outdoors grade is D.
0.0 miles of trail in 1 park or preserve.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Memorial Park | — | 4 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
10 within 15 miles of the center of Fort Lewis
About 9 of every 100 Fort Lewis residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Washington.
14 notable people were born in Fort Lewis.
Former U.S. Army post in Washington state
Fort Lewis is a United States Army base located 9.1 miles (14.6 km) south-southwest of Tacoma, Washington. Fort Lewis was merged with McChord Air Force Base on February 1, 2010, to form Joint Base Lewis–McChord. Fort Lewis, named after Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, was one of the largest and most modern military reservations in the United States, consisting of 87,000 acres (136 mi2; 350 km2) of prairie land cut from the glacier-flattened Nisqually Plain. Joint Base Lewis-McChord (Fort Lewis) is a major Army installation, with much of the 2nd Infantry Division in residence, along with Headquarters, the 7th Infantry Division, 593rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, and …
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
2 towns share a border with Fort Lewis.
| Town | WA rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fort Lewis | #250 | D | D− | — | C | B+ |
| Lakewood | #262 | D | C | D | C | C+ |
| North Fort Lewis | #206 | C | D− | — | C | A− |
Fort Lewis and North Fort Lewis report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Fort Lewis with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Fort Lewis grades D overall, better than 14% of U.S. towns and #250 of 285 in Washington. It grades B+ for health and C for schools. Cost of living is its weak spot, with a D−.
14 notable people were born here, including Michelle French and Jim Turner.
