OrchardsWA
A town of 29,438, settled in 1895.
Is Orchards a good place to live?
Orchards is a solid, middle-of-the-road choice. It grades C+ overall, 167th of 285 graded towns in Washington, with no subject far below average. Its best mark is incomes: the median household earns $100K. Expect to pay for it: the typical home is worth about $462K, 4.7 years of the Portland metro’s $97K median household income. On hazard risk, just 33 of Washington’s 397 towns do better. 12% of residents are 65 or older in Orchards, below both Washington’s towns (16%) and U.S. towns (18%).
Orchards has grown 42% from 2010 to 2020
19,556 counted in 2010 and 27,729 in 2020.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts
How Orchards grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Washington), ordered by how far Orchards is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Mount St. Helens and 160 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Orchards. Close and well known come first.
Big draw39 mi MountainMount St. Helens
13 mi Stadium & arenaModa Center
22 mi WaterfallMultnomah Falls
14 mi Stadium & arenaProvidence Park
14 mi GardenForest Park
15 mi MuseumPittock MansionPhoto credits
Mount St. Helens: U.S. Forest Service- Pacific Northwest Region, Public domain · Moda Center: Lugnuts, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Multnomah Falls: John Fowler from Placitas, NM, USA, CC BY 2.0 · Providence Park: Pdx.rollingthunder, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Forest Park: EncMstr, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Pittock Mansion: PittockBack.jpg: Cacophony derivative work: Tiptoety talk, CC BY-SA 3.0
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Moving to Orchards: who provides what
Orchards is unincorporated, so Clark 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.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in Orchards.
Orchards carries less natural-hazard risk than most of Washington (mostly inland flooding), sends many workers across the state line to Portland and is healthy by national standards but behind most towns in Washington.
Orchards has set aside 1.5% of its land for conservation
5.8 miles of trail in 8 parks and preserves. Orchards’ trail density is 1.1 miles per square mile.
| Orchards | Washington towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 1.1 miles per square mile | 0.8 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 1.5% | 4% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Sifton Park | 0.5 mi | 4 |
| 2. Otto Brown Neighborhood Park | 0.4 mi | 8 |
| 3. Tiger Tree Park | 0.4 mi | 6 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
On state tests, Orchards’ schools trail 57% of Washington districts
Its public schools are run by the Evergreen School District. Two of its 3 schools are below, each with why it’s listed. The largest public high school is Heritage High School, with 1,569 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sifton Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 484 | – |
| Heritage High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 1,569 | – |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within WA on state tests and graduation
With 0.3 jobs for every working resident, most of Orchards’ workers commute out
26% of working residents cross a state line to work, Portland among the top destinations. Jobs based here grew from 3,340 in 2013 to 4,711.
Most working residents leave Orchards for work: only 3% work in town. Since 2013, Orchards has added 1,371 jobs, to 4,711 in 2023. The top destinations are Vancouver (31%), Portland (17%) and Seattle (4%).
| Orchards | Washington towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $100,000 | $98,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 2.8% | 5% | 8% |
| Work from home | 15% | 15% | 11% |
| Below the poverty line | 11% | 7.9% | 9.6% |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Orchards faces a low natural-hazard risk, led by inland flooding
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk lower than 90% of Washington towns, with expected losses of about $179 per resident a year; that rating is what its B+ for hazard risk is built on.
The FEMA risk score in Orchards is 32 of 100.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
In Orchards, expect mild winters and pleasant summers
Orchards has mild winters and pleasant summers, with plenty of rain. July afternoons reach 81°, January nights drop to 36° and about 4 inches of snow falls in a winter.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Residents of Orchards are healthier than 59% of U.S. towns
Within Washington it is less healthy than 75% of the 285 graded towns: Washington sets a high bar. Against the 8,574 U.S. towns with household incomes like Orchards’s, it is less healthy than 61%: its national edge comes with its incomes.
Orchards beats the Washington average on 3 of 31 CDC measures and trails it on 17. 66% of adults had a checkup this year in Orchards.
| Orchards | Washington towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 66% | 71% | 79% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 21% | 17% | 17% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 26% | 23% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 31% | 35% |
| What stands out | Orchards | WA |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 6.6% | 7.9% |
| Fewer adults with high cholesterol | 30.9% | 34.9% |
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 11.5% | 9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
A home in Orchards sells for about $540K at the median
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Everything we know about Orchards
Colleges nearby
12 within 15 miles of the center of Orchards
About 6 of every 100 Orchards residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Washington.
97% of working residents leave Orchards for work
Where Orchards’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
About Orchards
Census-designated place in Washington, United States
Orchards is a census-designated place (CDP) in Clark County, Washington, United States. The population was 27,729 at the 2020 census.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 5.4 sq mi
- Elevation
- 226 ft
- Area code
- 360
Orchards’s neighbors
3 towns share a border with Orchards.
| Town | WA rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orchards | #167 | C+ | C− | — | C+ | B |
| Vancouver | #237 | C− | D | D | C+ | B |
| Hockinson | #41 | B+ | D | — | A | A− |
| Five Corners | #143 | B− | C− | — | C+ | B |
Orchards, Hockinson and Five Corners report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Orchards with a neighbor →
Questions about Orchards
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Orchards, WA a good place to live?
Orchards grades C+ overall, better than 36% of U.S. towns and #167 of 285 in Washington. It grades B for health and C+ for schools. Cost of living is its weak spot, with a C−.
Is Orchards, WA expensive?
Yes. The typical home is worth about $462,000, 21% below the Washington typical home. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C−.