Prairie HeightsWA
A town of 4,998. Public schools that outperform most of Washington.
Is Prairie Heights a good place to live?
Prairie Heights grades B overall, 79th of 285 graded towns in Washington, with clear strengths and some subjects that lag. Its public schools beat 84% of Washington towns on state tests and graduation and the median household earns $131K. On the other side, FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 56% of U.S. communities, with earthquakes at the top. Prairie Heights’ median household income is $131,000, above both Washington’s towns ($98,000) and U.S. towns ($80,000). Among 285 Washington towns, just 5 have a higher share of households owning their home than Prairie Heights.
What makes Prairie Heights stand out
Where Prairie Heights beats most towns.
99% of working residents leave Prairie Heights for work
Where Prairie Heights’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
How Prairie Heights grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Washington), ordered by how far Prairie Heights is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Space Needle and 128 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Prairie Heights. Close and well known come first.
Big draw35 mi LookoutSpace Needle
Big draw33 mi Stadium & arenaLumen Field
Big draw35 mi Stadium & arenaClimate Pledge Arena
12 mi National ParkMount Rainier National Park1.6M visitors a year
32 mi Stadium & arenaT-Mobile Park
16 mi Stadium & arenaTacoma DomePhoto credits
Space Needle: Another Believer, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Lumen Field: "Smart Destinations", GoSeattleCard.com, and Go Seattle Card Blog, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Climate Pledge Arena: Sea Cow, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Mount Rainier National Park: Ricardo Martins from Gent, Belgium, CC BY 2.0 · T-Mobile Park: MyName (Cacophony), CC BY-SA 3.0 · Tacoma Dome: Broran28, Public domain
Moving to Prairie Heights: who provides what
Prairie Heights 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.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in Prairie Heights.
Prairie Heights has cooler summers than nearly all U.S. towns, sends most of its workers to Seattle and beyond and is healthy by national standards but behind most towns in Washington.
Prairie Heights earns an A− for schools
Its public schools are run by the White River School District. Two of its 3 schools are below, each with why it’s listed. The largest public high school is White River High School, with 1,340 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foothills ElementaryLargest public elementary schoolGrades 1–5 | Grades 1–5 | 470 | – |
| White River High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 1,340 | – |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within WA on state tests and graduation
Most working residents commute out of Prairie Heights
Prairie Heights has 128 jobs for its 2,223 working residents: even if every job went to a resident, most would still commute out.
Most working residents leave Prairie Heights for work: only 1% work in town. Prairie Heights’ average trip to work is 32 minutes. Since 2013, Prairie Heights has added 43 jobs, to 128 in 2023.
| Prairie Heights | Washington towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 32 minutes | 27 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 3.2% | 7.9% | 9.6% |
| Work from home | 9% | 15% | 11% |
| Working residents who work in town | 0.5% | 5% | 8% |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Mild winters and pleasant summers in Prairie Heights
July afternoons average 76.7°, cooler than in 97% of U.S. towns; January nights average 34.4°.
Prairie Heights has mild winters and pleasant summers, with plenty of rain. The July high in Prairie Heights is 77°F. About 4 inches of snow falls in a winter.
| Prairie Heights | Washington towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| July high | 77°F | 77°F | 85°F |
| January low | 34°F | 35°F | 22°F |
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Earthquakes leads a moderate hazard risk in Prairie Heights
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Health in Prairie Heights trails 50% of U.S. towns
Within Washington it is less healthy than 82% of the 285 graded towns: Washington sets a high bar. Against the 4,470 U.S. towns with household incomes like Prairie Heights’s, it is less healthy than 92%, so it trails even them.
Prairie Heights beats the Washington average on 0 of 31 CDC measures and trails it on 14. 29% of adults have been diagnosed with depression in Prairie Heights.
| Prairie Heights | Washington towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 26% | 23% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 71% | 71% | 79% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 20% | 17% | 17% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 39% | 33% | 35% |
| What stands out | Prairie Heights | WA |
|---|---|---|
| More smokers | 13.9% | 10.1% |
| More adults with obesity | 39% | 30.6% |
| More adults with COPD | 6.3% | 5.1% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
The median home in Prairie Heights sells for about $755K
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Everything we know about Prairie Heights
Colleges nearby
1 within 15 miles of the center of Prairie Heights
About 8 of every 100 Prairie Heights residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Washington.
About Prairie Heights
CDP in Washington, United States
Prairie Heights is a census-designated place (CDP) located in Pierce County, Washington. As of the 2020 census, Prairie Heights had a population of 4,561.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 3.7 sq mi
- Elevation
- 666 ft
- Area code
- 360
Prairie Heights’s neighbors
2 towns share a border with Prairie Heights.
| Town | WA rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prairie Heights | #79 | B | C+ | — | A− | B− |
| Prairie Ridge | #77 | B | C | — | A | B+ |
| Bonney Lake | #75 | B | C− | C+ | A | B+ |
Prairie Heights and Prairie Ridge report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Prairie Heights with a neighbor →
Questions about Prairie Heights
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Prairie Heights, WA a good place to live?
By most measures, yes. Prairie Heights grades B overall, better than 62% of U.S. towns and #79 of 285 in Washington. It grades B− for health and A− for schools. Hazard risk is its weak spot, with a C−.
Is Prairie Heights, WA expensive?
The typical home is worth about $500,000, 15% 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+.