Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 35,547, platted in 1888.
Wenatchee grades C− overall, 212th of 285 graded towns in Washington, with clear strengths and some subjects that lag. It is easier to get around on foot or by transit than 94% of U.S. towns and it has 13 miles of trail. On the other side, FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 76% of U.S. communities, with inland flooding at the top. 44% of working residents work locally in Wenatchee, where Washington’s towns sit at 4.8% and U.S. towns at 8%. Wenatchee has 10 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Columbia River Bridge and Columbia River Bridge at Wenatchee.
Where Wenatchee beats most towns.
Census counts: 451 in 1900, 35,508 in 2020. The archive holds 11 old photos and papers going back to 1908 and 5 maps from 1913 on.
10 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Washington), ordered by how far Wenatchee is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Who provides power, water and the rest in Wenatchee, and how to reach them.
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 Wenatchee.
Wenatchee has commutes shorter than most of Washington, is healthy by national standards but mid-pack in Washington and has milder winter nights than most of the country, though not than most of Washington.
The trail density in Wenatchee is 1.1 miles per square mile. Wenatchee Confluence State Park, at 167 acres with 1.7 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve.
| Wenatchee | Washington towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 1.1 miles per square mile | 0.8 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 9% | 4% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Wenatchee Confluence State Park | 1.7 mi | 167 |
| 2. Horan Natural Area | 1.5 mi | 76 |
| 3. Lower Castle Rock Natural Area | 1.3 mi | 35 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its public schools are run by the Wenatchee School District. Two of its 20 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abraham Lincoln ElementaryLargest public elementary schoolGrades K–5 | Grades K–5 | 604 | – |
| Wenatchee High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 2,066 | – |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within WA on state tests and graduation
Wenatchee’s property crime rate is 20.8 per 1,000 residents.
| Wenatchee | Washington towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 20.8 per 1,000 residents | 15 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 3.1 per 1,000 residents | 1.5 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Since 2010, 19 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Wenatchee.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Within Washington it is less healthy than 62% of the 285 graded towns: Washington sets a high bar.
Wenatchee beats the Washington average on 0 of 31 CDC measures and trails it on 15. 28% of adults sleep under 7 hours in Wenatchee.
| Wenatchee | Washington towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 28% | 33% | 36% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 70% | 71% | 79% |
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 14% | 7.8% | 8.1% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 30% | 33% | 35% |
| What stands out | Wenatchee | WA |
|---|---|---|
| More uninsured adults | 13.7% | 8.4% |
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 13.1% | 9% |
| More adults facing food insecurity | 13.9% | 10.2% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
January nights average 25.8°: milder than most of the country, but colder than 76% of Washington places with climate records; July afternoons average 89.4°.
Wenatchee has chilly winters and warm summers, with very little rain. About 17 inches of snow falls in a winter.
| Wenatchee | Washington towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| July high | 89°F | 77°F | 85°F |
| January low | 26°F | 35°F | 22°F |
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
The average commute for its 17,120 working residents takes 17 minutes, against 26.6 across Washington.
Jobs based in Wenatchee grew to 24,613 in 2023, 4,520 more than in 2013. 6.8% of Wenatchee workers work from home. The top destinations are East Wenatchee (7%), Seattle (5%) and Cashmere (2%).
| Wenatchee | Washington towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 17 minutes | 27 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Work from home | 6.8% | 15% | 11% |
| Median household income | $73,000 | $98,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 10% | 7.9% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
The typical Wenatchee home is worth about $491,000, about the same as a year ago, 16% below the Washington typical home.
| Wenatchee | Washington towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 54% | 71% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,248 a month | $1,740 a month | $1,185 a month |
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
1 within 15 miles of the center of Wenatchee
About 4 of every 100 Wenatchee residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Washington.
10 places in Wenatchee on the National Register of Historic Places.
33 notable people were born in Wenatchee.
City in Washington, United States
Wenatchee ( wen-ACH-ee) is the county seat of and the most populous city in Chelan County, Washington, United States. The population was 35,508 as of the 2020 census. The city lies at the confluence of the Columbia and Wenatchee rivers near the eastern foothills of the Cascade Range in north-central Washington. Wenatchee is on the west side of the Columbia River in Chelan County, across from the city of East Wenatchee in Douglas County. The city was named for the Wenatchi, a Native American tribe that inhabited the area around the confluence at the time of European-American contact. The name is a Sahaptin word that means "river which comes [or whose source is] from canyons" or "robe of the …
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
3 towns share a border with Wenatchee.
| Town | WA rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wenatchee | #212 | C− | C− | C− | C+ | B+ |
| South Wenatchee | — | — | A− | — | C+ | B |
| Sunnyslope | #145 | C+ | C | — | C+ | A |
| East Wenatchee | #158 | C+ | C− | C+ | B+ | B |
South Wenatchee has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. South Wenatchee and Sunnyslope report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Wenatchee with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Wenatchee grades C− overall, better than 24% of U.S. towns and #212 of 285 in Washington. It grades B+ for health, C− for safety and C+ for schools. Hazard risk is its weak spot, with a D.
Yes. That is 6 years of the area's median household income ($81,938 across the Wenatchee-East Wenatchee, WA metro area). Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C−.
33 notable people were born here, including Tyler Farrar and Noreen Nash.
