Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Yakima earns a D−, ranked 272nd of 285 in Washington, mostly because of safety and schools. Its crime rate is higher than 85% of U.S. towns, with 508 violent crimes reported to the FBI in 2025. Its schools rank behind 78% of the state's. In its favor, natural-hazard risk is low. 49% of working residents work locally in Yakima, against 4.8% in Washington’s towns and 8% across U.S. towns. Its National Register listings include Capitol Theatre and A. E. Larson Building. On health, just 29 of Washington’s 397 towns do worse.
Where Yakima beats most towns.
Capitol Theatre
Kyle MacLachlan
Its founding year, 1847, comes before those of 97% of the Washington towns we grade with a known year. Its 41 National Register listings are more than in 97% of Washington towns with a listing.
Census counts: 1,535 in 1890, 96,968 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1880 and 3 maps from 1958 on.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Washington), ordered by how far Yakima is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Who provides power, water and the rest in Yakima, 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 Yakima.
Yakima carries less natural-hazard risk than nearly all of Washington (mostly inland flooding), fares better on crime within Washington than nationally and has milder winter nights than most of the country, though not than most of Washington.
At 41.8 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports more crime than 73% of Washington’s graded towns. Reported crimes fell from 2,816 to 2,326 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
Yakima’s violent crime rate is 5.2 per 1,000 residents. Yakima reports more crime per resident than most U.S. towns we grade: about 85% report less. Yakima’s property crime rate is 18.7 per 1,000 residents.
| Yakima | Washington towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 5.2 per 1,000 residents | 1.5 | 1.6 |
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 18.7 per 1,000 residents | 15 | 9.9 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Its public schools are run by the Yakima School District. Two of its 42 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| West Valley Mid-Level CampusLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 1,167 | – |
| Davis High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 2,359 | – |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within WA on state tests and graduation
The typical Yakima home is worth about $359,000, up 0.5% in a year, 39% below the Washington typical home. 54% of Yakima households own their home.
| Yakima | Washington towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 54% | 71% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,117 a month | $1,740 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk lower than 93% of Washington towns, with expected losses of about $227 per resident a year; that rating is what its A− for hazard risk is built on.
The FEMA risk score in Yakima is 18 of 100. Since 1980, 10 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Yakima.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Yakima beats the Washington average on 0 of 31 CDC measures and trails it on 19. 20% of adults 18 to 64 have no health insurance in Yakima. Among 285 Washington towns, just 9 have a higher share of adults who say their health is fair or poor than Yakima.
| Yakima | Washington towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 20% | 7.8% | 8.1% |
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 17% | 19% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 69% | 71% | 79% |
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 21% | 10% | 14% |
| What stands out | Yakima | WA |
|---|---|---|
| More uninsured adults | 19.7% | 8.4% |
| More adults facing food insecurity | 20.5% | 10.2% |
| More adults facing a utility shut-off | 9.4% | 5.1% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
January nights average 25.1°: milder than most of the country, but colder than 78% of Washington places with climate records; July afternoons average 88.9°.
Yakima has chilly winters and warm summers, with very little rain. About 20 inches of snow falls in a winter.
| Yakima | Washington towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| July high | 89°F | 77°F | 85°F |
| January low | 25°F | 35°F | 22°F |
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
The average commute for its 36,908 working residents takes 17.8 minutes, against 26.6 across Washington.
Jobs based in Yakima grew to 46,295 in 2023, 6,964 more than in 2013. The top destinations are Union Gap (5%), Selah (2%) and Seattle (2%). Half commute less than 4 miles.
| Yakima | Washington towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 18 minutes | 27 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 17% | 7.9% | 9.6% |
| Median household income | $63,000 | $98,000 | $80,000 |
| Work from home | 7.6% | 15% | 11% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
9.5 miles of trail in 30 parks and preserves. The biggest place to walk is Yakima Area Arboretum, 67 acres with 2 miles of trail.
| Yakima | Washington towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.3 miles per square mile | 0.8 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 3.2% | 4% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Yakima Area Arboretum | 2 mi | 67 |
| 2. Sarg Hubbard Park | 1.2 mi | 23 |
| 3. Kiwanis Park | 0.6 mi | 35 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Yakima. Close and well known come first.
in town MuseumYakima Electric Railway Museum
40 mi National Historical ParkManhattan Project National Historical Park56K visitors a year
36 mi State parkGinkgo Petrified Forest State Park
in town TheatreCapitol Theatre
in town GardenYakima Area ArboretumYakima Electric Railway Museum: Steve Morgan, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Manhattan Project National Historical Park: Unknown, Public domain · Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park: No machine-readable author provided. Justinleif~commonswiki assumed (based on co, Public domain · Capitol Theatre: User:Cacophony, CC BY 2.5 · Yakima Area Arboretum: Bobjgalindo, CC BY-SA 3.0
3 within 15 miles of the center of Yakima
About 4 of every 100 Yakima residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Washington.
2 colleges in town.
41 places in Yakima on the National Register of Historic Places.
65 notable people were born in Yakima.
City in Washington, United States
Yakima ( or ) is a city in and the county seat of Yakima County, Washington, United States, and the state's 11th most populous city. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 96,968 and a metropolitan population of 256,728. The unincorporated suburban areas of West Valley and Terrace Heights are considered a part of greater Yakima. Yakima is about 60 miles (100 kilometers) southeast of Mount Rainier in Washington. It is situated in the Yakima Valley, a productive agricultural region noted for apple, wine, and hop production. As of 2011, the Yakima Valley produces 77% of all hops grown in the United States. The name Yakima originates from the Yakama Nation Native American tri…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
5 towns share a border with Yakima.
Terrace Heights next door grades higher for schools (B+ to Yakima’s C−) and lower for cost of living (D to C).
| Town | WA rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yakima | #272 | D− | C | C− | C− | C |
| Ahtanum | #190 | C | D | — | B+ | B |
| Union Gap | #281 | D− | C+ | D− | C− | C− |
| Terrace Heights | #134 | B− | D | — | B+ | B+ |
| Summitview | — | — | C− | — | B+ | A− |
| Selah | #164 | C+ | D | B | B | B |
Summitview has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Ahtanum, Terrace Heights and Summitview report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Yakima with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Yakima grades D− overall, better than 5% of U.S. towns and #272 of 285 in Washington. It grades C for health, C− for safety and C− for schools. Safety is its weak spot, with a C−.
That is 5.1 years of the area's median household income ($70,656 across the Yakima, 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.
65 notable people were born here, including Kyle MacLachlan and Robert Lucas.
