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About Salem

Salem is the capital of Oregon and the county seat of Marion County, in the middle of the Willamette Valley. The Willamette River runs north through the city and forms the boundary between Marion and Polk counties, so the West Salem neighborhood is in Polk County. Wikipedia reports that Salem served as capital of the Oregon Territory from 1851 and became the state capital when Oregon reached statehood in 1859. It was incorporated as a city in 1857. A Methodist mission led by Jason Lee was set up north of Salem in 1840, and the missionaries founded the Oregon Institute in what became Salem in 1842.

Salem in numbers

Measure Salem
Population, 2020 Census 175,535
Population, ACS 2020-2024 178,865
Population, Portland State University certified estimate, July 1, 2025 179,977 (+2.5% since 2020)
Households 67,629
Owner-occupied share of households 55.9%
Median household income $75,487
Median home value (owner-occupied) $416,900
Median age 36.0
Owner-occupied homes valued at $300,000 or more 30,576 of 37,812 (80.9%)
Business establishments, ZIPs 97301, 97302, 97303, 97304, 97305, 97306 and 97317 7,175
Paid employees at those establishments 91,768

A plain reading

Salem is nearly the same size as Eugene, but more of its households own their home (55.9 percent against 47.9) and its median household income is about $9,000 higher. Median home value is $416,900. More than eight in ten owner-occupied homes are valued at $300,000 or more, and 1,776 of 37,812 are valued at $750,000 or more.

The figures are estimates with margins of error. At the 90 percent level, median household income is plus or minus $2,354, median home value is plus or minus $6,183, and the count of owner homes at $300,000 or more is roughly plus or minus 1,240 (our own combination of the bracket margins).

How we got these numbers

  • Households, tenure, income, home value, age and home-value brackets come from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates for 2020-2024, tables B01003, B11001, B25003, B19013, B25077, B01002 and B25075, read through Census Reporter for Salem city (Census place code 4164900). Dollars are 2024 inflation-adjusted ACS dollars.
  • "Valued at $300,000 or more" is the sum of the B25075 brackets from $300,000 upward. Its share is out of all owner-occupied homes in the table.
  • The 2020 population is the Census count, read from Census TIGERweb. The 2025 figure is the certified estimate from Portland State University's Population Research Center, as published in the League of Oregon Cities table.
  • Business counts are from Census ZIP Code Business Patterns 2023 for the seven main Salem ZIP codes. A ZIP code is not a city boundary: some of these ZIPs also cover Keizer and other nearby areas, so the counts run higher than Salem alone. They leave out businesses with no paid employees.

Sources

Also from Oregon Living: Oregon Living in Eugene, Oregon.