Ray vs Williston

A side-by-side comparison of Ray and Williston: population, income, housing, and more.

Ray and Williston are places in North Dakota. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Williston has the higher population (27,964 vs 762 in Ray). Williston has the higher median household income ($84,309 vs $69,792 in Ray). Williston has the higher median home value ($262,700 vs $211,500 in Ray).

Population, income & housing

	Ray	Williston
Population	762	27,964
Median age	31.8 yrs	31.9 yrs
Median household income	$69,792	$84,309
Median home value	$211,500	$262,700
Median gross rent	$971	$1,106
Housing units	376	14,872
Homeownership rate	59.0%	50.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	14.2%	25.7%
Unemployment rate	0.3%	2.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Ray	Williston
Population	495 → 762 (+53.9%)	27,250 → 27,964 (+2.6%)
Median household income	$52,147 → $69,792 (+33.8%)	$84,710 → $84,309 (-0.5%)
Median home value	$145,100 → $211,500 (+45.8%)	$238,700 → $262,700 (+10.1%)
Median gross rent	$688 → $971 (+41.1%)	$964 → $1,106 (+14.7%)

Ray

Population

495762

Median household income

$52,147$69,792

Median home value

$145,100$211,500

Median gross rent

$688$971

Williston

Population

27,25027,964

Median household income

$84,710$84,309

Median home value

$238,700$262,700

Median gross rent

$964$1,106

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Ray	Williston
Under 5	8.1%	10.0%
5 to 17	24.9%	19.2%
18 to 24	11.5%	7.9%
25 to 34	9.1%	16.8%
35 to 44	13.8%	19.4%
45 to 54	7.5%	9.9%
55 to 64	5.6%	7.5%
65 to 74	12.5%	5.5%
75 and over	7.0%	3.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Ray	Williston
White (non-Hispanic)	86.5%	74.9%
Black or African American	0.0%	7.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	1.6%	1.8%
Asian	0.0%	1.6%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.2%
Some other race	0.0%	0.1%
Two or more races	11.9%	4.5%
Hispanic or Latino	0.0%	9.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Ray	Williston
No high school diploma	10.2%	9.8%
High school graduate	26.5%	34.6%
Some college or associate's	49.1%	29.9%
Bachelor's degree	7.8%	16.3%
Graduate or professional degree	6.4%	9.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Ray	Williston
Drove alone	82.3%	83.4%
Carpooled	12.1%	9.8%
Public transit	0.0%	0.3%
Walked	0.5%	2.9%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	4.1%	2.6%
Other means	1.0%	1.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Ray	Williston
1-unit, detached	68.9%	38.6%
1-unit, attached	1.9%	5.4%
2 to 4 units	3.7%	5.3%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	9.8%
20 or more units	0.0%	35.9%
Mobile home & other	25.5%	5.0%

Poverty & households

	Ray	Williston
Poverty rate	9.7%	8.7%
Average household size	2.44	2.45
Mean commute (minutes)	29	17
Median year structure built	1989	1997