Olympia vs Rochester

A side-by-side comparison of Olympia and Rochester: population, income, housing, and more.

Olympia and Rochester are places in Washington. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Olympia has the higher population (55,583 vs 6,025 in Rochester). Rochester has the higher median household income ($94,754 vs $76,930 in Olympia). Olympia has the higher median home value ($457,900 vs $391,600 in Rochester).

Population, income & housing

	Olympia	Rochester
Population	55,583	6,025
Median age	39.2 yrs	43.3 yrs
Median household income	$76,930	$94,754
Median home value	$457,900	$391,600
Median gross rent	$1,509	$1,182
Housing units	26,432	2,042
Homeownership rate	49.3%	86.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	50.0%	15.0%
Unemployment rate	6.9%	1.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Olympia	Rochester
Population	51,534 → 55,583 (+7.9%)	3,126 → 6,025 (+92.7%)
Median household income	$59,878 → $76,930 (+28.5%)	$84,766 → $94,754 (+11.8%)
Median home value	$297,200 → $457,900 (+54.1%)	$245,300 → $391,600 (+59.6%)
Median gross rent	$1,145 → $1,509 (+31.8%)	$1,244 → $1,182 (-5.0%)

Olympia

Population

51,53455,583

Median household income

$59,878$76,930

Median home value

$297,200$457,900

Median gross rent

$1,145$1,509

Rochester

Population

3,1266,025

Median household income

$84,766$94,754

Median home value

$245,300$391,600

Median gross rent

$1,244$1,182

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Olympia	Rochester
Under 5	5.1%	10.4%
5 to 17	13.4%	11.8%
18 to 24	7.9%	7.5%
25 to 34	17.4%	13.1%
35 to 44	14.4%	8.9%
45 to 54	11.8%	19.6%
55 to 64	11.1%	10.0%
65 to 74	10.9%	10.2%
75 and over	7.9%	8.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Olympia	Rochester
White (non-Hispanic)	71.5%	72.9%
Black or African American	2.5%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.7%	0.8%
Asian	6.5%	2.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.9%	0.0%
Some other race	0.3%	2.8%
Two or more races	7.4%	1.6%
Hispanic or Latino	10.3%	19.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Olympia	Rochester
No high school diploma	3.5%	11.5%
High school graduate	16.7%	33.6%
Some college or associate's	29.8%	39.9%
Bachelor's degree	31.2%	11.7%
Graduate or professional degree	18.8%	3.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Olympia	Rochester
Drove alone	62.7%	73.5%
Carpooled	8.0%	10.5%
Public transit	2.5%	0.0%
Walked	4.4%	0.5%
Bicycle	1.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	20.5%	6.7%
Other means	0.8%	8.8%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Olympia	Rochester
1-unit, detached	51.9%	60.3%
1-unit, attached	5.7%	3.0%
2 to 4 units	8.6%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	14.7%	0.0%
20 or more units	16.4%	3.4%
Mobile home & other	2.6%	33.2%

Poverty & households

	Olympia	Rochester
Poverty rate	14.8%	14.8%
Average household size	2.17	2.95
Mean commute (minutes)	20	32
Median year structure built	1981	1995