Multnomah County vs Washington County

A side-by-side comparison of Multnomah County and Washington County: population, income, housing, and more.

Multnomah County and Washington County are counties in Oregon. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Multnomah County has the higher population (803,863 vs 600,266 in Washington County). Washington County has the higher median household income ($104,434 vs $86,247 in Multnomah County). Washington County has the higher median home value ($558,500 vs $528,000 in Multnomah County).

Population, income & housing

	Multnomah County	Washington County
Population	803,863	600,266
Median age	38.5 yrs	37.8 yrs
Median household income	$86,247	$104,434
Median home value	$528,000	$558,500
Median gross rent	$1,582	$1,773
Housing units	367,704	240,409
Homeownership rate	54.1%	60.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	48.6%	46.7%
Unemployment rate	5.4%	4.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Multnomah County	Washington County
Population	804,606 → 803,863 (-0.1%)	589,481 → 600,266 (+1.8%)
Median household income	$69,176 → $86,247 (+24.7%)	$82,215 → $104,434 (+27.0%)
Median home value	$386,200 → $528,000 (+36.7%)	$386,600 → $558,500 (+44.5%)
Median gross rent	$1,237 → $1,582 (+27.9%)	$1,359 → $1,773 (+30.5%)

Multnomah County

Population

804,606803,863

Median household income

$69,176$86,247

Median home value

$386,200$528,000

Median gross rent

$1,237$1,582

Washington County

Population

589,481600,266

Median household income

$82,215$104,434

Median home value

$386,600$558,500

Median gross rent

$1,359$1,773

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Multnomah County	Washington County
Under 5	4.7%	5.4%
5 to 17	13.2%	16.6%
18 to 24	7.7%	8.0%
25 to 34	18.2%	15.6%
35 to 44	17.1%	15.5%
45 to 54	13.6%	13.3%
55 to 64	11.1%	11.3%
65 to 74	9.1%	8.7%
75 and over	5.3%	5.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Multnomah County	Washington County
White (non-Hispanic)	66.2%	61.3%
Black or African American	5.4%	2.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.5%	0.3%
Asian	7.4%	11.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.6%	0.4%
Some other race	0.5%	0.5%
Two or more races	6.4%	6.0%
Hispanic or Latino	13.1%	18.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Multnomah County	Washington County
No high school diploma	7.7%	7.1%
High school graduate	16.5%	17.0%
Some college or associate's	27.1%	29.2%
Bachelor's degree	29.4%	28.5%
Graduate or professional degree	19.3%	18.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Multnomah County	Washington County
Drove alone	53.6%	63.4%
Carpooled	7.8%	7.4%
Public transit	6.5%	3.6%
Walked	4.4%	2.3%
Bicycle	3.1%	0.5%
Worked from home	23.1%	21.7%
Other means	1.4%	1.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Multnomah County	Washington County
1-unit, detached	53.5%	57.9%
1-unit, attached	5.3%	8.6%
2 to 4 units	8.5%	7.0%
5 to 19 units	10.2%	13.3%
20 or more units	20.8%	11.2%
Mobile home & other	1.8%	2.1%

Poverty & households

	Multnomah County	Washington County
Poverty rate	12.5%	8.0%
Average household size	2.25	2.55
Mean commute (minutes)	25	24
Median year structure built	1971	1990