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About Pendleton
Pendleton is the county seat of Umatilla County in Eastern Oregon. It sits on both sides of the Umatilla River at about 1,099 feet. Wikipedia reports that Umatilla County bought the settlement called Goodwin's Crossing in 1868, renamed it for George H. Pendleton and made it the county seat. The Oregon Legislative Assembly incorporated the city on October 25, 1880.
Pendleton in numbers
| Measure | Pendleton | Margin of error (ACS) |
|---|---|---|
| Population, 2020 Census | 17,107 | |
| Population, ACS 2020-2024 | 16,950 | +/- 29 |
| Population, Portland State University certified estimate, July 1, 2025 | 17,052 (-0.3% since 2020) | |
| Households | 6,257 | +/- 352 |
| Owner-occupied share of households | 56.5% (3,537 owner households) | owner count +/- 286 |
| Median household income | $66,563 | +/- $6,698 |
| Median home value (owner-occupied) | $287,100 | +/- $15,974 |
| Median age | 36.9 | +/- 2.7 |
| Owner-occupied homes valued at $300,000 or more | 1,593 of 3,537 (45.0%) | count +/- about 280 |
| Business establishments, ZIP 97801 | 555 | |
| Paid employees at those establishments | 8,367 |
A plain reading
Pendleton is a small city whose population is about where it was in 2020. Median household income is about $66,600 and the median home value is about $287,000. Not quite half of owner-occupied homes (45.0 percent) are valued at $300,000 or more. A city average says little about any one street, so check the numbers for your own area.
Treat these as estimates. The American Community Survey is a sample, and for a city this size the margins of error are wide: the income figure could be off by about $6,700 in either direction, and the home-value count by about 280 homes. Differences of a few percent between this page and another source are not meaningful.
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 the Pendleton city place (Census code 4157150). Dollars are 2024 inflation-adjusted ACS dollars. The margin of error for the sum of home-value brackets is the square root of the sum of squared bracket margins, the Census Bureau's standard method.
- The 2020 population is the Census count, read from the Census Bureau's TIGERweb service. The 2025 figure is the certified estimate from Portland State University's Population Research Center, as published in the League of Oregon Cities table of certified estimates (certified December 15, 2025).
- Business counts are from Census ZIP Code Business Patterns 2023 for ZIP 97801. They are by ZIP code, not by city limit, and they leave out businesses with no paid employees. The Census Bureau adds statistical noise to employment counts, so treat the employee figure as approximate.
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year data (2020-2024)
- Census Reporter
- Census TIGERweb
- Census ZIP Code Business Patterns
- League of Oregon Cities, certified population estimates (Portland State University)
- Portland State University Population Research Center
- Pendleton, Oregon (Wikipedia), for history and location
Also from Oregon Living: Oregon Living in La Grande, Oregon.