Elgin is a city in Union County, Oregon, part of the La Grande, OR metro area. It has 1,549 residents. Elgin, Oregon has a quality-of-life score of 47 out of 100 (moderate), ranking #8,340 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Oregon it ranks #110 of 227 cities and towns. It ranks best on hospital quality rating (high), time spent in the emergency room (low) and median Air Quality Index (low). It ranks worst on drought exposure (high), broadband subscriptions (low) and flu vaccinations (low).
47Moderate
Quality-of-life score
#8,340 of 15,651 cities and towns
Oregon
#110 of 227 in OR
Population
1,549 (2020-2024)
Land area
1 mi²
Density
1,532.3 /mi²
FIPS code
4122550
Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 72 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.
Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.
Safety27#11,350/15,637
Economy41#9,276/15,631
Housing27#10,906/14,977
Health34#10,256/15,609
Healthcare55#7,064/15,650
Environment98#327/15,453
Education37#9,883/15,649
Infrastructure6#14,728/15,650
Community89#1,665/15,651
Leisure & amenities75#3,872/15,651
Strengths · Weaknesses
Indicators where Elgin, Oregon ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Union County value” are the county’s: the source publishes no figure for this city or town, and the county holding most of its residents stands in.
How each measure moved between two periods about five years apart, read against whether more or less is better, the published margin of error and the same change in other places.
Cities and towns like Elgin, Oregon five years ago that improved
The places whose measures looked most like those of Elgin, Oregon in the earlier period, ranked by how many measures improved beyond the margin of error, minus how many declined. A comparison of published data, not a forecast and not advice.
Who lives here
Age, race and education of residents, from the American Community Survey. Shares are of all residents (age), residents of every origin (race) or adults 25 and over (education).
Income
How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.
Homes
Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.
Getting to work
How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.
Jobs and pay
What the largest occupations here pay, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes pay by metro area, not by county or city. The metro area page lists its largest occupations and lets you look up any job.
Employer businesses and sole proprietors by industry, per resident and against the state and the nation. Counts of businesses next to counts of people, not a measure of demand.
Federal contracts performed here
Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: Elgin is mostly in Union County.
Over about five years, Elgin, Oregon improved on 0 of 11 measures with a comparison and declined on 0. 11 moved within the margin of error and 0 barely changed.
Earlier (2015-2019)
Latest (2020-2024)
Lower standingHigher standing
Position is the place's standing among cities and towns: further right is better, whichever way the measure counts.
Improved0
No measure improved by more than its margin of error.
Declined0
No measure declined by more than its margin of error.
All 11 measures
Change of every measure of Elgin, Oregon between two periods about five years apart
Measure
Before
After
Change
Reading
Favourable vs peers
Average commute time
22.7 min2015-2019
23.3 min2020-2024
+0.5 min
Within the margin of error
41%
Bachelor's degree or higher
7.2%2015-2019
9.9%2020-2024
+2.7 points
Within the margin of error
49%
Broadband subscriptions
74.6%2015-2019
79.2%2020-2024
+4.6 points
Within the margin of error
29%
Effective property tax rate
1.15%2015-2019
0.86%2020-2024
−0.3 points
Within the margin of error
73%
High school diploma or higher
89.8%2015-2019
96.3%2020-2024
+6.5 points
Within the margin of error
88%
Home price to income ratio
3.2×2015-2019
3.3×2020-2024
+0.1×
Within the margin of error
75%
Income inequality (Gini index)
0.4092015-2019
0.4512020-2024
+0.042
Within the margin of error
20%
Median household income
$41,7192015-2019
$57,7502020-2024
+38%
Within the margin of error
71%
Poverty rate
17.5%2015-2019
10.4%2020-2024
−7.1 points
Within the margin of error
87%
Public transit commuters
0.0%2015-2019
0.0%2020-2024
0 points
Within the margin of error
60%
Rent as share of income
36.3%2015-2019
30.6%2020-2024
−5.7 points
Within the margin of error
85%
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 14640 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Sources: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Values are the latest and the one five years earlier of the same publisher dataset; datasets that changed publisher in between are never compared.
Survey estimates (American Community Survey) compare the two most recent 5-year windows that do not share years, so the margin of error of the difference holds. The 2015-2019 window predates the pandemic and 2020-2024 includes it.
A change counts only when it is larger than 1.645 times the square root of the two standard errors squared, summed (a 90% margin). Measures published without a margin must change by at least 5% to count.
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 15651 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Standing is a percentile among the same places: 0 is the lowest value on the measure (or the worst when lower is better), 100 the best.
For comparison, Elgin, Oregon itself moved +5.1 points in standing on average over the same 9 measures (standings of all places average about zero).
How the ranking works
Similarity is the root-mean-square difference of standings in the earlier period over the measures most places have. Places are ranked by measures that improved beyond the margin of error minus those that declined (a count that estimation noise in small places cannot inflate), then by the mean change of standing over the measures a place has in both periods. Only places with more improvements than declines and a rise in standing are listed. Standings are relative, so a place can improve in absolute terms and still lose standing.
Household income
624 households (±96)
Elgin, Oregon
Oregon share
Under $25k19%†116
Under $25k
19%±6.4 points
116 households±43 (90% margin of error)
14%in Oregon
15%in United States
−9.4 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$25k–50k28%†173
$25k–50k
28%±11.3 points
173 households±75 (90% margin of error)
16%in Oregon
17%in United States
−8.3 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$50k–75k18%†115
$50k–75k
18%±7.7 points
115 households±51 (90% margin of error)
15%in Oregon
16%in United States
+6.2 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$75k–100k12%†77
$75k–100k
12%±4.8 points
77 households±32 (90% margin of error)
13%in Oregon
13%in United States
−0.3 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$100k–150k19%†121
$100k–150k
19%±6.6 points
121 households±45 (90% margin of error)
18%in Oregon
18%in United States
+11.2 pointssince 2015–2019
Wide margin of error: read with care
$150k–200k1.8%†11
$150k–200k
1.8%±1.7 points
11 households±11 (90% margin of error)
10%in Oregon
9.6%in United States
+0.4 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
$200k or more1.8%†11
$200k or more
1.8%±1.7 points
11 households±11 (90% margin of error)
13%in Oregon
13%in United States
+0.1 pointssince 2015–2019, within the margin of error
Wide margin of error: read with care
Biggest shift since 2015–2019: $100k–150k (+11.2 points).
† Wide margin of error (more than 30% of the estimate): read with care.
The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Union County, the county holding most of Elgin's residents.
Union County has 740 employer establishments, 285 for every 10,000 residents (1.15× the US rate of 248; 0.99× Oregon's), with 7,702 paid employees at an average annual pay of $51,525. The Census Bureau also counts 1,812 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.
Establishments
740
1,812 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents
285
US 248 · Oregon 288
Paid employees
7,702
Average annual pay
$51,525
US $68,342
Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Union County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation
County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)
Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 25,934 residents here, 336,755,052 in the United States. County Business Patterns counts establishments in 2023; the Nonemployer Statistics count businesses in 2024.
“More than typical” is a density at least 1.25 times the nation's per resident, “fewer” at most 0.8 times, with at least 10 establishments. It compares counts of businesses with counts of people: it says nothing about demand, incomes, size, quality or profit, and visitors and commuters are not residents.
The Census Bureau adds noise to employment and payroll to protect confidentiality, and withholds some figures: an industry with few establishments can show employees or pay as unavailable.
Industries overlap: a narrower industry (full-service restaurants) is part of a broader one (restaurants), so the rows do not add up.
Industries follow the North American Industry Classification System; the two surveys use different editions (NAICS 2017 and 2022), which this page matches industry by industry.
No federal contract obligations recorded here in FY2026.
