Umatilla County, Oregon

County ranked by announced AI data-center load

Undisclosed Announced AI load

Campuses

Lead operator

AWS

Resi rate Δ (Umatilla Electric Cooperative)

+8.3%

Home price Δ (3y)

+9.9%

Property tax Δ (3y)

+7.1%

Population (2024 ACS)

80K

Median HH income (2024 ACS)

$67,728

Key takeaways

Umatilla County has 80,087 residents and a median household income of $68,958. Hermiston, the largest city at 19,354 residents, added 2,930 jobs from 2012 to 2022, 91% of all net job growth in the county over the decade.Source: Census ACS 2023 B01003, B19013 (Umatilla County, OR) + sources[0] (Wikipedia: Hermiston, OR)
Amazon Web Services is already the largest employer in greater Hermiston at 2,058 workers, more than double Lamb Weston's 370 in Boardman. The 2 AWS campuses in Umatilla County (Hermiston, Umatilla) ride the same Umatilla Electric Cooperative tariff as the Morrow County builds next door.Source: sources[0] (Wikipedia: Hermiston, OR) + data/sites/data_centers.csv
Property tax assessments rose 7.1% over three years against a 9.9% home-price gain. Both stats are restrained relative to neighboring Morrow County, which suggests AWS load is being captured by the Port of Morrow industrial enterprise zone rather than the residential tax base.Source: data/cache/property_tax_yoy.csv + data/cache/realestate_yoy.csv (FIPS 41059)
Only 18.0% of residents over 25 hold a bachelor's degree, the second-lowest in the Pacific Northwest AI cluster after Morrow County. The Hispanic-majority demographic and irrigation-fed watermelon agriculture predate the data center boom and have not been displaced by it.Source: Census ACS 2023 B15003 + sources[0] (Wikipedia: Hermiston, OR)

Umatilla County is 28.9% Hispanic (23,185 residents), the second-highest Hispanic share of any Oregon AI county after Morrow. The same demographic concentration that built the Hermiston watermelon and onion economy now staffs the AWS data hall operations.Source: Census ACS 2023 B03003 (Umatilla County, OR)
Only 85.3% of Umatilla households have wired broadband, the lowest connectivity rate among Oregon AI counties. The Umatilla Indian Reservation and the Pendleton-Hermiston-Boardman triangle hold the deepest digital-divide pockets in the Columbia River corridor.Source: Census ACS 2023 B28002 (Umatilla County, OR)
Manufacturing employs 9.0% of Umatilla's workforce while owner-occupied housing is at 67.1%. The AWS campuses share an industrial enterprise zone with Lamb Weston, ConAgra, and the Boeing-supplier corridor, all of which compete for the same rental base in Hermiston.Source: Census ACS 2023 C24050 and B25003 (Umatilla County, OR)
Median gross rent of $962 sits below the $978 rent in Wasco County despite Umatilla being four times larger. The Hermiston rental ceiling has been disciplined by the Port of Morrow enterprise zone, which keeps industrial demand from flowing fully into the residential market.Source: Census ACS 2023 B25064 (Umatilla County, OR)