Watford City, ND population, income and ZIP codes

Watford City city is a mid-size town in North Dakota, with 6,016 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #13 of 406 ranked by population — larger than 97% of them. The median age here is 28.5 years against 39.1 nationally, a distinctly younger profile, typical of places with students, military posts or a fast-growing family population. Places under 65,000 residents only appear in the five-year release, never the one-year file, so these values pool sixty months of responses and lag the current year by design.

Households in Watford City city earn a median of $88,351 a year, 12.5% above the national figure of $78,538 and 29% above the $68,472 median for the 51 North Dakota cities we cover. Household income here is measured before tax and pooled across everyone at the address, which is why it reads higher than typical individual earnings in the same area. Poverty reaches 7.9% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Watford City city is valued at $385,100, 26.9% above the national figure and 107% above the $185,700 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,210 a month, 13.9% below the national figure, or roughly $14,520 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 16.4% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is cheap relative to what people here earn. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 4.4×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 35.3% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, a renter-majority market, so rent figures matter more here than the home-value line. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

A median age of 28.5 means a large student or early-career population; income medians in places like this understate household resources, since many residents are supported from outside the address.

All values below were released by the Census for this exact geography, with no gap-filling on our side. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.