Two-Thirds of Oregon Lives Near Salem: The 100-Mile Reach, Mapped

By SimpleMapLab·Published 13 May 2026·Rank #18 of 50 states·↑ All 50 states

77.5% of Oregon’s population — about 3.27 M of 4.22 M residents — lives within 100 miles of Salem. The other 22.5% — including Bend — sits beyond the circle.

A 100-mile geodesic radius around the Salem, OR state capitol overlaid on Oregon. 77.5% of Oregon's population lives inside the dashed ring.

77.5%

of Oregon’s population within 100 miles of Salem

3.27 M

residents inside the radius (of 4.22 M statewide)

26 mi

from Salem to Oregon’s population centroid

#18

of 50 states ranked by capital-to-population centrality

Open this radius in the map → /tools/map-radius-tool · Salem, OR · 100 mi
The link opens the SimpleMapLab Map Radius Tool with the 100-mile circle already drawn around the Salem capitol. Change the radius to 50, 250, or any value to compare different framings.

Why this happened

Oregon's capital is centrally located but not perfectly placed. Salem's 100-mile circle captures roughly two-thirds to four-fifths of the state's residents — including Portland (the largest city inside, ~928K). The notable exception: Bend, sitting 118 miles from the capital. The capital itself sits 26 miles from Oregon's population centroid — a moderate but not extreme offset.

The biggest cities inside the 100-mile radius

The top 5 most-populous places (by aggregated ZIP code population) sitting inside the 100-mile circle around Salem. Cities are listed by total population captured by ZIP centroids in the dataset.

#	City	Population in radius
1	Portland	928,005
2	Salem	280,722
3	Eugene	215,212
4	Beaverton	204,753
5	Hillsboro	102,767

The largest city outside the radius

Oregon’s most-populous city outside the 100-mile circle is Bend, sitting 118 miles from Salem. The aggregated population of Bend’s ZIP codes alone — 104,611 residents — illustrates the gap between Oregon’s political seat and its population centre.

How Oregon compares

The states ranked closest to Oregon on this metric. Click any to compare the radius breakdown directly.

#17 Georgia

Atlanta · 77.8% pop. captured

#19 Arizona

Phoenix · 74.1% pop. captured

#16 Hawaii

Honolulu · 77.9% pop. captured

#20 South Carolina

Columbia · 73.7% pop. captured

#15 Virginia

Richmond · 78.8% pop. captured

Draw it yourself

Open the 100-mile circle around Salem →

The Map Radius Tool lets you change the radius (try 50 mi for an urban-suburban question or 250 mi for “a day’s drive”), drag the centre to compare Salem’s reach with that of Portland, or add a second circle for a side-by-side comparison.

Methodology (brief)

We took the lat/lng of the Oregon state capitol building (44.9429°, -123.0351°) and drew a 100-mile geodesic radius. For every ZIP code in Oregon, we tested whether the ZIP centroid falls inside; if so, its population counts. We then divide by Oregon’s total population to produce the percentage. The full methodology for all 50 states is on the hub page.

Suggested citation: SimpleMapLab (2026). 100 Miles Around Salem: How Much of Oregon Is Inside? Part of the State Capital Radius study. Retrieved from https://www.simplemaplab.com/studies/state-capital-radius/oregon. Licensed under CC-BY 4.0.