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About Sunriver

Sunriver is a Census-designated place (CDP) in Deschutes County, not an incorporated city. That means the Census Bureau draws a boundary around it for counting, but it has no city government of its own. Wikipedia describes it as a planned residential and resort community of about 3,300 acres, roughly 15 miles south of Bend on the east side of the Deschutes River, at about 4,170 feet. It sits on the former grounds of Camp Abbot, a U.S. Army training camp for combat engineers that opened in 1942 and was abandoned by June 1944. The first condominiums were built in 1968, the master plan was completed in 1969, and lot sales began that year.

Sunriver in numbers

Measure	Sunriver
Population, 2020 Census	2,023
Population, ACS 2020-2024	1,488 (plus or minus 329)
Occupied homes (households)	827
Owner-occupied share of households	91.9%
Median household income	$82,287 (plus or minus $33,744)
Median home value (owner-occupied)	$727,600 (plus or minus $116,798)
Median age	70.7 (plus or minus 1.7)
Owner-occupied homes valued at $300,000 or more	739 of 760 (97.2%)
Housing units for seasonal, recreational or occasional use	3,844 of 4,827 housing units (79.6%)
Business establishments, ZIP 97707	237
Paid employees at those establishments	2,010

A plain reading

Sunriver has a small year-round population and a very large number of homes that are not anyone's main residence. The Census counted 827 occupied homes in the 2020-2024 estimates, and 3,844 housing units used for seasonal, recreational or occasional use. The year-round residents are older than in any other town in this network, with a median age of 70.7. The 2020 Census count of 2,023 residents is higher than the 2020-2024 survey estimate of 1,488, and the survey figure has a margin of about 329 either way, so the two should not be compared closely.

In 2023 the largest kinds of business by number of establishments in ZIP 97707 were construction (34), accommodation and food services (28), administrative and support services (26) and professional and technical services (25).

Read the margins

Sunriver is a small area, and the survey estimates carry very wide margins of error. The median household income of $82,287 is plus or minus $33,744, and the seasonal housing count is plus or minus 348 units. Treat every figure as a range, and read the household income number as a rough guide only.

One more caution. The ACS counts 4,827 housing units (827 occupied plus 4,000 vacant), while the 2020 Census counted 4,325 housing units. The two come from different methods, so we use the survey's own occupied and vacant counts for the seasonal share.

How we got these numbers

Households, tenure, income, home value, age, home-value brackets and housing occupancy come from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates for 2020-2024, tables B01003, B11001, B25003, B19013, B25077, B01002, B25075 and B25004, read through Census Reporter (place 4171250). Dollars are 2024 inflation-adjusted ACS dollars.
The 2020 population is the 2020 Census count for Sunriver CDP, read from Census TIGERweb. Portland State University publishes certified estimates for incorporated cities, so there is no certified 2025 figure for a CDP.
The seasonal share is 3,844 housing units for seasonal, recreational or occasional use (table B25004) divided by 4,827 total housing units (827 occupied from B25003 plus 4,000 vacant from B25004).
Business counts are from Census ZIP Code Business Patterns 2023 for ZIP 97707, which the Census labels Bend, OR. They are by ZIP code, not by the CDP boundary, and they leave out businesses with no paid employees. The Census adds a small amount of random noise to employment counts.

Sources

Also from Oregon Living: Oregon Living in Bend, Oregon · Oregon Living in Redmond, Oregon · Oregon Living in Sisters, Oregon · Oregon Living in La Pine, Oregon · Oregon Living in Prineville, Oregon.