Grants Pass is a city in and the county seat of Josephine County, Oregon, United States. The city is located on Interstate 5, northwest of Medford, along the Rogue River. The population is 39,194 according to the 2020 census, making it the 15th most populous city in Oregon.

History Early Hudson's Bay Company hunters and trappers, following the Siskiyou Trail, passed through the site beginning in the 1820s. In the late 1840s, settlers following the Applegate Trail began traveling through the area on their way to the Willamette Valley. The city states that the name was selected to honor General Ulysses S. Grant's incredible success in the Vicksburg Campaign. The Grants Pass post office was established on March 22, 1865. The city of Grants Pass was incorporated in 1887.

The Oregon–Utah Sugar Company, financed by Charles W. Nibley, was created, leading to a sugar beet factory being built in Grants Pass in 1916. Before the factory opened, Oregon-Utah Sugar was merged into the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company. Due to labor shortages and low acreage planted in sugar beets, the processing machinery was moved to Toppenish, Washington, in 1918 or 1919.

Grants Pass was formerly a sundown town. The Ku Klux Klan was active from the 1920s to 1960s.

Beginning in the early 1970s, the regional timber industry that had long sustained Grants Pass, Josephine County, and many of Oregon's timber towns entered a prolonged decline. Automation, particularly laser-controlled milling equipment, sharply reduced the labor needed in sawmills, and Oregon's timber employment fell steadily from the late 1970s onward. The downturn deepened after the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan, which set federal timber harvests in the region at roughly 1.2 billion board feet a year, a decline of about 70 percent from 1970s levels. At least twenty sawmills, veneer, and plywood mills closed across Jackson, Josephine, and Curry Counties after 1980, costing the region thousands of jobs.

Because Josephine County had funded public services largely through a share of federal timber-sale revenue rather than local property taxes, the decline hit county government especially hard. Federal safety-net payments partially offset the losses through the 2000s, peaking around 2006 at $12 to 15 million a year, before beginning to wind down after 2011. By 2013, the Josephine County sheriff's department had lost more than half its funding and laid off roughly 80 percent of its deputies, leaving evening and weekend 911 calls unanswered in much of the county. The crisis peaked in November 2014, when voters rejected a $12 million levy meant to close the budget gap, prompting the sheriff and district attorney to lay off 70 deputies and staff, release about 90 jail inmates, and cut law enforcement to a level not seen since the county's 1850s gold-rush settlement.

Despite fiscal strain, Grants Pass kept growing throughout the period. The city's population rose steadily across three decades, with this growth coming more from retirees and families moving in than from local job creation. Much of the in-migration came from California: between 1999 and 2005, more than 30 percent of out-of-state driver's licenses surrendered to Oregon's DMV in the area came from California residents, part of a broader wave of net interstate in-migration to Oregon that totaled roughly 26,000 more arrivals than departures in the Grants Pass area during the 1990s alone. The city eventually leaned into this identity in its official motto, "It's the Climate," first raised on a downtown sign in 1920.

In the twenty-first century, Grants Pass became the origin of a major U.S. Supreme Court case on homelessness policy. In 2018, homeless residents sued the city over its enforcement of public-camping bans, arguing the citations amounted to cruel and unusual punishment when no shelter space was available. The case, City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled 6–3 on June 28, 2024, that cities may enforce such bans even without adequate shelter space. The decision reversed a Ninth Circuit precedent and was closely watched nationally, giving cities across the country broader latitude to regulate public camping.

Geography Grants Pass is located in the Rogue Valley; the Rogue River runs through the city. U.S. Route 199 passes through the city, and joins Interstate 5. The city has a total area of , of which is land and is water.

Climate

Grants Pass has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csa), and is in USDA plant hardiness zone 8b.

Summer days are sunny, dry and hot, with dramatic cooling at night; the average August high temperature is and the low is . Winters are cool and fairly rainy, with only occasional snow; the average January high temperature is and the low is . Grants Pass receives roughly precipitation per year, with three-quarters of it occurring between November 1 and March 31. The mild winters and dry summers support a native vegetation structure quite different from the rest of Oregon, dominated by madrone, deciduous and evergreen oak, manzanita, pine, bush chinquapin, and other species that are far less abundant further north.

The record high temperature of was on July 4, 2022. The record low temperature of was on December 21, 1990. There are an average of 51.3 afternoons annually with highs of or higher, eight afternoons reaching at least , and 77.5 mornings annually with lows of or lower.

Measurable precipitation falls on an average of 110 days annually. The wettest rain year on record was from July 1955 to June 1956 with of precipitation, and the driest from July 1923 to June 1924 with . The most precipitation in one month was in December 1996, and the most precipitation in one day was on October 29, 1950part of a two-day fall of and ending a five-day fall of . There is an average of only of snow annually. The most snowfall in one month was in February 1917.

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, Grants Pass had a population of 39,189. The median age was 41.3 years. 21.7% of residents were under the age of 18 and 23.3% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 90.8 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 86.6 males age 18 and over.

99.7% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.3% lived in rural areas.

There were 15,865 households in Grants Pass, of which 28.6% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 40.2% were married-couple households, 17.9% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 33.1% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 31.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 17.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

There were 16,681 housing units, of which 4.9% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 54.9% were owner-occupied and 45.1% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.4% and the rental vacancy rate was 3.8%.

+ Racial composition as of the 2020 census Race Number Percent White 32,755 83.6% Black or African American 225 0.6% American Indian and Alaska Native 524 1.3% Asian 506 1.3% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 83 0.2% Some other race 1,242 3.2% Two or more races 3,854 9.8% Hispanic or Latino (of any race) 3,912 10.0%

2010 census As of the census of 2010, there were 34,533 people, 14,313 households, and 8,700 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 15,561 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 90.9% White, 1.2% Native American, 1.1% Asian, 0.5% African American, 0.3% Pacific Islander, 2.3% from other races, and 3.7% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 8.5% of the population.

There were 14,313 households, of which 30.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 41.3% were married couples living together, 14.5% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.9% had a male householder with no wife present, and 39.2% were non-families. 32.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 16.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.34 and the average family size was 2.94.

The median age in the city was 39.3 years. 24.3% of residents were under the age of 18; 8.4% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 23.6% were from 25 to 44; 25% were from 45 to 64; and 18.6% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 47.3% male and 52.7% female.

2000 census As of the census of 2000, there were 23,003 people, 9,376 households, and 5,925 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 9,885 housing units at an average density of . By 2008, the city's population had increased to 33,239. According to U.S. Census figures from the 2006-2008 American Community Survey, the racial composition of the city's population was 93.6% white, 0.2% black, 1.6% American Indian, 1.1% Asian, 1.2% other race, and 2.3% two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos, who may be of any race, formed 7.2% of the city's population.

There were 9,376 households, out of which 31.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 44.5% were married couples living together, 14.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.8% were non-families. 31.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 16.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.36 and the average family size was 2.94.

In the city, the population was spread out, with 26.0% under the age of 18, 8.1% from 18 to 24, 25.7% from 25 to 44, 20.7% from 45 to 64, and 19.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 86.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 80.7 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $29,197, and the median income for a family was $36,284. Males had a median income of $31,128 versus $23,579 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,234. About 12.2% of families and 34.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 20.8% of those under age 18 and 7.3% of those age 65 or over. Government and politics The city council has 8 members as of 2019, representing 4 wards and are elected to 4 year terms by the city. The city council and mayor are not paid, and they volunteer their time. The council oversees the city government and chooses the city manager. The mayor's job is to provide leadership and preside over city council meetings. The Mayor can also issue vetoes and make a tiebreaker vote. Grants Pass is conservative leaning and represented in the United States House of Representatives by Congressman Cliff Bentz (R-Ontario). At the state level of politics, Grants Pass is represented in the Oregon Senate by Art Robinson (R-Cave Junction) who holds Oregon's 2nd Senate district, and represented in the Oregon House of Representatives by Lily Morgan (R-Grants Pass) holding Oregon's 3rd House district and Christine Goodwin (R-Grants Pass) holding Oregon's 4th House district.

Economy The lumber industry was the major employer for Grants Pass up until the early 1970s. At that point the entire region started to see a steady decline in all lumber harvesting, production, and processing. Since then there has been a shift to a large service industry sector covering areas of outdoors/sports/recreation and health care infrastructure. This is augmented by multiple small and medium businesses and growth in marijuana-related businesses due to state legalization.

The coffee chain Dutch Bros was founded in Grants Pass in 1992. It based its headquarters in Grants Pass until it moved to Tempe, Arizona, in 2025.

Arts and culture

Annual cultural events Boatnik, a hydroplane boat race and carnival event, is held every Memorial Day weekend in Riverside Park.