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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-ALHAMBRA-CA · Alhambra, CA 81,483 pop · income 67th pct
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Alhambra
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Alhambra on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Lake Charles · lowest
56,864
Lake Charles · lowest
56,864 median HH income
37.7% of the leader · rank #1
Reno city (La… · near
85,179
Reno city (La… · near
85,179 median HH income
56.5% of the leader · rank #2
Allenton · near
85,185
Allenton · near
85,185 median HH income
56.5% of the leader · rank #3
Alhambra · this city
85,189
Alhambra · this city
85,189 median HH income
56.5% of the leader · rank #4
Hawi · near
85,197
Hawi · near
85,197 median HH income
56.5% of the leader · rank #5
Wyndmere · near
85,197
Wyndmere · near
85,197 median HH income
56.5% of the leader · rank #6
Redwood City · highest
150,840
Redwood City · highest
150,840 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Alhambra on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 81,483.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Alhambra - the verdict
Nationally, Alhambra sits in the 67th percentile for household income and the 20th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
67th
percentile, household income
95th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
20th
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Alhambra, CA
California's Alhambra is a small city, with 81,483 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. The typical household in Alhambra brings in $85,189 a year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 9.2%. Alhambra's housing stock carries a median value of $812,700, and the median resident age is 41.9 years. 39.3% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 59.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 134 residential building permits were authorized in Alhambra (Growing), up 6% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 2675.0 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, near the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
California carries a cost-of-living premium: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts California at 110.7 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Well Above Average). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $2,053 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $275 across California, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Commute times here average 26.9 minutes, with 71.6% driving alone and 12.3% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. Natural-hazard exposure scores 88.7 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Very High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Alhambra's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from comparison shortlist to population change to reported crime to housing and income to work and mobility to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Alhambra, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, annual population history, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Comparison shortlist
Which cities make useful reference points for Alhambra?
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
Within California, the closest population matches are Folsom (82,140 residents, $139,263 income); Rancho Cordova (80,656 residents, $89,120 income); Redwood City (82,423 residents, $150,840 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Warner Robins, GA (81,438 residents); New Rochelle, NY (81,591 residents); Gastonia, NC (81,632 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Is Alhambra growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -2,850 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -3.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 134 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Alhambra?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2675.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 17% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
How far does income reach against housing in Alhambra?
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 9.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 9.2%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Alhambra?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 71.6%. The reported mean trip to work is 26.9 minutes.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Drive alone
71.6%
Work from home
12.3%
Public transit
2.6%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 40,498 workers age 16+.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
The NCES join finds 12 public schools within the city match. 39.3% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
Poverty estimate
9.2%
Bachelor's degree+
39.3%
Matched public schools
12
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Above median income · poverty 9.2% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
D
City profile score · Alhambra, CA
46/100
5 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Bachelor's+ share B
39.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income B-
$85,189
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime D
225 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate D
9.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Cost of living F
110.7 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Alhambra profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 74/100 (B) · 39.3%
Household income: 65/100 (B-) · $85,189
Violent crime: 44/100 (D) · 225 /100k
Poverty rate: 43/100 (D) · 9.2%
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Alhambra sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Alhambra's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Alhambra highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Alhambra, CA (this city): home $812,700, crime 2,675/100k
Warner Robins, GA : home $171,600, crime 3,646/100k
New Rochelle, NY : home $667,300, crime 1,239/100k
Gastonia, NC : home $250,000, crime 4,364/100k
Lake Charles, LA : home $204,000, crime 3,083/100k
Lehi, UT : home $567,100, crime 629/100k
Folsom, CA : home $702,200, crime 1,636/100k
Rancho Cordova, CA : home $451,400, crime 2,538/100k
Redwood City, CA : home $1,838,800, crime 2,092/100k
Lakewood, CA : home $774,100, crime 3,038/100k
Buena Park, CA : home $771,900, crime 2,613/100k
Perris, CA : home $431,900, crime 2,163/100k
How does Alhambra compare to other US cities?
Here's how Alhambra stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income67% higher than other cities
Home value95% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety20% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just California and the picture shifts: Alhambra ranks #334 of 441 California cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Alhambra against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to California only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
California-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Alhambra near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Alhambra ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Alhambra only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#698 of 1,338
48th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#358 of 1,343
73rd percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#543 of 1,450
62nd percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#435 of 1,458
70th percentile in California
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within California only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
67th percentile nationally for median household income · 20th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Alhambra's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Alhambra's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Alhambra's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$812,7005th percentilemore affordable than 5% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Alhambra's home-value-to-income ratio: 9.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#15,310 of 15,516
More affordable than 1% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#726 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 9.5×, Alhambra sits in the pressured band:
national rank #15,310 of 15,516 and #726 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median, a comparison flag, not a verdict on any household.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$85,189Alhambra, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Alhambra, CA median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Alhambra, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)39.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)9.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)59.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
81,483
Median Income
$85,189
Median Home Value
$812,700
Median Age
41.9
Poverty Rate
9.2%
Labor force participation
59.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
39.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2675.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
224.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2450.5
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Schools
Total Schools
12
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Alhambra's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
82,670 residents
2021
81,263 residents
2022
80,562 residents
2023
80,280 residents
2024
80,218 residents
2025
79,820 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Growing
Total Permits (2024)
134
housing units authorized
Single-Family
130
detached homes
Multifamily
4
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.6
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
126
39
87
$22.8M
2020
54
21
33
$9.4M
2021
218
80
138
$61.3M
2022
117
111
6
$15.2M
2023
128
124
4
$17.2M
2024
134
130
4
$17.9M
Permit volume increased 6% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
26.9 minutes
Drive Alone
71.6%
Carpool
9.7%
Public Transit
2.6%
Walk
2.0%
Work from Home
12.3%
Other
1.8%
Based on 40,498 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
California statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $275
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across California at $275 (electricity about $150 , water and sewer about $70 ).
These are California statewide averages, not a meter reading for Alhambra. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
California's BEA cost-of-living index is 110.7 (Well Above Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Alhambra is $2,053/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to California statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 88.7 / 100 (Very High).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a California statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Alhambra sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Alhambra compares to similar-size California cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.