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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-BELLFLOWER-CA · Bellflower, CA 77,396 pop · income 59th 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 Bellflower
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Bellflower on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Hammond · lowest
53,950
Hammond · lowest
53,950 median HH income
29.0% of the leader · rank #1
Weston Mills · near
77,596
Weston Mills · near
77,596 median HH income
41.7% of the leader · rank #2
Bellflower · this city
77,602
Bellflower · this city
77,602 median HH income
41.7% of the leader · rank #3
Lostine · near
77,604
Lostine · near
77,604 median HH income
41.7% of the leader · rank #4
Bismarck · near
77,608
Bismarck · near
77,608 median HH income
41.7% of the leader · rank #5
Lebanon South · near
77,608
Lebanon South · near
77,608 median HH income
41.7% of the leader · rank #6
Pleasanton · highest
186,206
Pleasanton · highest
186,206 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 Bellflower 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: 77,396.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Bellflower - the verdict
Bellflower ranks in the 59th percentile for household income and the 18th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
59th
percentile, household income
92nd
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
18th
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: Bellflower, CA
77,396 people live in Bellflower, California - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $77,602 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 10.6%. Bellflower's housing stock carries a median value of $661,100, and the median resident age is 35.9 years. 20.1% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 60.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 111 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 484% from five years earlier. Bellflower's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 2782.8 incidents per 100,000 residents, above the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
California carries a cost-of-living premium: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, California scores 110.7 (Well Above Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. 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. The average commute for Bellflower workers runs 27.0 minutes, with 74.1% driving alone and 8.9% working from home. 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 Bellflower'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 population change to comparison shortlist to reported crime to housing and income to schools and households to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Bellflower, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, local building permits, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history.
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.
Question 1
Is Bellflower growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -4,243 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -5.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 111 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Bellflower?
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 Pleasanton (77,500 residents, $186,206 income); Alameda (76,876 residents, $132,015 income); Chino Hills (78,024 residents, $122,600 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Loveland, CO (77,350 residents); Cedar Park, TX (77,474 residents); Racine, WI (77,155 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Bellflower?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2782.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 22% 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 Bellflower?
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 8.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 10.6%, 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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Bellflower?
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 11 public schools within the city match. 20.1% 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
10.6%
Bachelor's degree+
20.1%
Matched public schools
11
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in Bellflower?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 74.1%. The reported mean trip to work is 27.0 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
74.1%
Work from home
8.9%
Public transit
2.1%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 36,102 workers age 16+.
Above median income · poverty 10.6% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
F
City profile score · Bellflower, CA
30/100
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.
Household income C
$77,602
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
10.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
20.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime F
613 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger 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.
Bellflower profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 57/100 (C) · $77,602
Poverty rate: 37/100 (F) · 10.6%
Bachelor's+ share: 35/100 (F) · 20.1%
Violent crime: 9/100 (F) · 613 /100k
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Bellflower sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Bellflower'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 - Bellflower highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Bellflower, CA (this city): home $661,100, crime 2,783/100k
Loveland, CO : home $453,100, crime 2,333/100k
Cedar Park, TX : home $474,800, crime 1,294/100k
Racine, WI : home $158,100, crime 1,495/100k
Hammond, IN : home $141,700, crime 3,814/100k
Bethlehem, PA : home $236,500, crime 1,575/100k
Woodbury, MN : home $434,900, crime 1,279/100k
Pleasanton, CA : home $1,432,300, crime 1,792/100k
Alameda, CA : home $1,203,900, crime 5,231/100k
Chino Hills, CA : home $830,000, crime 1,113/100k
Milpitas, CA : home $1,180,000, crime 3,497/100k
Napa, CA : home $824,500, crime 1,671/100k
How does Bellflower compare to other US cities?
Where Bellflower sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income59% higher than other cities
Home value92% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety18% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to California alone, Bellflower ranks #345 of 441 California cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Bellflower 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 Bellflower near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Bellflower ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Bellflower only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#820 of 1,338
39th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#484 of 1,343
64th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#458 of 1,450
68th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#896 of 1,458
38th 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
59th percentile nationally for median household income · 18th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Bellflower's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Bellflower'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 Bellflower's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$661,1008th percentilemore affordable than 8% 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
Bellflower's home-value-to-income ratio: 8.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#15,164 of 15,516
More affordable than 2% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#704 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 8.5×, Bellflower sits in the pressured band:
national rank #15,164 of 15,516 and #704 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
$77,602Bellflower, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Bellflower, 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 Bellflower, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)20.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)10.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)60.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
77,396
Median Income
$77,602
Median Home Value
$661,100
Median Age
35.9
Poverty Rate
10.6%
Labor force participation
60.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
20.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2782.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
613.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2169.6
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
11
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Bellflower's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
78,962 residents
2021
77,294 residents
2022
76,265 residents
2023
75,768 residents
2024
75,465 residents
2025
74,719 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
111
housing units authorized
Single-Family
109
detached homes
Multifamily
2
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
19
3
16
$3.8M
2020
42
42
0
$3.2M
2021
120
29
91
$8.0M
2022
49
44
5
$4.1M
2023
65
61
4
$7.9M
2024
111
109
2
$10.8M
Permit volume increased 484% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
27.0 minutes
Drive Alone
74.1%
Carpool
11.4%
Public Transit
2.1%
Walk
1.5%
Work from Home
8.9%
Other
2.0%
Based on 36,102 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 Bellflower. 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 Bellflower 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 Bellflower sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Bellflower 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.