Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetCA-CALIFORNIA-CITY-CA · California City, CA 14,821 pop · income 28th 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 California City
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest California City on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Lemon Hill · lowest
49,441
Lemon Hill · lowest
49,441 median HH income
19.8% of the leader · rank #1
Ingalls Park · near
55,268
Ingalls Park · near
55,268 median HH income
22.1% of the leader · rank #2
Wilmington · near
55,269
Wilmington · near
55,269 median HH income
22.1% of the leader · rank #3
Ponca City · near
55,270
Ponca City · near
55,270 median HH income
22.1% of the leader · rank #4
California Ci… · this city
55,271
California Ci… · this city
55,271 median HH income
22.1% of the leader · rank #5
Slippery Rock · near
55,272
Slippery Rock · near
55,272 median HH income
22.1% of the leader · rank #6
Great Falls · highest
250,001
Great Falls · highest
250,001 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 California City 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: 14,821.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
California City - the verdict
Nationally, California City sits in the 28th percentile for household income and the 28th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
28th
percentile, household income
53rd
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
28th
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: California City, CA
14,821 people live in California City, California - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $55,271 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 22.6%. Typical homes in California City are valued around $239,600, and the median resident age is 33.8 years. Educational attainment runs 11.1% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 40.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 110 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 1275% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 2176.2 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: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, California scores 110.7 (Well Above Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $2,053 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in California run around $275, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 88.7 out of 100 (Very High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of California City'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 reported crime to work and mobility to housing and income to schools and households to population change to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For California City, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, matched public-school count, local building permits.
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
What can the FBI record say about safety in California City?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2176.2 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 5% lower 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.
What does the journey to work look like in California City?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 73.0%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
How far does income reach against housing in California City?
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 4.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 22.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for California City?
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 Lemon Hill (14,942 residents, $49,441 income); Susanville (14,992 residents, $57,607 income); Pacific Grove (15,003 residents, $105,568 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Cherry Hill Mall, NJ (14,827 residents); Bensville, MD (14,792 residents); Davidson, NC (14,852 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.
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 California City?
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 4 public schools within the city match. 11.1% 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
22.6%
Bachelor's degree+
11.1%
Matched public schools
4
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Is California City growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -1,781 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -11.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 110 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.
2020 estimate
15,081
2025 estimate
13,300
Period change
-11.8%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Below median income · poverty 22.6% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
F
City profile score · California City, CA
13/100
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 F
$55,271
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
589 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate F
22.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
11.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
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.
California City profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 28/100 (F) · $55,271
Violent crime: 10/100 (F) · 589 /100k
Poverty rate: 9/100 (F) · 22.6%
Bachelor's+ share: 9/100 (F) · 11.1%
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where California City sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
California City'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 - California City highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
California City, CA (this city): home $239,600, crime 2,176/100k
Davidson, NC : home $626,000, crime 488/100k
Havre de Grace, MD : home $348,800, crime 1,404/100k
Susanville, CA : home $234,000, crime 1,838/100k
Pacific Grove, CA : home $1,129,400, crime 1,051/100k
Red Bluff, CA : home $271,100, crime 5,527/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does California City compare to other US cities?
California City measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income28% higher than other cities
Home value53% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety28% 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, California City ranks #272 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 California City 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 California City near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, California City ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares California City only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,120 of 1,338
16th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#1,182 of 1,343
12th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#155 of 1,450
89th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,176 of 1,458
19th 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
28th percentile nationally for median household income · 28th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
California City's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
California City'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 California City's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$239,60047th percentilemore affordable than 47% 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
California City's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,617 of 15,516
More affordable than 25% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,253 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 4.3×, California City sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,617 of 15,516 and #2,253 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
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
$55,271California City, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context California City, 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 California City, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)11.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)22.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)40.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
14,821
Median Income
$55,271
Median Home Value
$239,600
Median Age
33.8
Poverty Rate
22.6%
Labor force participation
40.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
11.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2176.2
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
588.8
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1587.4
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
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
California City's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
15,081 residents
2021
15,047 residents
2022
14,992 residents
2023
13,760 residents
2024
13,234 residents
2025
13,300 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
110
housing units authorized
Single-Family
106
detached homes
Multifamily
4
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
7.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
8
8
0
$1.5M
2020
32
32
0
$6.4M
2021
35
35
0
$7.0M
2022
28
28
0
$6.9M
2023
58
54
4
$12.5M
2024
110
106
4
$27.9M
Permit volume increased 1275% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
73.0%
Carpool
13.6%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.4%
Work from Home
11.5%
Other
1.5%
Based on 4,493 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 California City. 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 California City 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 California City sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How California City 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.