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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-CANTUA-CREEK-CA · Cantua Creek, CA 520 pop · income 8th 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 Cantua Creek
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Cantua Creek on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Naturita · lowest
28,021
Naturita · lowest
28,021 median HH income
18.0% of the leader · rank #1
Pittsburg · near
40,220
Pittsburg · near
40,220 median HH income
25.9% of the leader · rank #2
Altamont · near
40,221
Altamont · near
40,221 median HH income
25.9% of the leader · rank #3
Cantua Creek · this city
40,222
Cantua Creek · this city
40,222 median HH income
25.9% of the leader · rank #4
Roy · near
40,227
Roy · near
40,227 median HH income
25.9% of the leader · rank #5
East Pittsbur… · near
40,227
East Pittsbur… · near
40,227 median HH income
25.9% of the leader · rank #6
Dorrington · highest
155,357
Dorrington · highest
155,357 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Cantua Creek on ACS population and median household income
. 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: 520.
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Cantua Creek places in the 8th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
8th
percentile, household income
88th
percentile, median rent
📝 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: Cantua Creek, CA
520 people live in Cantua Creek, California - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Cantua Creek brings in $40,222 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 57.4%. The median resident age is 21.7 years. About 2.5% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 44.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 1 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
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). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $2,053 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts California's average monthly utility costs around $275 (state average). 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 Cantua Creek'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 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 Cantua Creek, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Cantua Creek?
Within California, the closest population matches are Plainview (519 residents, $65,938 income); Lakehead (523 residents, $41,684 income); Round Valley (523 residents, $49,844 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Naturita, CO (520 residents); Collins, GA (520 residents); Keithsburg, IL (520 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.
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.
What does the education layer cover for Cantua Creek?
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 2.5% 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.
The matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
What does the journey to work look like in Cantua Creek?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 77.4%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 57.4% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
F
City profile score · Cantua Creek, CA
4/100
4 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
$40,222
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); 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.
Poverty rate F
57.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
2.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Cantua Creek profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 7/100 (F) · $40,222
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Poverty rate: 0/100 (F) · 57.4%
Bachelor's+ share: 0/100 (F) · 2.5%
How does Cantua Creek compare to other US cities?
Where Cantua Creek sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income8% higher than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Cantua Creek 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 Cantua Creek near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Cantua Creek ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Cantua Creek only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,280 of 1,338
4th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#11 of 1,450
99th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,391 of 1,458
4th 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
8th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Income distribution context
$40,222Cantua Creek, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Cantua Creek, 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 Cantua Creek, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)2.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)57.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)44.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
520
Median Income
$40,222
Median Home Value
N/A
Median Age
21.7
Poverty Rate
57.4%
Labor force participation
44.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
2.5%
Schools
Total Schools
1
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
77.4%
Carpool
22.6%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
0.0%
Based on 115 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 Cantua Creek. 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 Cantua Creek 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 Cantua Creek sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Cantua Creek 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, NCES CCD, 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.