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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-CATHEDRAL-CITY-CA · Cathedral City, CA 52,047 pop · income 46th 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 Cathedral City
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Cathedral City on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Joplin · lowest
51,154
Joplin · lowest
51,154 median HH income
45.2% of the leader · rank #1
Cathedral City · this city
67,031
Cathedral City · this city
67,031 median HH income
59.2% of the leader · rank #2
East Globe · near
67,031
East Globe · near
67,031 median HH income
59.2% of the leader · rank #3
Zearing · near
67,031
Zearing · near
67,031 median HH income
59.2% of the leader · rank #4
Westfir · near
67,031
Westfir · near
67,031 median HH income
59.2% of the leader · rank #5
Nellis AFB · near
67,036
Nellis AFB · near
67,036 median HH income
59.2% of the leader · rank #6
Catalina Foot… · highest
113,201
Catalina Foot… · highest
113,201 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 Cathedral 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: 52,047.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Cathedral City - the verdict
Nationally, Cathedral City sits in the 46th percentile for household income and the 46th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
46th
percentile, household income
79th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
46th
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: Cathedral City, CA
Cathedral City is a small city in California, home to 52,047 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Cathedral City report a median income of $67,031 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 9.9%. Cathedral City's housing stock carries a median value of $420,700, and the median resident age is 40.9 years. Educational attainment runs 25.8% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 57.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 90 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 37% from five years earlier. Cathedral City reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1503.7 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below 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. Monthly utility costs average around $275 across California, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. The average commute for Cathedral City workers runs 18.2 minutes, with 73.8% driving alone and 8.8% working from home. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 88.7 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Very High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Cathedral 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 work and mobility to housing and income to schools and households to population change to reported crime to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Cathedral City, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, commute-mode shares.
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 does the journey to work look like in Cathedral City?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 73.8%. The reported mean trip to work is 18.2 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Cathedral 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 6.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 9.9%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What does the education layer cover for Cathedral 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 9 public schools within the city match. 25.8% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Cathedral 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 Watsonville (51,968 residents, $74,785 income); Placentia (52,384 residents, $110,575 income); Lincoln (51,629 residents, $108,108 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Kendale Lakes, FL (52,141 residents); Wheaton, MD (52,172 residents); Florissant, MO (51,915 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.
Population change
Is Cathedral City growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +752 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 90 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 upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
2020 estimate
51,623
2025 estimate
52,375
Period change
+1.5%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Cathedral City?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1503.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 34% 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.
Total reported rate
1503.7
Violent rate
283.3
Property rate
1220.5
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Below median income · poverty 9.9% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
F
City profile score · Cathedral City, CA
35/100
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 C-
25.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income D
$67,031
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate D
9.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
283 /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.
Cathedral City profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 51/100 (C-) · 25.8%
Household income: 45/100 (D) · $67,031
Poverty rate: 40/100 (D) · 9.9%
Violent crime: 35/100 (F) · 283 /100k
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Cathedral City sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Cathedral 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 - Cathedral City highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Cathedral City, CA (this city): home $420,700, crime 1,504/100k
Florissant, MO : home $136,200, crime 2,174/100k
Joplin, MO : home $159,700, crime 4,681/100k
La Crosse, WI : home $196,600, crime 4,103/100k
Watsonville, CA : home $657,700, crime 1,581/100k
Placentia, CA : home $871,000, crime 1,824/100k
Lincoln, CA : home $628,500, crime 657/100k
Palm Desert, CA : home $491,600, crime 3,151/100k
Paramount, CA : home $500,400, crime 3,362/100k
Novato, CA : home $1,007,100, crime 1,608/100k
How does Cathedral City compare to other US cities?
Cathedral City measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income46% higher than other cities
Home value79% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety46% 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: Cathedral City ranks #144 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 Cathedral 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 Cathedral City near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Cathedral City ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Cathedral City only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#961 of 1,338
28th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#834 of 1,343
38th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#500 of 1,450
65th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#728 of 1,458
50th 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
46th percentile nationally for median household income · 46th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Cathedral City's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Cathedral 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 Cathedral City's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$420,70021st percentilemore affordable than 21% 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
Cathedral City's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,313 of 15,516
More affordable than 8% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#605 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 6.3×, Cathedral City sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,313 of 15,516 and #605 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
$67,031Cathedral City, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Cathedral 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 Cathedral City, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)25.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)9.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)57.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
52,047
Median Income
$67,031
Median Home Value
$420,700
Median Age
40.9
Poverty Rate
9.9%
Labor force participation
57.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
25.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1503.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
283.3
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1220.5
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
9
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Cathedral City's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
51,623 residents
2021
52,272 residents
2022
52,397 residents
2023
52,440 residents
2024
52,525 residents
2025
52,375 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
90
housing units authorized
Single-Family
67
detached homes
Multifamily
23
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
144
142
2
$29.2M
2020
251
249
2
$52.6M
2021
220
150
70
$36.3M
2022
57
55
2
$19.2M
2023
99
51
48
$26.2M
2024
90
67
23
$33.1M
Permit volume decreased 37% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
18.2 minutes
Drive Alone
73.8%
Carpool
13.5%
Public Transit
1.2%
Walk
1.0%
Work from Home
8.8%
Other
1.7%
Based on 24,127 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 Cathedral 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 Cathedral 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 Cathedral City sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Cathedral 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.