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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-CLAYTON-CA · Clayton, CA 10,962 pop · income 96th 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 Clayton
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Clayton on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Grand Haven · lowest
60,665
Grand Haven · lowest
60,665 median HH income
24.3% of the leader · rank #1
Pomona · near
172,188
Pomona · near
172,188 median HH income
68.9% of the leader · rank #2
Franklin Park · near
172,200
Franklin Park · near
172,200 median HH income
68.9% of the leader · rank #3
Timnath · near
172,206
Timnath · near
172,206 median HH income
68.9% of the leader · rank #4
Clayton · this city
172,226
Clayton · this city
172,226 median HH income
68.9% of the leader · rank #5
Amagansett · near
172,241
Amagansett · near
172,241 median HH income
68.9% of the leader · rank #6
Piedmont · highest
250,001
Piedmont · 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 Clayton 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: 10,962.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Clayton - the verdict
Nationally, Clayton sits in the 96th percentile for household income and the 82nd percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
96th
percentile, household income
97th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
82nd
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: Clayton, CA
Clayton is a small town in California, home to 10,962 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Clayton households earn a median of $172,226 annually, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 1.4%. Typical homes in Clayton are valued around $1,017,300, and the median resident age is 44.3 years. About 58.8% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 59.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Clayton reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 591.3 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects 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. 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 Clayton'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 work and mobility to comparison shortlist to reported crime to housing and income to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Clayton, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Is Clayton growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -218 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.0% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. 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 does the journey to work look like in Clayton?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 66.3%. 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. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Which cities make useful reference points for Clayton?
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 Quartz Hill (10,968 residents, $104,017 income); Sun (11,009 residents, $68,284 income); Piedmont (11,012 residents, $250,000+ income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Terryville, NY (10,962 residents); Grand Haven, MI (10,966 residents); Port Salerno, FL (10,957 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 Clayton?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 591.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 74% 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.
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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Clayton?
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 5.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 1.4%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
5.9×
Home value
$1,017,300
Household income
$172,226
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
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.
The NCES join finds 2 public schools within the city match. 58.8% 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.
Poverty estimate
1.4%
Bachelor's degree+
58.8%
Matched public schools
2
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Top-decile income · poverty 1.4% (Very low poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
B
City profile score · Clayton, CA
73/100
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 A+
$172,226
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share A+
58.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate A+
1.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime B+
85 /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.
Clayton profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 100/100 (A+) · $172,226
Bachelor's+ share: 91/100 (A+) · 58.8%
Poverty rate: 90/100 (A+) · 1.4%
Violent crime: 75/100 (B+) · 85 /100k
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Clayton sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Clayton'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 - Clayton highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Clayton, CA (this city): home $1,017,300, crime 591/100k
Grand Haven, MI : home $242,400, crime 1,137/100k
Lyndon, KY : home $273,300, crime 2,629/100k
Piedmont, CA : home $2,000,000+, crime 3,469/100k
Sierra Madre, CA : home $1,172,200, crime 806/100k
Canyon Lake, CA : home $647,300, crime 802/100k
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 Clayton compare to other US cities?
Clayton measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income96% higher than other cities
Home value97% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety82% 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: Clayton ranks #14 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 Clayton 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 Clayton near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Clayton ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Clayton only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#117 of 1,338
91st percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#234 of 1,343
83rd percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#1,146 of 1,450
20th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#187 of 1,458
87th 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
96th percentile nationally for median household income · 82nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Clayton's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Clayton'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 Clayton's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$1,017,3003rd percentilemore affordable than 3% 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
Clayton's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,033 of 15,516
More affordable than 10% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,946 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 5.9×, Clayton sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,033 of 15,516 and #2,946 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$172,226Clayton, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Clayton, 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 Clayton, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)58.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)1.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)59.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
10,962
Median Income
$172,226
Median Home Value
$1,017,300
Median Age
44.3
Poverty Rate
1.4%
Labor force participation
59.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
58.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
591.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
84.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
506.8
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
2
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Clayton's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
11,060 residents
2021
10,986 residents
2022
10,878 residents
2023
10,849 residents
2024
10,887 residents
2025
10,842 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
66.3%
Carpool
7.2%
Public Transit
2.3%
Walk
2.3%
Work from Home
20.3%
Other
1.6%
Based on 4,915 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 Clayton. 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 Clayton 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 Clayton sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Clayton 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 ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.