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-COLUSA-CA · Colusa, CA 6,439 pop · income 48th pct · 6 tracts
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 Colusa
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Colusa on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Huron · lowest
44,784
Huron · lowest
44,784 median HH income
17.9% of the leader · rank #1
Colusa · this city
68,750
Colusa · this city
68,750 median HH income
27.5% of the leader · rank #2
Buffalo Soaps… · near
68,750
Buffalo Soaps… · near
68,750 median HH income
27.5% of the leader · rank #3
Friendship · near
68,750
Friendship · near
68,750 median HH income
27.5% of the leader · rank #4
Garner · near
68,750
Garner · near
68,750 median HH income
27.5% of the leader · rank #5
Poyen · near
68,750
Poyen · near
68,750 median HH income
27.5% of the leader · rank #6
Camino Tassaj… · highest
250,001
Camino Tassaj… · 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 Colusa 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: 6,439.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Colusa - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Colusa lands in the 48th percentile for household income and the 63rd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
48th
percentile, household income
73rd
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
63rd
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: Colusa, CA
6,439 people live in Colusa, California - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $68,750 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 13.7%. Typical homes in Colusa are valued around $357,400, and the median resident age is 36.6 years. About 13.8% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 53.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 7 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Low Activity). Colusa reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 1020.4 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 61.5°F with 17.2 inches of precipitation per year.
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. 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 Colusa'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 schools and households to reported crime to work and mobility to housing and income to comparison shortlist to climate and hazard context to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Colusa, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Population change
Is Colusa growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +110 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 7 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
The NCES join finds 5 public schools within the city match. 13.8% 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.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Colusa?
Within California, the closest population matches are Huron (6,425 residents, $44,784 income); Camino Tassajara (6,395 residents, $250,000+ income); Desert Palms (6,522 residents, $81,954 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Thurmont, MD (6,439 residents); West Loch Estate, HI (6,441 residents); Southport, NY (6,435 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. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Colusa?
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.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1020.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 55% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
578.7
Violent rate
441.7
Total reported rate
1020.4
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What does the journey to work look like in Colusa?
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 83.8%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.9%
Work from home
3.9%
Drive alone
83.8%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 2,388 workers age 16+.
How far does income reach against housing in Colusa?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 5.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 13.7%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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.
Household income
$68,750
Home value
$357,400
Value / income
5.2×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 61.5°F, with 17.2 inches of precipitation. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for California is 88.7 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
Mean temperature
61.5°F
Annual precipitation
17.2 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
88.7
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
Below median income · poverty 13.7% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
F
City profile score · Colusa, CA
25/100
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 D
$68,750
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
13.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
442 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
13.8%
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.
Colusa profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 47/100 (D) · $68,750
Poverty rate: 25/100 (F) · 13.7%
Violent crime: 20/100 (F) · 442 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 17/100 (F) · 13.8%
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Colusa sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Colusa'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 - Colusa highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Colusa, CA (this city): home $357,400, crime 1,020/100k
Thurmont, MD : home $325,700, crime 659/100k
Leitchfield, KY : home $156,700, crime 1,389/100k
Ralston, NE : home $215,800, crime 1,318/100k
Huron, CA : home $236,500, crime 1,303/100k
Calipatria, CA : home $172,900, crime 299/100k
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 Colusa compare to other US cities?
Here's how Colusa stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income48% higher than other cities
Home value73% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety63% 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, Colusa ranks #60 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 Colusa 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 Colusa near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Colusa ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Colusa only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#936 of 1,338
30th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#941 of 1,343
30th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#336 of 1,450
76th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,089 of 1,458
25th 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
48th percentile nationally for median household income · 63rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Colusa's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Colusa'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 Colusa's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$357,40027th percentilemore affordable than 27% 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
Colusa's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#13,175 of 15,516
More affordable than 15% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#9,918 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 5.2×, Colusa sits in the pressured band:
national rank #13,175 of 15,516 and #9,918 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$68,750Colusa, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Colusa, 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 Colusa, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)13.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)13.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)53.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
6,439
Median Income
$68,750
Median Home Value
$357,400
Median Age
36.6
Poverty Rate
13.7%
Labor force participation
53.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
13.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1020.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
441.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
578.7
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
61.5°F
Annual Precipitation
17.2"
Annual Snowfall
0.0"
Schools
Total Schools
5
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Colusa's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
6,409 residents
2021
6,474 residents
2022
6,472 residents
2023
6,554 residents
2024
6,562 residents
2025
6,519 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Low Activity
Total Permits (2024)
7
housing units authorized
Single-Family
7
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
0
0
0
-
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
30
30
0
$7.2M
2023
7
3
4
$1.4M
2024
7
7
0
$3.5M
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
83.8%
Carpool
9.3%
Public Transit
0.9%
Walk
1.6%
Work from Home
3.9%
Based on 2,388 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 Colusa. 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 Colusa 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 Colusa sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Colusa 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, NOAA Climate Normals, 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.