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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-COVELO-CA · Covelo, CA 1,495 pop · income 5th 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 Covelo
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Covelo on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Lane · lowest
35,726
Lane · lowest
35,726 median HH income
14.8% of the leader · rank #1
Florence · near
35,733
Florence · near
35,733 median HH income
14.8% of the leader · rank #2
Covelo · this city
35,735
Covelo · this city
35,735 median HH income
14.8% of the leader · rank #3
Wrightsville · near
35,738
Wrightsville · near
35,738 median HH income
14.8% of the leader · rank #4
Wausau · near
35,750
Wausau · near
35,750 median HH income
14.8% of the leader · rank #5
Monument Hills · highest
240,833
Monument Hills · highest
240,833 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #6
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 Covelo 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: 1,495.
Nationally, Covelo sits in the 5th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
5th
percentile, household income
68th
percentile, home value
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: Covelo, CA
California's Covelo is a small town, with 1,495 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. The typical household in Covelo brings in $35,735 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 49.6%. Typical homes in Covelo are valued around $322,600, and the median resident age is 32.7 years. Educational attainment runs 18.0% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 36.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
NOAA puts Covelo's yearly average temperature at 55.8°F with 40.4 inches of precipitation per year and 3.3 inches of snowfall.
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. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $2,053 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in California run around $275, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Commute times here average 11.4 minutes, with 61.4% driving alone and 18.2% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. 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 Covelo'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 schools and households to climate and hazard context to comparison shortlist to housing and income to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Covelo, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Covelo?
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. 18.0% 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 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.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 55.8°F, with 40.4 inches of precipitation and 3.3 inches of annual snowfall. 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Covelo?
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.
Within California, the closest population matches are Julian (1,491 residents, $75,179 income); Monument Hills (1,500 residents, $240,833 income); Diablo Grande (1,488 residents, $160,741 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Mineville, NY (1,495 residents); Saunders Lake, OR (1,495 residents); Kyle, SD (1,495 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Covelo?
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 9.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 49.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Covelo?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 61.4%. The reported mean trip to work is 11.4 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. 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.
Drive alone
61.4%
Work from home
18.2%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 391 workers age 16+.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 49.6% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
F
City profile score · Covelo, CA
7/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share F
18.0%
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.
Household income F
$35,735
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
49.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Covelo profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 28/100 (F) · 18.0%
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Household income: 1/100 (F) · $35,735
Poverty rate: 0/100 (F) · 49.6%
How does Covelo compare to other US cities?
Where Covelo sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income5% higher than other cities
Home value68% pricier 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 Covelo 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 Covelo near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Covelo ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Covelo only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,306 of 1,338
2nd percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#1,022 of 1,343
24th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#18 of 1,450
99th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#949 of 1,458
35th 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
5th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Covelo's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$322,60032nd percentilemore affordable than 32% 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
Covelo's home-value-to-income ratio: 9.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#15,240 of 15,516
More affordable than 2% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#11,155 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 9.0×, Covelo sits in the pressured band:
national rank #15,240 of 15,516 and #11,155 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
$35,735Covelo, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Covelo, 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 Covelo, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)18.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)49.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)36.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,495
Median Income
$35,735
Median Home Value
$322,600
Median Age
32.7
Poverty Rate
49.6%
Labor force participation
36.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
18.0%
Climate
Avg Temperature
55.8°F
Annual Precipitation
40.4"
Annual Snowfall
3.3"
Schools
Total Schools
4
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
11.4 minutes
Drive Alone
61.4%
Carpool
6.1%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
14.3%
Work from Home
18.2%
Based on 391 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 Covelo. 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 Covelo 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 Covelo sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Covelo 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, NOAA Climate Normals, 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.