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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-FAIRFIELD-CA · Fairfield, CA 119,985 pop · income 79th 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 Fairfield
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Fairfield on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Hartford · lowest
45,300
Hartford · lowest
45,300 median HH income
41.5% of the leader · rank #1
Noblesville · near
102,319
Noblesville · near
102,319 median HH income
93.7% of the leader · rank #2
Fairfield · this city
102,321
Fairfield · this city
102,321 median HH income
93.7% of the leader · rank #3
Napili-Honoko… · near
102,337
Napili-Honoko… · near
102,337 median HH income
93.7% of the leader · rank #4
Lenexa · near
102,344
Lenexa · near
102,344 median HH income
93.7% of the leader · rank #5
Merrimac · near
102,344
Merrimac · near
102,344 median HH income
93.7% of the leader · rank #6
Concord · highest
109,195
Concord · highest
109,195 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 Fairfield 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: 119,985.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Fairfield - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Fairfield lands in the 79th percentile for household income and the 28th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
79th
percentile, household income
89th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
28th
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: Fairfield, CA
California's Fairfield is a mid-sized U.S. city, with 119,985 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in Fairfield report a median income of $102,321 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 7.8%. Fairfield's housing stock carries a median value of $592,500, and the median resident age is 36.8 years. Educational attainment runs 26.7% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 58.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 286 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Slowing), down 18% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 2183.6 crimes per 100,000 residents, near the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Fairfield's yearly average temperature at 61.7°F with 24.5 inches of precipitation per year.
California carries a cost-of-living premium: the state registers 110.7 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Well Above Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $2,053 per month. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts California's average monthly utility costs around $275 (state average). The average commute for Fairfield workers runs 27.8 minutes, with 72.9% driving alone and 10.5% working from home. 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 Fairfield'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 housing and income to comparison shortlist to climate and hazard context to reported crime to population change to work and mobility to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Fairfield, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, matched public-school count, local building permits.
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.
1. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Fairfield?
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 5.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 7.8%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Fairfield?
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 Berkeley (120,223 residents, $108,558 income); Clovis (122,719 residents, $100,360 income); Antioch (115,759 residents, $94,256 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Hartford, CT (119,970 residents); West Palm Beach, FL (119,508 residents); Spring Hill, FL (118,814 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.
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 61.7°F, with 24.5 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Fairfield?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2183.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 4% 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.
Population change
Is Fairfield growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +2,599 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +2.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 286 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
119,890
2025 estimate
122,489
Period change
+2.2%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the journey to work look like in Fairfield?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 72.9%. The reported mean trip to work is 27.8 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.
Drive alone
72.9%
Work from home
10.5%
Public transit
1.6%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 55,553 workers age 16+.
What does the education layer cover for Fairfield?
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 34 public schools within the city match. 26.7% 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
7.8%
Bachelor's degree+
26.7%
Matched public schools
34
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
D
City profile score · Fairfield, CA
41/100
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 B+
$102,321
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share C-
26.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate D
7.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
498 /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.
Fairfield profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 78/100 (B+) · $102,321
Bachelor's+ share: 52/100 (C-) · 26.7%
Poverty rate: 48/100 (D) · 7.8%
Violent crime: 16/100 (F) · 498 /100k
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Fairfield sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Fairfield'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 - Fairfield highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Fairfield, CA (this city): home $592,500, crime 2,184/100k
Hartford, CT : home $217,200, crime 3,361/100k
West Palm Beach, FL : home $369,800, crime 2,714/100k
Ann Arbor, MI : home $435,100, crime 2,018/100k
Wilmington, NC : home $350,300, crime 3,998/100k
Lafayette, LA : home $251,300, crime 5,414/100k
Berkeley, CA : home $1,351,100, crime 5,868/100k
Clovis, CA : home $453,300, crime 1,911/100k
Antioch, CA : home $607,400, crime 3,800/100k
Concord, CA : home $755,900, crime 3,371/100k
Richmond, CA : home $650,100, crime 3,686/100k
Vallejo, CA : home $557,500, crime 4,730/100k
How does Fairfield compare to other US cities?
Fairfield measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income79% higher than other cities
Home value89% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety28% 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, Fairfield ranks #273 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 Fairfield 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 Fairfield near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Fairfield ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Fairfield only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#482 of 1,338
64th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#589 of 1,343
56th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#624 of 1,450
56th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#701 of 1,458
52nd 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
79th percentile nationally for median household income · 28th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Fairfield's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Fairfield'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 Fairfield's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$592,50011th percentilemore affordable than 11% 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
Fairfield's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#13,900 of 15,516
More affordable than 10% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#553 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 5.8×, Fairfield sits in the pressured band:
national rank #13,900 of 15,516 and #553 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
$102,321Fairfield, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Fairfield, 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 Fairfield, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)26.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)7.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)58.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
119,985
Median Income
$102,321
Median Home Value
$592,500
Median Age
36.8
Poverty Rate
7.8%
Labor force participation
58.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
26.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2183.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
498.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1685.6
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
61.7°F
Annual Precipitation
24.5"
Annual Snowfall
0.0"
Schools
Total Schools
34
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Fairfield's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
119,890 residents
2021
120,033 residents
2022
120,220 residents
2023
121,185 residents
2024
122,313 residents
2025
122,489 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Slowing
Total Permits (2024)
286
housing units authorized
Single-Family
214
detached homes
Multifamily
72
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
348
348
0
$102.7M
2020
861
390
471
$187.2M
2021
365
365
0
$122.5M
2022
298
298
0
$104.2M
2023
510
342
168
$94.4M
2024
286
214
72
$97.4M
Permit volume decreased 18% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
27.8 minutes
Drive Alone
72.9%
Carpool
11.9%
Public Transit
1.6%
Walk
1.5%
Work from Home
10.5%
Other
1.6%
Based on 55,553 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 Fairfield. 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 Fairfield 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 Fairfield sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Fairfield 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.