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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-FORT-IRWIN-CA · Fort Irwin, CA 8,791 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 Fort Irwin
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Fort Irwin on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Hernando · lowest
41,564
Hernando · lowest
41,564 median HH income
18.6% of the leader · rank #1
Fort Irwin · this city
66,964
Fort Irwin · this city
66,964 median HH income
30.0% of the leader · rank #2
Danvers · near
66,964
Danvers · near
66,964 median HH income
30.0% of the leader · rank #3
Crystal Lakes · near
66,964
Crystal Lakes · near
66,964 median HH income
30.0% of the leader · rank #4
Clarksville C… · near
66,964
Clarksville C… · near
66,964 median HH income
30.0% of the leader · rank #5
Edgard · near
66,966
Edgard · near
66,966 median HH income
30.0% of the leader · rank #6
Montecito · highest
222,966
Montecito · highest
222,966 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Fort Irwin 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: 8,791.
Fort Irwin ranks in the 46th percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
46th
percentile, household income
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: Fort Irwin, CA
8,791 people live in Fort Irwin, California - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Fort Irwin households earn a median of $66,964 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 10.0%. The median resident age is 23.4 years. Educational attainment runs 30.7% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 25.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 3 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
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. Commute times here average 8.9 minutes, with 65.4% driving alone and 5.8% working from home, per Census ACS commuting 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 Fort Irwin'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 comparison shortlist to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Fort Irwin, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, annual population history; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Fort Irwin?
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 30.7% 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.
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 Fort Irwin?
Within California, the closest population matches are Topanga (8,781 residents, $142,553 income); Montecito (8,823 residents, $222,966 income); Marina del Rey (8,844 residents, $142,440 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Hoquiam, WA (8,792 residents); Monmouth, IL (8,794 residents); Whitehouse, TX (8,794 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Fort Irwin?
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 65.4%. The reported mean trip to work is 8.9 minutes.
Below median income · poverty 10.0% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
F
City profile score · Fort Irwin, CA
37/100
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 C
30.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income D
$66,964
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate D
10.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better 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.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Fort Irwin profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 59/100 (C) · 30.7%
Household income: 45/100 (D) · $66,964
Poverty rate: 40/100 (D) · 10.0%
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
How does Fort Irwin compare to other US cities?
Here's how Fort Irwin stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income46% higher 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 Fort Irwin 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 Fort Irwin near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Fort Irwin ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Fort Irwin only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#962 of 1,338
28th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#490 of 1,450
66th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#607 of 1,458
58th 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. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Income distribution context
$66,964Fort Irwin, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Fort Irwin, 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 Fort Irwin, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)30.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)10.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)25.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
8,791
Median Income
$66,964
Median Home Value
N/A
Median Age
23.4
Poverty Rate
10.0%
Labor force participation
25.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
30.7%
Schools
Total Schools
3
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
8.9 minutes
Drive Alone
65.4%
Carpool
15.2%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
11.2%
Work from Home
5.8%
Other
2.4%
Based on 5,320 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 Fort Irwin. 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 Fort Irwin 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 Fort Irwin sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Fort Irwin 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, 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.