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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-GARBERVILLE-CA · Garberville, CA 1,568 pop · income 6th 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 Garberville
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Garberville on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Schell City · lowest
37,750
Schell City · lowest
37,750 median HH income
16.7% of the leader · rank #1
Garberville · this city
37,760
Garberville · this city
37,760 median HH income
16.7% of the leader · rank #2
Colquitt · near
37,763
Colquitt · near
37,763 median HH income
16.7% of the leader · rank #3
Wilmerding · near
37,764
Wilmerding · near
37,764 median HH income
16.7% of the leader · rank #4
Komatke · near
37,768
Komatke · near
37,768 median HH income
16.7% of the leader · rank #5
Woodacre · highest
225,521
Woodacre · highest
225,521 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 Garberville 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: 1,568.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Garberville lands in the 6th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
6th
percentile, household income
79th
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: Garberville, CA
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 1,568 residents in Garberville, a small town within California. Garberville households earn a median of $37,760 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 28.7%. Typical homes in Garberville are valued around $418,000, and the median resident age is 37.9 years. About 15.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 60.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 1 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
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. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $2,053 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts California's average monthly utility costs around $275 (state average). Commute times here average 13.7 minutes, with 47.2% driving alone and 1.0% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 88.7 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Very High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Garberville'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 work and mobility to schools and households to housing and income to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Garberville, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Garberville?
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 47.2%. The reported mean trip to work is 13.7 minutes.
What does the education layer cover for Garberville?
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 15.4% 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 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Garberville?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 11.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 28.7%, 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Garberville?
Within California, the closest population matches are Parklawn (1,574 residents, $70,813 income); Woodacre (1,574 residents, $225,521 income); Black Point-Green Point (1,560 residents, $125,875 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Cedar Hill, MO (1,568 residents); St. George, MO (1,568 residents); Thompson Falls, MT (1,568 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.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 28.7% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
F
City profile score · Garberville, 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
15.4%
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
$37,760
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
28.7%
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).
Garberville profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 21/100 (F) · 15.4%
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Household income: 4/100 (F) · $37,760
Poverty rate: 1/100 (F) · 28.7%
How does Garberville compare to other US cities?
Here's how Garberville stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income6% higher than other cities
Home value79% 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 Garberville 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 Garberville near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Garberville ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Garberville only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,294 of 1,338
3rd percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#838 of 1,343
38th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#89 of 1,450
94th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,033 of 1,458
29th 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
6th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Garberville's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$418,00021st percentilemore affordable than 21% 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
Garberville's home-value-to-income ratio: 11.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#15,423 of 15,516
More affordable than 1% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#11,259 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 11.1×, Garberville sits in the pressured band:
national rank #15,423 of 15,516 and #11,259 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
$37,760Garberville, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Garberville, 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 Garberville, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)15.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)28.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)60.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,568
Median Income
$37,760
Median Home Value
$418,000
Median Age
37.9
Poverty Rate
28.7%
Labor force participation
60.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
15.4%
Schools
Total Schools
1
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
13.7 minutes
Drive Alone
47.2%
Carpool
31.1%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
20.7%
Work from Home
1.0%
Based on 707 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 Garberville. 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 Garberville 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 Garberville sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Garberville 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.