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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-GLENDALE-CA · Glendale, CA 192,270 pop · income 66th 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 Glendale
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Glendale on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Akron · lowest
48,544
Akron · lowest
48,544 median HH income
39.7% of the leader · rank #1
Tome · near
84,243
Tome · near
84,243 median HH income
68.9% of the leader · rank #2
Walloon Lake · near
84,250
Walloon Lake · near
84,250 median HH income
68.9% of the leader · rank #3
Glendale · this city
84,262
Glendale · this city
84,262 median HH income
68.9% of the leader · rank #4
Brooklyn Park · near
84,276
Brooklyn Park · near
84,276 median HH income
68.9% of the leader · rank #5
Churchville · near
84,279
Churchville · near
84,279 median HH income
69.0% of the leader · rank #6
Elk Grove · highest
122,229
Elk Grove · highest
122,229 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 Glendale 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: 192,270.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Glendale - the verdict
Nationally, Glendale sits in the 66th percentile for household income and the 26th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
66th
percentile, household income
97th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
26th
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: Glendale, CA
California's Glendale is a mid-sized U.S. city, with 192,270 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Glendale households earn a median of $84,262 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 9.8%. Glendale's housing stock carries a median value of $1,043,900, and the median resident age is 41.4 years. Educational attainment runs 45.5% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 57.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 271 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Rapid Growth), up 36% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 2314.0 in FBI UCR data, near the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
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. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in California run around $275, per EIA 2023 residential energy 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 Glendale'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 housing and income to comparison shortlist to schools and households to reported crime to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Glendale, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
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.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Glendale?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 68.7%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
How far does income reach against housing in Glendale?
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 12.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 9.8%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Glendale?
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 Huntington Beach (196,010 residents, $119,885 income); Oxnard (201,014 residents, $93,372 income); Ontario (178,347 residents, $82,806 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Vancouver, WA (192,696 residents); Knoxville, TN (193,721 residents); Providence, RI (190,214 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 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 22 public schools within the city match. 45.5% 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.
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 Glendale?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2314.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 1% higher 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.
Total reported rate
2314.0
Violent rate
287.2
Property rate
2026.8
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Is Glendale growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -8,773 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -4.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 271 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 downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
2020 estimate
195,933
2025 estimate
187,160
Period change
-4.5%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Above median income · poverty 9.8% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
D
City profile score · Glendale, CA
44/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share A-
45.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income C+
$84,262
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate D
9.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
287 /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.
Glendale profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 80/100 (A-) · 45.5%
Household income: 64/100 (C+) · $84,262
Poverty rate: 40/100 (D) · 9.8%
Violent crime: 35/100 (F) · 287 /100k
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Glendale sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Glendale'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 - Glendale highlighted among 13 peers.Read the chart values
Glendale, CA (this city): home $1,043,900, crime 2,314/100k
Vancouver, WA : home $440,300, crime 3,990/100k
Knoxville, TN : home $214,000, crime 3,462/100k
Providence, RI : home $322,800, crime 1,935/100k
Peoria, AZ : home $429,400, crime 1,460/100k
Akron, OH : home $111,200, crime 3,775/100k
Brownsville, TX : home $122,400, crime 2,398/100k
Huntington Beach, CA : home $1,047,300, crime 2,196/100k
Oxnard, CA : home $617,800, crime 2,474/100k
Ontario, CA : home $568,000, crime 2,090/100k
Elk Grove, CA : home $603,400, crime 1,422/100k
Santa Rosa, CA : home $685,000, crime 1,663/100k
Rancho Cucamonga, CA : home $694,400, crime 2,105/100k
How does Glendale compare to other US cities?
Glendale measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income66% higher than other cities
Home value97% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety26% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at California, Glendale ranks #287 of 441 California cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Glendale 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 Glendale near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Glendale ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Glendale only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#712 of 1,338
47th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#216 of 1,343
84th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#507 of 1,450
65th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#333 of 1,458
77th 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
66th percentile nationally for median household income · 26th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Glendale's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Glendale'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 Glendale's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$1,043,9003rd percentilemore affordable than 3% 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
Glendale's home-value-to-income ratio: 12.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#15,463 of 15,516
More affordable than 0% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#746 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 12.4×, Glendale sits in the pressured band:
national rank #15,463 of 15,516 and #746 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
$84,262Glendale, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Glendale, 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 Glendale, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)45.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)9.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)57.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
192,270
Median Income
$84,262
Median Home Value
$1,043,900
Median Age
41.4
Poverty Rate
9.8%
Labor force participation
57.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
45.5%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2314.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
287.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2026.8
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.
Schools
Total Schools
22
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Glendale's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
195,933 residents
2021
192,000 residents
2022
189,697 residents
2023
188,309 residents
2024
187,947 residents
2025
187,160 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Rapid Growth
Total Permits (2024)
271
housing units authorized
Single-Family
109
detached homes
Multifamily
162
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
200
138
62
$27.0M
2020
194
145
49
$22.0M
2021
167
134
33
$22.7M
2022
936
87
849
$183.0M
2023
247
110
137
$40.6M
2024
271
109
162
$45.9M
Permit volume increased 36% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
68.7%
Carpool
4.4%
Public Transit
2.1%
Walk
2.9%
Work from Home
18.7%
Other
3.2%
Based on 90,260 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 Glendale. 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 Glendale 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 Glendale sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Glendale 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, 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.