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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-HOLLISTER-CA · Hollister, CA 43,003 pop · income 79th pct · 12 tracts
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 Hollister
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Hollister on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Sumter · lowest
53,071
Sumter · lowest
53,071 median HH income
23.8% of the leader · rank #1
Elberfeld · near
101,964
Elberfeld · near
101,964 median HH income
45.7% of the leader · rank #2
Atco · near
101,976
Atco · near
101,976 median HH income
45.7% of the leader · rank #3
Hollister · this city
101,979
Hollister · this city
101,979 median HH income
45.7% of the leader · rank #4
Hebron · near
101,980
Hebron · near
101,980 median HH income
45.7% of the leader · rank #5
Highland Park · near
101,991
Highland Park · near
101,991 median HH income
45.7% of the leader · rank #6
Danville · highest
223,206
Danville · highest
223,206 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 Hollister 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: 43,003.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Hollister - the verdict
Hollister ranks in the 79th percentile for household income and the 57th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
79th
percentile, household income
92nd
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
57th
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: Hollister, CA
43,003 people live in Hollister, California - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Hollister report a median income of $101,979 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 7.6%. Typical homes in Hollister are valued around $679,300, and the median resident age is 33.6 years. Educational attainment runs 17.8% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 63.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 118 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 72% from five years earlier. Hollister reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 1163.8 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 58.6°F with 13.7 inches of precipitation per year and 0.1 inches of snowfall.
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. Monthly utility costs average around $275 across California, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Hollister'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 climate and hazard context to housing and income to population change to work and mobility to comparison shortlist to reported crime to schools and households to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Hollister, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Climate and hazard context
What physical conditions frame life in Hollister?
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 58.6°F, with 13.7 inches of precipitation and 0.1 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Hollister?
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 6.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 7.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Hollister?
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 Campbell (42,848 residents, $147,128 income); Vineyard (42,645 residents, $108,403 income); San Bruno (42,612 residents, $135,976 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Sumter, SC (43,065 residents); Woonsocket, RI (43,074 residents); North Miami Beach, FL (43,104 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.
What can 12 Census tracts reveal inside Hollister?
PlainCities matches 12 Census tracts to this city.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
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 Hollister growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +3,832 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +9.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 118 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
41,863
2025 estimate
45,695
Period change
+9.2%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the journey to work look like in Hollister?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 74.9%. 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. 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
74.9%
Work from home
7.9%
Public transit
1.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 19,749 workers age 16+.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Hollister?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1163.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 49% 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.
Total reported rate
1163.8
Violent rate
333.1
Property rate
830.7
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What does the education layer cover for Hollister?
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 18 public schools within the city match. 17.8% 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
7.6%
Bachelor's degree+
17.8%
Matched public schools
18
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
D
City profile score · Hollister, CA
40/100
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+
$101,979
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate D
7.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
17.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime F
333 /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.
Hollister profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 78/100 (B+) · $101,979
Poverty rate: 49/100 (D) · 7.6%
Bachelor's+ share: 28/100 (F) · 17.8%
Violent crime: 28/100 (F) · 333 /100k
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Hollister sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Hollister'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 - Hollister highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Hollister, CA (this city): home $679,300, crime 1,164/100k
Sumter, SC : home $188,400, crime 4,804/100k
Woonsocket, RI : home $268,000, crime 1,891/100k
North Miami Beach, FL : home $317,800, crime 3,495/100k
Schertz, TX : home $292,100, crime 1,041/100k
Delaware, OH : home $279,400, crime 1,137/100k
Buffalo Grove, IL : home $392,900, crime 738/100k
Campbell, CA : home $1,550,000, crime 3,439/100k
San Bruno, CA : home $1,199,400, crime 2,222/100k
Coachella, CA : home $341,300, crime 1,840/100k
Danville, CA : home $1,583,300, crime 647/100k
How does Hollister compare to other US cities?
Here's how Hollister stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income79% higher than other cities
Home value92% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety57% 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, Hollister ranks #91 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 Hollister 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 Hollister near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Hollister ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Hollister only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#486 of 1,338
64th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#463 of 1,343
66th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#637 of 1,450
56th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#956 of 1,458
34th 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 · 57th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Hollister's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Hollister'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 Hollister's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$679,3008th percentilemore affordable than 8% 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
Hollister's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,507 of 15,516
More affordable than 7% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,067 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 6.7×, Hollister sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,507 of 15,516 and #3,067 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$101,979Hollister, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Hollister, 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 Hollister, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)17.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)7.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)63.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
43,003
Median Income
$101,979
Median Home Value
$679,300
Median Age
33.6
Poverty Rate
7.6%
Labor force participation
63.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
17.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1163.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
333.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
830.7
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
58.6°F
Annual Precipitation
13.7"
Annual Snowfall
0.1"
Schools
Total Schools
18
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Hollister's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
41,863 residents
2021
43,327 residents
2022
44,142 residents
2023
44,554 residents
2024
45,033 residents
2025
45,695 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
118
housing units authorized
Single-Family
118
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
422
417
5
$152.6M
2020
322
322
0
$82.0M
2021
396
396
0
$100.4M
2022
229
229
0
$70.6M
2023
213
213
0
$76.4M
2024
118
118
0
$37.6M
Permit volume decreased 72% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
74.9%
Carpool
14.2%
Public Transit
1.0%
Walk
0.5%
Work from Home
7.9%
Other
1.5%
Based on 19,749 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 Hollister. 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 Hollister 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 Hollister sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Hollister 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.