Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetCA-KERMAN-CA · Kerman, CA 16,492 pop · income 31st 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 Kerman
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Kerman on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Clearlake · lowest
41,580
Clearlake · lowest
41,580 median HH income
20.8% of the leader · rank #1
Spencer · near
57,550
Spencer · near
57,550 median HH income
28.8% of the leader · rank #2
Nazareth · near
57,551
Nazareth · near
57,551 median HH income
28.8% of the leader · rank #3
Kerman · this city
57,556
Kerman · this city
57,556 median HH income
28.8% of the leader · rank #4
Susquehanna D… · near
57,560
Susquehanna D… · near
57,560 median HH income
28.8% of the leader · rank #5
Bonneau Beach · near
57,561
Bonneau Beach · near
57,561 median HH income
28.8% of the leader · rank #6
Moraga · highest
199,800
Moraga · highest
199,800 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 Kerman 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: 16,492.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Kerman - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Kerman places in the 31st percentile for household income and the 36th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
31st
percentile, household income
69th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
36th
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: Kerman, CA
16,492 people live in Kerman, California - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $57,556 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 23.8%. Home values in Kerman run a median of $331,500, and the median resident age is 29.9 years. About 14.5% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 53.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 25 residential building permits were authorized in Kerman (Construction Slowdown), down 81% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1852.0 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, near the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures 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. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $2,053 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts California's average monthly utility costs around $275 (state average). Natural-hazard exposure scores 88.7 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Very High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Kerman'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 work and mobility to schools and households to comparison shortlist 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 Kerman, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, local building permits, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates.
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 Kerman?
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 23.8%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What does the journey to work look like in Kerman?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 81.2%. 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.
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 8 public schools within the city match. 14.5% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Kerman?
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 Bostonia (16,545 residents, $73,549 income); Ukiah (16,419 residents, $67,122 income); Clearlake (16,604 residents, $41,580 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Payson, AZ (16,494 residents); Stallings, NC (16,495 residents); Humble, TX (16,489 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.
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 Kerman?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1852.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 19% 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
1852.0
Violent rate
328.5
Property rate
1523.5
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +1,522 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +9.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 25 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
16,031
2025 estimate
17,553
Period change
+9.5%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Below median income · poverty 23.8% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
F
City profile score · Kerman, CA
19/100
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 F
$57,556
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
329 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
14.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
23.8%
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.
Kerman profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 31/100 (F) · $57,556
Violent crime: 29/100 (F) · 329 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 19/100 (F) · 14.5%
Poverty rate: 8/100 (F) · 23.8%
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Kerman sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Kerman'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 - Kerman highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Kerman, CA (this city): home $331,500, crime 1,852/100k
Payson, AZ : home $343,200, crime 1,484/100k
Stallings, NC : home $381,700, crime 723/100k
Humble, TX : home $191,200, crime 11,303/100k
Hanover, PA : home $200,900, crime 2,618/100k
Morton, IL : home $238,900, crime 910/100k
Ukiah, CA : home $448,100, crime 1,923/100k
Clearlake, CA : home $204,500, crime 2,413/100k
Fillmore, CA : home $567,500, crime 855/100k
Moraga, CA : home $1,597,600, crime 578/100k
El Segundo, CA : home $1,521,600, crime 5,977/100k
How does Kerman compare to other US cities?
Here's how Kerman stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income31% higher than other cities
Home value69% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety36% 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, Kerman ranks #208 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 Kerman 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 Kerman near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Kerman ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Kerman only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,088 of 1,338
19th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#1,005 of 1,343
25th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#144 of 1,450
90th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,065 of 1,458
27th 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
31st percentile nationally for median household income · 36th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Kerman's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Kerman'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 Kerman's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$331,50031st percentilemore affordable than 31% 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
Kerman's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#13,875 of 15,516
More affordable than 11% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,904 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 5.8×, Kerman sits in the pressured band:
national rank #13,875 of 15,516 and #2,904 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
$57,556Kerman, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Kerman, 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 Kerman, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)14.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)23.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)53.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
16,492
Median Income
$57,556
Median Home Value
$331,500
Median Age
29.9
Poverty Rate
23.8%
Labor force participation
53.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
14.5%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1852.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
328.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1523.5
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
8
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Kerman's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
16,031 residents
2021
16,422 residents
2022
16,924 residents
2023
17,302 residents
2024
17,555 residents
2025
17,553 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
25
housing units authorized
Single-Family
25
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.5
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
132
71
61
$21.3M
2020
20
20
0
$5.9M
2021
55
38
17
$11.2M
2022
81
81
0
$23.1M
2023
53
53
0
$8.8M
2024
25
25
0
$8.2M
Permit volume decreased 81% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
81.2%
Carpool
9.4%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
2.6%
Work from Home
3.9%
Other
2.9%
Based on 6,061 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 Kerman. 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 Kerman 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 Kerman sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Kerman 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.