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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-LA-PUENTE-CA · La Puente, CA 37,404 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 La Puente
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest La Puente on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
South Miami H… · lowest
64,657
South Miami H… · lowest
64,657 median HH income
41.2% of the leader · rank #1
Mellott · near
84,792
Mellott · near
84,792 median HH income
54.1% of the leader · rank #2
Ingalls · near
84,792
Ingalls · near
84,792 median HH income
54.1% of the leader · rank #3
La Puente · this city
84,811
La Puente · this city
84,811 median HH income
54.1% of the leader · rank #4
North Logan · near
84,821
North Logan · near
84,821 median HH income
54.1% of the leader · rank #5
Madison Lake · near
84,833
Madison Lake · near
84,833 median HH income
54.1% of the leader · rank #6
Pacifica · highest
156,819
Pacifica · highest
156,819 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 La Puente 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: 37,404.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
La Puente - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, La Puente lands in the 66th percentile for household income and the 40th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
66th
percentile, household income
89th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
40th
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: La Puente, CA
La Puente is a small city in California, home to 37,404 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in La Puente brings in $84,811 a year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 8.1%. Home values in La Puente run a median of $593,200, and the median resident age is 36.9 years. About 12.5% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 59.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 50 residential building permits were authorized in La Puente (Building Boom), up 178% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. La Puente reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1700.1 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
California carries a cost-of-living premium: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, California scores 110.7 (Well Above Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. 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). 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 La Puente'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 population change to reported crime to schools and households to comparison shortlist to housing and income to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For La Puente, 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.
1. Population change
Is La Puente growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -1,508 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -4.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 50 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
What can the FBI record say about safety in La Puente?
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.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1700.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 25% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
What does the education layer cover for La Puente?
The NCES join finds 27 public schools within the city match. 12.5% 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.
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 La Puente?
Within California, the closest population matches are Foothill Farms (37,332 residents, $68,042 income); Pacifica (37,527 residents, $156,819 income); Monrovia (37,553 residents, $97,083 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Greenfield, WI (37,361 residents); Oregon City, OR (37,482 residents); South Miami Heights, FL (37,525 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. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in La Puente?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 7.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 8.1%, 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.
Household income
$84,811
Home value
$593,200
Value / income
7.0×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What does the journey to work look like in La Puente?
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 74.7%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
2.5%
Work from home
4.3%
Drive alone
74.7%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 17,418 workers age 16+.
Above median income · poverty 8.1% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
F
City profile score · La Puente, CA
33/100
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 C+
$84,811
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate D
8.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
411 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
12.5%
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.
La Puente profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 64/100 (C+) · $84,811
Poverty rate: 47/100 (D) · 8.1%
Violent crime: 22/100 (F) · 411 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 13/100 (F) · 12.5%
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where La Puente sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
La Puente'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 - La Puente highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
La Puente, CA (this city): home $593,200, crime 1,700/100k
Greenfield, WI : home $247,800, crime 2,400/100k
Oregon City, OR : home $531,400, crime 1,556/100k
Tooele, UT : home $338,400, crime 1,705/100k
Carpentersville, IL : home $225,200, crime 891/100k
Pacifica, CA : home $1,211,700, crime 1,451/100k
Monrovia, CA : home $891,700, crime 2,612/100k
Montclair, CA : home $549,600, crime 4,290/100k
Wildomar, CA : home $511,900, crime 1,123/100k
Martinez, CA : home $824,700, crime 1,506/100k
How does La Puente compare to other US cities?
Where La Puente sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income66% higher than other cities
Home value89% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety40% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just California and the picture shifts: La Puente ranks #183 of 441 California cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares La Puente 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 La Puente near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, La Puente ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares La Puente only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#704 of 1,338
47th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#588 of 1,343
56th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#603 of 1,450
58th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,130 of 1,458
22nd 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 · 40th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
La Puente's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
La Puente'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 La Puente's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$593,20011th percentilemore affordable than 11% 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
La Puente's home-value-to-income ratio: 7.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,666 of 15,516
More affordable than 5% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,109 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 7.0×, La Puente sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,666 of 15,516 and #3,109 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
$84,811La Puente, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context La Puente, 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 La Puente, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)12.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)8.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)59.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
37,404
Median Income
$84,811
Median Home Value
$593,200
Median Age
36.9
Poverty Rate
8.1%
Labor force participation
59.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
12.5%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1700.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
410.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1289.7
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.
Schools
Total Schools
27
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
La Puente's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
37,931 residents
2021
37,300 residents
2022
36,985 residents
2023
36,756 residents
2024
36,648 residents
2025
36,423 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
50
housing units authorized
Single-Family
16
detached homes
Multifamily
34
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
18
18
0
$4.5M
2020
106
32
74
$14.9M
2021
21
21
0
$1.6M
2022
37
25
12
$3.6M
2023
22
22
0
$2.1M
2024
50
16
34
$7.9M
Permit volume increased 178% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
74.7%
Carpool
12.9%
Public Transit
2.5%
Walk
2.3%
Work from Home
4.3%
Other
3.3%
Based on 17,418 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 La Puente. 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 La Puente 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 La Puente sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How La Puente 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.