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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-LAGUNA-WOODS-CA · Laguna Woods, CA 17,342 pop · income 36th 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 Laguna Woods
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Laguna Woods on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
New Castle · lowest
48,977
New Castle · lowest
48,977 median HH income
36.9% of the leader · rank #1
Presho · near
60,227
Presho · near
60,227 median HH income
45.3% of the leader · rank #2
Harleyville · near
60,231
Harleyville · near
60,231 median HH income
45.3% of the leader · rank #3
Laguna Woods · this city
60,235
Laguna Woods · this city
60,235 median HH income
45.3% of the leader · rank #4
Pierre Part · near
60,245
Pierre Part · near
60,245 median HH income
45.4% of the leader · rank #5
New Brunswick · near
60,248
New Brunswick · near
60,248 median HH income
45.4% of the leader · rank #6
Bethpage · highest
132,832
Bethpage · highest
132,832 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 Laguna Woods 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: 17,342.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Laguna Woods - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Laguna Woods places in the 36th percentile for household income and the 66th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
36th
percentile, household income
74th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
66th
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: Laguna Woods, CA
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 17,342 residents in Laguna Woods, a small town within California. Median household income here is $60,235 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 7.6%. Typical homes in Laguna Woods are valued around $364,900, and the median resident age is 75.0 years. About 51.8% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 21.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 0 residential units were authorized in 2024 (No Permits). Laguna Woods reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 952.6 crimes per 100,000 residents, below the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score).
California carries a cost-of-living premium: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts California at 110.7 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Well Above Average). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $2,053 per month. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts California's average monthly utility costs around $275 (state average). 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 Laguna Woods'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 reported crime to work and mobility to population change 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 Laguna Woods, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Laguna Woods?
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 952.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 58% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
What does the journey to work look like in Laguna Woods?
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 73.1%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Is Laguna Woods 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 -764 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -4.3% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 0 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Which cities make useful reference points for Laguna Woods?
Within California, the closest population matches are Coalinga (17,352 residents, $78,014 income); Rancho Mirage (17,375 residents, $109,943 income); Cameron Park (17,283 residents, $97,786 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Jenison, MI (17,334 residents); Bethpage, NY (17,334 residents); Firestone, CO (17,353 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 Laguna Woods?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 6.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 7.6%, 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
$60,235
Home value
$364,900
Value / income
6.1×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Below median income · poverty 7.6% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
D
City profile score · Laguna Woods, CA
49/100
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
51.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime A-
60 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate D
7.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$60,235
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); 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.
Laguna Woods profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 85/100 (A) · 51.8%
Violent crime: 81/100 (A-) · 60 /100k
Poverty rate: 49/100 (D) · 7.6%
Household income: 35/100 (F) · $60,235
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Laguna Woods sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Laguna Woods'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 - Laguna Woods highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Laguna Woods, CA (this city): home $364,900, crime 953/100k
Firestone, CO : home $511,800, crime 1,105/100k
New Castle, IN : home $95,100, crime 809/100k
Royse City, TX : home $288,400, crime 1,002/100k
Coalinga, CA : home $254,600, crime 902/100k
Rancho Mirage, CA : home $747,800, crime 2,581/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Laguna Woods compare to other US cities?
Here's how Laguna Woods stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income36% higher than other cities
Home value74% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety66% 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: Laguna Woods ranks #50 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 Laguna Woods 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 Laguna Woods near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Laguna Woods ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Laguna Woods only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,057 of 1,338
21st percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#926 of 1,343
31st percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#637 of 1,450
56th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#255 of 1,458
83rd 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
36th percentile nationally for median household income · 66th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Laguna Woods's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Laguna Woods'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 Laguna Woods's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$364,90026th percentilemore affordable than 26% 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
Laguna Woods's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,140 of 15,516
More affordable than 9% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,976 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 6.1×, Laguna Woods sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,140 of 15,516 and #2,976 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
$60,235Laguna Woods, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Laguna Woods, 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 Laguna Woods, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)51.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)7.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)21.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
17,342
Median Income
$60,235
Median Home Value
$364,900
Median Age
75.0
Poverty Rate
7.6%
Labor force participation
21.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
51.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
952.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
59.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
893.0
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.
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Laguna Woods's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
17,608 residents
2021
17,402 residents
2022
17,231 residents
2023
17,060 residents
2024
16,989 residents
2025
16,844 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
Total Permits (2024)
0
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
0
0
0
-
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
0
0
0
-
2024
0
0
0
-
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
73.1%
Carpool
5.7%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
3.8%
Work from Home
14.6%
Other
2.8%
Based on 3,617 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 Laguna Woods. 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 Laguna Woods 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 Laguna Woods sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Laguna Woods 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, 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.