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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-LAKEWOOD-CA · Lakewood, CA 80,510 pop · income 86th 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 Lakewood
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Lakewood on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Homestead · lowest
61,975
Homestead · lowest
61,975 median HH income
44.5% of the leader · rank #1
Lakes of the… · near
116,778
Lakes of the… · near
116,778 median HH income
83.9% of the leader · rank #2
Elmsford · near
116,779
Elmsford · near
116,779 median HH income
83.9% of the leader · rank #3
Delaware Park · near
116,782
Delaware Park · near
116,782 median HH income
83.9% of the leader · rank #4
Lakewood · this city
116,794
Lakewood · this city
116,794 median HH income
83.9% of the leader · rank #5
Clancy · near
116,800
Clancy · near
116,800 median HH income
83.9% of the leader · rank #6
Folsom · highest
139,263
Folsom · highest
139,263 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 Lakewood 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: 80,510.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Lakewood - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Lakewood lands in the 86th percentile for household income and the 15th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
86th
percentile, household income
94th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
15th
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: Lakewood, CA
Lakewood is a small city in California, home to 80,510 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Lakewood brings in $116,794 a year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 4.0%. Home values in Lakewood run a median of $774,100, and the median resident age is 39.0 years. About 32.6% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 63.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 66 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 113% from five years earlier. Lakewood's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 3038.4 incidents per 100,000 residents, above the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not 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. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in California run around $275, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Workers in Lakewood report an average commute of 25.4 minutes, with 75.4% driving alone and 12.4% working from home. 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 Lakewood'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 reported crime to population change to schools and households to comparison shortlist to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Lakewood, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, annual population history, matched public-school count, local building permits.
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 Lakewood?
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 6.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 4.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Lakewood?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 3038.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 33% 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.
Is Lakewood growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -4,212 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -5.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 66 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Lakewood?
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 Rancho Cordova (80,656 residents, $89,120 income); Alhambra (81,483 residents, $85,189 income); Perris (79,349 residents, $82,523 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are North Port, FL (80,512 residents); Somerville, MA (80,549 residents); Boynton Beach, FL (80,601 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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Lakewood?
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 20 public schools within the city match. 32.6% 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
4.0%
Bachelor's degree+
32.6%
Matched public schools
20
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in Lakewood?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 75.4%. The reported mean trip to work is 25.4 minutes.
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
75.4%
Work from home
12.4%
Public transit
1.1%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 40,108 workers age 16+.
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
C-
City profile score · Lakewood, CA
50/100
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 A-
$116,794
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate B
4.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share C+
32.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime F
453 /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.
Lakewood profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 84/100 (A-) · $116,794
Poverty rate: 72/100 (B) · 4.0%
Bachelor's+ share: 62/100 (C+) · 32.6%
Violent crime: 19/100 (F) · 453 /100k
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Lakewood sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Lakewood'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 - Lakewood highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Lakewood, CA (this city): home $774,100, crime 3,038/100k
North Port, FL : home $328,700, crime 875/100k
Somerville, MA : home $899,400, crime 1,920/100k
Boynton Beach, FL : home $312,700, crime 2,700/100k
Frederick, MD : home $365,200, crime 2,080/100k
South Jordan, UT : home $614,800, crime 982/100k
Rancho Cordova, CA : home $451,400, crime 2,538/100k
Alhambra, CA : home $812,700, crime 2,675/100k
Perris, CA : home $431,900, crime 2,163/100k
Tustin, CA : home $890,600, crime 2,316/100k
Upland, CA : home $688,800, crime 2,163/100k
Folsom, CA : home $702,200, crime 1,636/100k
How does Lakewood compare to other US cities?
Here's how Lakewood stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income86% higher than other cities
Home value94% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety15% 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, Lakewood ranks #361 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 Lakewood 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 Lakewood near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Lakewood ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Lakewood only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#355 of 1,338
73rd percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#381 of 1,343
72nd percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#940 of 1,450
34th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#566 of 1,458
61st 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
86th percentile nationally for median household income · 15th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Lakewood's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Lakewood'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 Lakewood's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$774,1006th percentilemore affordable than 6% 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
Lakewood's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,491 of 15,516
More affordable than 7% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#626 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 6.6×, Lakewood sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,491 of 15,516 and #626 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
$116,794Lakewood, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Lakewood, 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 Lakewood, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)32.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)4.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)63.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
80,510
Median Income
$116,794
Median Home Value
$774,100
Median Age
39.0
Poverty Rate
4.0%
Labor force participation
63.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
32.6%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3038.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
453.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2585.3
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
20
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Lakewood's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
82,222 residents
2021
80,509 residents
2022
79,369 residents
2023
78,732 residents
2024
78,486 residents
2025
78,010 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
66
housing units authorized
Single-Family
26
detached homes
Multifamily
40
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.8
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
31
7
24
$7.3M
2020
13
11
2
$1.7M
2021
14
14
0
$1.3M
2022
23
19
4
$2.9M
2023
46
30
16
$7.8M
2024
66
26
40
$10.3M
Permit volume increased 113% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
25.4 minutes
Drive Alone
75.4%
Carpool
8.7%
Public Transit
1.1%
Walk
1.1%
Work from Home
12.4%
Other
1.3%
Based on 40,108 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 Lakewood. 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 Lakewood 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 Lakewood sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Lakewood 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.