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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-LAWNDALE-CA · Lawndale, CA 31,113 pop · income 65th 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 Lawndale
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Lawndale on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Jackson · lowest
42,848
Jackson · lowest
42,848 median HH income
17.1% of the leader · rank #1
Carrollton · near
83,523
Carrollton · near
83,523 median HH income
33.4% of the leader · rank #2
North Plainfi… · near
83,529
North Plainfi… · near
83,529 median HH income
33.4% of the leader · rank #3
Sussex · near
83,531
Sussex · near
83,531 median HH income
33.4% of the leader · rank #4
Lawndale · this city
83,538
Lawndale · this city
83,538 median HH income
33.4% of the leader · rank #5
Alva · near
83,551
Alva · near
83,551 median HH income
33.4% of the leader · rank #6
Southlake · highest
250,001
Southlake · highest
250,001 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 Lawndale 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: 31,113.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Lawndale - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Lawndale places in the 65th percentile for household income and the 23rd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
65th
percentile, household income
93rd
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
23rd
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: Lawndale, CA
31,113 people live in Lawndale, California - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Lawndale brings in $83,538 a year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 8.7%. Home values in Lawndale run a median of $726,000, and the median resident age is 35.6 years. Educational attainment runs 21.9% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 66.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 24 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 200% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 2458.9 incidents per 100,000 residents, near 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). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $2,053 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $275 across California, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Lawndale'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 population change to schools and households to work and mobility to reported crime to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Lawndale, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, 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 Lawndale?
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 8.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 8.7%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Is Lawndale growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -1,841 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -5.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 24 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.
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 13 public schools within the city match. 21.9% 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 Lawndale?
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 Santa Paula (31,202 residents, $77,130 income); Orcutt (31,284 residents, $108,682 income); Laguna Hills (30,921 residents, $122,778 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are SeaTac, WA (31,143 residents); Haines City, FL (31,156 residents); Port Chester, NY (31,162 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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Lawndale?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 73.7%. 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
73.7%
Work from home
6.1%
Public transit
1.6%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 16,061 workers age 16+.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Lawndale?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2458.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 8% 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.
Total reported rate
2458.9
Violent rate
593.7
Property rate
1865.3
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Above median income · poverty 8.7% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
F
City profile score · Lawndale, CA
34/100
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+
$83,538
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate D
8.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share D
21.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime F
594 /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.
Lawndale profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 63/100 (C+) · $83,538
Poverty rate: 45/100 (D) · 8.7%
Bachelor's+ share: 40/100 (D) · 21.9%
Violent crime: 10/100 (F) · 594 /100k
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Lawndale sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Lawndale'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 - Lawndale highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Lawndale, CA (this city): home $726,000, crime 2,459/100k
SeaTac, WA : home $483,200, crime 4,354/100k
Haines City, FL : home $250,700, crime 926/100k
Alamogordo, NM : home $163,600, crime 3,181/100k
Southlake, TX : home $957,500, crime 1,032/100k
Jackson, MI : home $94,700, crime 4,797/100k
Santa Paula, CA : home $559,300, crime 1,201/100k
Laguna Hills, CA : home $944,000, crime 1,365/100k
La Verne, CA : home $793,900, crime 2,586/100k
Los Altos, CA : home $2,000,000+, crime 1,289/100k
How does Lawndale compare to other US cities?
Here's how Lawndale stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income65% higher than other cities
Home value93% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety23% 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, Lawndale ranks #304 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 Lawndale 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 Lawndale near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Lawndale ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Lawndale only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#726 of 1,338
46th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#416 of 1,343
69th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#571 of 1,450
60th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#836 of 1,458
43rd 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
65th percentile nationally for median household income · 23rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Lawndale's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Lawndale'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 Lawndale's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$726,0007th percentilemore affordable than 7% 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
Lawndale's home-value-to-income ratio: 8.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#15,196 of 15,516
More affordable than 2% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,237 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 8.7×, Lawndale sits in the pressured band:
national rank #15,196 of 15,516 and #3,237 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
$83,538Lawndale, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Lawndale, 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 Lawndale, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)21.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)8.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)66.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
31,113
Median Income
$83,538
Median Home Value
$726,000
Median Age
35.6
Poverty Rate
8.7%
Labor force participation
66.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
21.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2458.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
593.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1865.3
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
13
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Lawndale's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
31,733 residents
2021
31,082 residents
2022
30,631 residents
2023
30,343 residents
2024
30,162 residents
2025
29,892 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
24
housing units authorized
Single-Family
24
detached homes
Multifamily
0
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
8
6
2
$1.7M
2020
23
23
0
$6.4M
2021
15
15
0
$3.3M
2022
15
8
7
$3.3M
2023
43
43
0
$4.2M
2024
24
24
0
$3.8M
Permit volume increased 200% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
73.7%
Carpool
8.7%
Public Transit
1.6%
Walk
2.2%
Work from Home
6.1%
Other
7.7%
Based on 16,061 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 Lawndale. 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 Lawndale 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 Lawndale sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Lawndale 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.