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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-LINDSAY-CA · Lindsay, CA 12,572 pop · income 20th 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 Lindsay
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Lindsay on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Mendota · lowest
46,458
Mendota · lowest
46,458 median HH income
24.5% of the leader · rank #1
Lindsay · this city
50,563
Lindsay · this city
50,563 median HH income
26.6% of the leader · rank #2
Roland · near
50,563
Roland · near
50,563 median HH income
26.6% of the leader · rank #3
Greenville · near
50,564
Greenville · near
50,564 median HH income
26.6% of the leader · rank #4
New Llano · near
50,568
New Llano · near
50,568 median HH income
26.6% of the leader · rank #5
Grand Saline · near
50,568
Grand Saline · near
50,568 median HH income
26.6% of the leader · rank #6
Castle Pines · highest
189,918
Castle Pines · highest
189,918 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 Lindsay 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: 12,572.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Lindsay - the verdict
Nationally, Lindsay sits in the 20th percentile for household income and the 35th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
20th
percentile, household income
59th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
35th
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: Lindsay, CA
12,572 people live in Lindsay, California - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Lindsay households earn a median of $50,563 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 26.6%. Lindsay's housing stock carries a median value of $268,400, and the median resident age is 31.4 years. 5.2% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 48.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 10 residential building permits were authorized in Lindsay (Growing), up 11% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 1903.8 crimes per 100,000 residents, near the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score). The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 62.9°F with 12.1 inches of precipitation per year and 0.2 inches of snowfall.
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). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $2,053 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in California run around $275, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Workers in Lindsay report an average commute of 27.6 minutes, with 73.9% driving alone and 5.8% 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 Lindsay'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 comparison shortlist to housing and income to reported crime to work and mobility to schools and households to climate and hazard context to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Lindsay, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, local building permits, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count.
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. Comparison shortlist
Which cities make useful reference points for Lindsay?
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 Kingsburg (12,589 residents, $82,562 income); Mendota (12,554 residents, $46,458 income); Diamond Springs (12,642 residents, $83,288 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Castle Pines, CO (12,573 residents); Geneva, NY (12,573 residents); Port Washington, WI (12,569 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Lindsay?
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 5.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 26.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Lindsay?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1903.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 17% 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Lindsay?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 73.9%. The reported mean trip to work is 27.6 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.
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 Lindsay?
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 10 public schools within the city match. 5.2% 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
26.6%
Bachelor's degree+
5.2%
Matched public schools
10
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 62.9°F, with 12.1 inches of precipitation and 0.2 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for California is 88.7 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
FEMA risk index (state avg)
88.7
Annual precipitation
12.1 in
Mean temperature
62.9°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -82 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.6% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 10 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
2020 estimate
12,660
2025 estimate
12,578
Period change
-0.6%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Low income · poverty 26.6% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
F
City profile score · Lindsay, CA
11/100
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
$50,563
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
450 /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.
Poverty rate F
26.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
5.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Lindsay profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 21/100 (F) · $50,563
Violent crime: 19/100 (F) · 450 /100k
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Poverty rate: 4/100 (F) · 26.6%
Bachelor's+ share: 0/100 (F) · 5.2%
Where Lindsay sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Lindsay'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 - Lindsay highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Lindsay, CA (this city): home $268,400, crime 1,904/100k
Geneva, NY : home $140,300, crime 3,109/100k
Port Washington, WI : home $276,000, crime 605/100k
Richton Park, IL : home $200,400, crime 2,437/100k
Ridgefield, WA : home $590,200, crime 1,157/100k
Levelland, TX : home $126,200, crime 1,368/100k
Kingsburg, CA : home $356,900, crime 1,498/100k
Mendota, CA : home $250,400, crime 1,359/100k
Big Bear, CA : home $427,700, crime 3,704/100k
Grover Beach, CA : home $691,900, crime 1,481/100k
Marysville, CA : home $282,700, crime 2,806/100k
How does Lindsay compare to other US cities?
Where Lindsay sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income20% higher than other cities
Home value59% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety35% 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: Lindsay ranks #220 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 Lindsay 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 Lindsay near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Lindsay ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Lindsay only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,179 of 1,338
12th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#1,127 of 1,343
16th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#106 of 1,450
93rd percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,329 of 1,458
9th 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
20th percentile nationally for median household income · 35th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Lindsay's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Lindsay'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 Lindsay's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$268,40041st percentilemore affordable than 41% 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
Lindsay's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#13,330 of 15,516
More affordable than 14% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,746 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 5.3×, Lindsay sits in the pressured band:
national rank #13,330 of 15,516 and #2,746 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
$50,563Lindsay, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Lindsay, 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 Lindsay, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)5.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)26.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)48.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
12,572
Median Income
$50,563
Median Home Value
$268,400
Median Age
31.4
Poverty Rate
26.6%
Labor force participation
48.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
5.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1903.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
449.8
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1453.9
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
62.9°F
Annual Precipitation
12.1"
Annual Snowfall
0.2"
Schools
Total Schools
10
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Lindsay's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
12,660 residents
2021
12,623 residents
2022
12,574 residents
2023
12,603 residents
2024
12,647 residents
2025
12,578 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Growing
Total Permits (2024)
10
housing units authorized
Single-Family
10
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
9
9
0
$1.6M
2020
10
10
0
$1.8M
2021
4
4
0
$0.8M
2022
51
3
48
$18.8M
2023
8
1
7
$0.9M
2024
10
10
0
$1.1M
Permit volume increased 11% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
27.6 minutes
Drive Alone
73.9%
Carpool
17.2%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
3.1%
Work from Home
5.8%
Based on 4,322 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 Lindsay. 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 Lindsay 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 Lindsay sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Lindsay 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, NOAA Climate Normals, 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.