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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-LOMPOC-CA · Lompoc, CA 43,819 pop · income 49th 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 Lompoc
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Lompoc on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Saginaw · lowest
37,298
Saginaw · lowest
37,298 median HH income
16.7% of the leader · rank #1
Walthourville · near
70,035
Walthourville · near
70,035 median HH income
31.4% of the leader · rank #2
Lompoc · this city
70,038
Lompoc · this city
70,038 median HH income
31.4% of the leader · rank #3
Black Mountain · near
70,041
Black Mountain · near
70,041 median HH income
31.4% of the leader · rank #4
Astoria · near
70,043
Astoria · near
70,043 median HH income
31.4% of the leader · rank #5
Trapper Creek · near
70,048
Trapper Creek · near
70,048 median HH income
31.4% of the leader · rank #6
Danville · highest
223,206
Danville · highest
223,206 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 Lompoc 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: 43,819.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Lompoc - the verdict
Nationally, Lompoc sits in the 49th percentile for household income and the 33rd percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
49th
percentile, household income
80th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
33rd
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: Lompoc, CA
43,819 people live in Lompoc, California - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Lompoc report a median income of $70,038 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 13.1%. Typical homes in Lompoc are valued around $433,800, and the median resident age is 34.5 years. About 12.8% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 54.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 45 residential building permits were authorized in Lompoc (Building Boom), up 800% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 1957.4 in FBI UCR data, near the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 59.3°F with 15.4 inches of precipitation per year.
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. Monthly utility costs average around $275 across California, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. The average commute for Lompoc workers runs 26.1 minutes, with 66.4% driving alone and 6.0% 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 Lompoc'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 schools and households to climate and hazard context to comparison shortlist to population change to reported crime to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Lompoc, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, matched public-school count, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, 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. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Lompoc?
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 6.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 13.1%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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 16 public schools within the city match. 12.8% 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 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 59.3°F, with 15.4 inches of precipitation. 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Lompoc?
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 El Centro (44,186 residents, $56,093 income); Danville (43,426 residents, $223,206 income); Oakley (44,311 residents, $132,067 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Hicksville, NY (43,868 residents); Greenacres, FL (43,871 residents); Saginaw, MI (43,879 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.
Population change
Is Lompoc growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -1,073 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 45 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.
2020 estimate
44,388
2025 estimate
43,315
Period change
-2.4%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Lompoc?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1957.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 14% 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.
Total reported rate
1957.4
Violent rate
499.9
Property rate
1457.5
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What does the journey to work look like in Lompoc?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 66.4%. The reported mean trip to work is 26.1 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
66.4%
Work from home
6.0%
Public transit
4.3%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 17,692 workers age 16+.
Below median income · poverty 13.1% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
F
City profile score · Lompoc, CA
24/100
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 D
$70,038
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
13.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
500 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
12.8%
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.
Lompoc profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 49/100 (D) · $70,038
Poverty rate: 27/100 (F) · 13.1%
Violent crime: 16/100 (F) · 500 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 14/100 (F) · 12.8%
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Lompoc sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Lompoc'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 - Lompoc highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Lompoc, CA (this city): home $433,800, crime 1,957/100k
Saginaw, MI : home $54,000, crime 4,160/100k
Hickory, NC : home $248,300, crime 3,232/100k
Lombard, IL : home $321,200, crime 1,717/100k
El Centro, CA : home $291,100, crime 1,596/100k
Danville, CA : home $1,583,300, crime 647/100k
Oakley, CA : home $632,800, crime 1,113/100k
Rohnert Park, CA : home $634,900, crime 1,521/100k
Hollister, CA : home $679,300, crime 1,164/100k
Campbell, CA : home $1,550,000, crime 3,439/100k
How does Lompoc compare to other US cities?
Here's how Lompoc stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income49% higher than other cities
Home value80% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety33% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to California alone, Lompoc ranks #232 of 441 California cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Lompoc 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 Lompoc near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Lompoc ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Lompoc only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#922 of 1,338
31st percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#809 of 1,343
40th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#362 of 1,450
75th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,122 of 1,458
23rd 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
49th percentile nationally for median household income · 33rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Lompoc's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Lompoc'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 Lompoc's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$433,80020th percentilemore affordable than 20% 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
Lompoc's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,254 of 15,516
More affordable than 8% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,006 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 6.2×, Lompoc sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,254 of 15,516 and #3,006 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
$70,038Lompoc, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Lompoc, 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 Lompoc, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)12.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)13.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)54.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
43,819
Median Income
$70,038
Median Home Value
$433,800
Median Age
34.5
Poverty Rate
13.1%
Labor force participation
54.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
12.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1957.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
499.9
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1457.5
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
59.3°F
Annual Precipitation
15.4"
Annual Snowfall
0.0"
Schools
Total Schools
16
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Lompoc's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
44,388 residents
2021
43,352 residents
2022
44,382 residents
2023
43,224 residents
2024
43,522 residents
2025
43,315 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
45
housing units authorized
Single-Family
45
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
5
5
0
$1.2M
2020
0
0
0
-
2021
41
37
4
$6.2M
2022
11
11
0
$1.2M
2023
39
24
15
$2.4M
2024
45
45
0
$4.3M
Permit volume increased 800% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
26.1 minutes
Drive Alone
66.4%
Carpool
17.0%
Public Transit
4.3%
Walk
4.2%
Work from Home
6.0%
Other
2.1%
Based on 17,692 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 Lompoc. 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 Lompoc 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 Lompoc sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Lompoc 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.