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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-NEVADA-CITY-CA · Nevada City, CA 3,168 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 Nevada City
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Nevada City on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
East Gaffney · lowest
26,314
East Gaffney · lowest
26,314 median HH income
20.9% of the leader · rank #1
Balfour · near
69,545
Balfour · near
69,545 median HH income
55.2% of the leader · rank #2
Springdale · near
69,545
Springdale · near
69,545 median HH income
55.2% of the leader · rank #3
Nevada City · this city
69,552
Nevada City · this city
69,552 median HH income
55.2% of the leader · rank #4
El Valle de A… · near
69,556
El Valle de A… · near
69,556 median HH income
55.2% of the leader · rank #5
Lindsborg · near
69,559
Lindsborg · near
69,559 median HH income
55.2% of the leader · rank #6
Dogtown · highest
126,042
Dogtown · highest
126,042 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 Nevada City 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: 3,168.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Nevada City - the verdict
Nationally, Nevada City sits in the 49th percentile for household income and the 16th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
49th
percentile, household income
89th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
16th
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: Nevada City, CA
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 3,168 residents in Nevada City, a small town within California. The typical household in Nevada City brings in $69,552 a year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 5.2%. Typical homes in Nevada City are valued around $607,300, and the median resident age is 49.4 years. 39.0% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 53.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Nevada City's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 2984.6 incidents per 100,000 residents, above the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 56.2°F with 62.3 inches of precipitation per year and 14.5 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. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts California's average monthly utility costs around $275 (state average). FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 88.7 out of 100 (Very High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Nevada City'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 climate and hazard context to schools and households to reported crime to housing and income to population change to work and mobility to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Nevada City, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, annual population history, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What physical conditions frame life in Nevada City?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 56.2°F, with 62.3 inches of precipitation and 14.5 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.
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.
What does the education layer cover for Nevada City?
The NCES join finds 10 public schools within the city match. 39.0% 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 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Nevada City?
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 2984.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 31% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Which cities make useful reference points for Nevada City?
Within California, the closest population matches are Dogtown (3,180 residents, $126,042 income); Lucerne (3,156 residents, $47,460 income); Mountain View Acres (3,155 residents, $70,179 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Byrnes Mill, MO (3,168 residents); Corning, AR (3,169 residents); Tilton Northfield, NH (3,169 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 Nevada City?
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 5.2%, 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
$69,552
Home value
$607,300
Value / income
8.7×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Is Nevada City growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +34 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.1% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+1.1%
2025 estimate
3,174
2020 estimate
3,140
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the journey to work look like in Nevada City?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 58.8%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
31.2%
Drive alone
58.8%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 1,397 workers age 16+.
Below median income · poverty 5.2% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
F
City profile score · Nevada City, CA
37/100
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 B
39.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate C+
5.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income D
$69,552
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.
Violent crime F
1,754 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Nevada City profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 73/100 (B) · 39.0%
Poverty rate: 64/100 (C+) · 5.2%
Household income: 49/100 (D) · $69,552
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Violent crime: 0/100 (F) · 1,754 /100k
Where Nevada City sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Nevada City'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 - Nevada City highlighted among 24 peers.Read the chart values
Nevada City, CA (this city): home $607,300, crime 2,985/100k
Byrnes Mill, MO : home $249,500, crime 910/100k
Corning, AR : home $85,800, crime 907/100k
Blue Earth, MN : home $125,200, crime 569/100k
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 Nevada City compare to other US cities?
Nevada City measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income49% higher than other cities
Home value89% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety16% 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: Nevada City ranks #355 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 Nevada City 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 Nevada City near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Nevada City ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Nevada City only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#927 of 1,338
31st percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#570 of 1,343
58th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#825 of 1,450
43rd percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#443 of 1,458
70th 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 · 16th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Nevada City's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Nevada City'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 Nevada City's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$607,30011th percentilemore affordable than 11% 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
Nevada City's home-value-to-income ratio: 8.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#15,201 of 15,516
More affordable than 2% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#11,135 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 8.7×, Nevada City sits in the pressured band:
national rank #15,201 of 15,516 and #11,135 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$69,552Nevada City, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Nevada City, 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 Nevada City, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)39.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)5.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)53.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
3,168
Median Income
$69,552
Median Home Value
$607,300
Median Age
49.4
Poverty Rate
5.2%
Labor force participation
53.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
39.0%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2984.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
1753.8
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1230.8
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
56.2°F
Annual Precipitation
62.3"
Annual Snowfall
14.5"
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
Nevada City's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
3,140 residents
2021
3,105 residents
2022
3,143 residents
2023
3,163 residents
2024
3,181 residents
2025
3,174 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
58.8%
Carpool
1.6%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
4.3%
Work from Home
31.2%
Other
4.1%
Based on 1,397 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 Nevada City. 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 Nevada City 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 Nevada City sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Nevada City 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 ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.