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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-OAKLAND-CA · Oakland, CA 438,072 pop · income 76th pct · 242 tracts
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 Oakland
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Oakland on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Tulsa · lowest
58,407
Tulsa · lowest
58,407 median HH income
60.0% of the leader · rank #1
Lake Shore · near
97,357
Lake Shore · near
97,357 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #2
Oakland · this city
97,369
Oakland · this city
97,369 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #3
Falmouth · highest
97,386
Falmouth · highest
97,386 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #4
Viera East · near
97,386
Viera East · near
97,386 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #5
Waterman · near
97,386
Waterman · near
97,386 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #6
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 Oakland 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: 438,072.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Oakland - the verdict
Nationally, Oakland sits in the 76th percentile for household income and the 1st percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
76th
percentile, household income
97th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
1st
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: Oakland, CA
Oakland is a mid-sized U.S. city in California, home to 438,072 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Oakland households earn a median of $97,369 annually, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 9.9%. Typical homes in Oakland are valued around $924,700, and the median resident age is 37.6 years. Educational attainment runs 47.9% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 64.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 402 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 78% from five years earlier. Oakland's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 9155.7 crimes per 100,000 residents, above 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 58.1°F with 18.7 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). 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 Oakland report an average commute of 23.4 minutes, with 47.8% driving alone and 23.4% 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 Oakland'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 population change to work and mobility to within-city variation to comparison shortlist to housing and income to reported crime to climate and hazard context to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Oakland, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history, commute-mode shares.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
Is Oakland growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -319 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 402 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Oakland?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 47.8%. The reported mean trip to work is 23.4 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. 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.
PlainCities matches 242 Census tracts to this city.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
Which cities make useful reference points for Oakland?
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 Long Beach (458,491 residents, $83,969 income); Bakersfield (408,366 residents, $77,397 income); Sacramento (524,802 residents, $83,753 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Miami, FL (446,663 residents); Minneapolis, MN (426,845 residents); Virginia Beach, VA (457,066 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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Oakland?
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 9.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 9.9%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
9.5×
Home value
$924,700
Household income
$97,369
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Oakland?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 9155.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 301% 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
9155.7
Violent rate
1925.3
Property rate
7230.3
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
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 58.1°F, with 18.7 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.
FEMA risk index (state avg)
88.7
Annual precipitation
18.7 in
Mean temperature
58.1°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
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 118 public schools within the city match. 47.9% 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.
Poverty estimate
9.9%
Bachelor's degree+
47.9%
Matched public schools
118
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
D
City profile score · Oakland, CA
41/100
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 A-
47.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income B+
$97,369
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate D
9.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better 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.
Violent crime F
1,925 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Oakland profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 82/100 (A-) · 47.9%
Household income: 76/100 (B+) · $97,369
Poverty rate: 40/100 (D) · 9.9%
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Violent crime: 0/100 (F) · 1,925 /100k
Where Oakland sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Oakland'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 - Oakland highlighted among 13 peers.Read the chart values
Oakland, CA (this city): home $924,700, crime 9,156/100k
Miami, FL : home $475,200, crime 3,468/100k
Minneapolis, MN : home $345,600, crime 6,303/100k
Virginia Beach, VA : home $366,300, crime 1,732/100k
Tulsa, OK : home $189,600, crime 4,569/100k
Raleigh, NC : home $377,800, crime 3,308/100k
Wichita, KS : home $179,500, crime 2,842/100k
Long Beach, CA : home $762,200, crime 4,155/100k
Bakersfield, CA : home $347,300, crime 3,024/100k
Sacramento, CA : home $484,600, crime 3,302/100k
Anaheim, CA : home $771,700, crime 2,728/100k
Fresno, CA : home $348,500, crime 4,007/100k
Stockton, CA : home $412,900, crime 3,785/100k
How does Oakland compare to other US cities?
Oakland measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income76% higher than other cities
Home value97% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety1% 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, Oakland ranks #437 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 Oakland 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 Oakland near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Oakland ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Oakland only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#543 of 1,338
59th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#276 of 1,343
79th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#500 of 1,450
65th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#300 of 1,458
79th 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
76th percentile nationally for median household income · 1st percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Oakland's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Oakland'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 Oakland's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$924,7003rd percentilemore affordable than 3% 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
Oakland's home-value-to-income ratio: 9.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#15,306 of 15,516
More affordable than 1% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#115 of 117
Large cities (200,000–999,999)
At 9.5×, Oakland sits in the pressured band:
national rank #15,306 of 15,516 and #115 of 117large cities (200,000–999,999).
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
$97,369Oakland, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Oakland, 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 Oakland, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)47.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)9.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)64.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
438,072
Median Income
$97,369
Median Home Value
$924,700
Median Age
37.6
Poverty Rate
9.9%
Labor force participation
64.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
47.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
9155.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
1925.3
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
7230.3
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
58.1°F
Annual Precipitation
18.7"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
118
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Oakland's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
441,157 residents
2021
437,373 residents
2022
436,240 residents
2023
438,301 residents
2024
440,173 residents
2025
440,838 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
402
housing units authorized
Single-Family
46
detached homes
Multifamily
356
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.9
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
1,862
282
1,580
$360.9M
2020
830
98
732
$206.9M
2021
1,351
114
1,237
$274.6M
2022
1,443
126
1,317
$242.0M
2023
479
34
445
$77.3M
2024
402
46
356
$78.9M
Permit volume decreased 78% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
23.4 minutes
Drive Alone
47.8%
Carpool
7.2%
Public Transit
14.5%
Walk
3.0%
Work from Home
23.4%
Other
4.1%
Based on 227,272 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 Oakland. 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 Oakland 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 Oakland sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Oakland 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.