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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-OCEANSIDE-CA · Oceanside, CA 172,542 pop · income 74th 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 Oceanside
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Oceanside on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Springfield · lowest
45,984
Springfield · lowest
45,984 median HH income
35.5% of the leader · rank #1
Oceanside · this city
93,724
Oceanside · this city
93,724 median HH income
72.4% of the leader · rank #2
Boonsboro · near
93,730
Boonsboro · near
93,730 median HH income
72.4% of the leader · rank #3
Maalaea · near
93,750
Maalaea · near
93,750 median HH income
72.5% of the leader · rank #4
Willow Lake · near
93,750
Willow Lake · near
93,750 median HH income
72.5% of the leader · rank #5
Montgomery · near
93,750
Montgomery · near
93,750 median HH income
72.5% of the leader · rank #6
Cary · highest
129,399
Cary · highest
129,399 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 Oceanside 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: 172,542.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Oceanside - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Oceanside places in the 74th percentile for household income and the 29th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
74th
percentile, household income
93rd
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
29th
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: Oceanside, CA
172,542 people live in Oceanside, California - a mid-sized U.S. city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Oceanside households earn a median of $93,724 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 4.5%. Home values in Oceanside run a median of $702,000, and the median resident age is 38.1 years. About 34.3% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 60.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 317 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Slowing), down 11% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 2130.7 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). NOAA puts Oceanside's yearly average temperature at 61.0°F with 11.9 inches of precipitation per year.
California carries a cost-of-living premium: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, California scores 110.7 (Well Above Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. 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. Commute times here average 25.2 minutes, with 71.4% driving alone and 14.8% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. 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 Oceanside'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 housing and income to comparison shortlist to schools and households to climate and hazard context to work and mobility to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Oceanside, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, annual population history, 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. Population change
Is Oceanside growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -3,581 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 317 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
How far does income reach against housing in Oceanside?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 7.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 4.5%, 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Oceanside?
Within California, the closest population matches are Garden Grove (170,603 residents, $90,166 income); Rancho Cucamonga (174,693 residents, $109,511 income); Lancaster (170,013 residents, $76,083 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Clarksville, TN (171,897 residents); Pembroke Pines, FL (170,557 residents); Fort Collins, CO (169,705 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.
What does the education layer cover for Oceanside?
The NCES join finds 39 public schools within the city match. 34.3% 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.
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.
Climate and hazard context
What physical conditions frame life in Oceanside?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 61.0°F, with 11.9 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.
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.
Mean temperature
61.0°F
Annual precipitation
11.9 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
88.7
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
What does the journey to work look like in Oceanside?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 71.4%. The reported mean trip to work is 25.2 minutes.
Public transit
2.1%
Work from home
14.8%
Drive alone
71.4%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 86,102 workers age 16+.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Oceanside?
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 2130.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 7% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1672.0
Violent rate
458.7
Total reported rate
2130.7
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Above median income · poverty 4.5% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
D
City profile score · Oceanside, CA
47/100
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 B
$93,724
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate B-
4.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share B-
34.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime F
459 /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.
Oceanside profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 73/100 (B) · $93,724
Poverty rate: 69/100 (B-) · 4.5%
Bachelor's+ share: 65/100 (B-) · 34.3%
Violent crime: 19/100 (F) · 459 /100k
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Oceanside sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Oceanside'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 - Oceanside highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Oceanside, CA (this city): home $702,000, crime 2,131/100k
Clarksville, TN : home $236,100, crime 2,042/100k
Fort Collins, CO : home $548,400, crime 2,428/100k
Springfield, MO : home $165,200, crime 5,363/100k
Salem, OR : home $382,400, crime 3,336/100k
Cary, NC : home $525,200, crime 1,388/100k
Garden Grove, CA : home $765,500, crime 2,035/100k
Rancho Cucamonga, CA : home $694,400, crime 2,105/100k
Lancaster, CA : home $409,100, crime 2,755/100k
Santa Rosa, CA : home $685,000, crime 1,663/100k
Elk Grove, CA : home $603,400, crime 1,422/100k
Ontario, CA : home $568,000, crime 2,090/100k
How does Oceanside compare to other US cities?
Oceanside measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income74% higher than other cities
Home value93% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety29% 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, Oceanside ranks #263 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 Oceanside 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 Oceanside near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Oceanside ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Oceanside only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#585 of 1,338
56th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#441 of 1,343
67th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#893 of 1,450
38th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#538 of 1,458
63rd 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
74th percentile nationally for median household income · 29th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Oceanside's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Oceanside'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 Oceanside's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$702,0007th 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
Oceanside's home-value-to-income ratio: 7.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,878 of 15,516
More affordable than 4% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#675 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 7.5×, Oceanside sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,878 of 15,516 and #675 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
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
$93,724Oceanside, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Oceanside, 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 Oceanside, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)34.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)4.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)60.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
172,542
Median Income
$93,724
Median Home Value
$702,000
Median Age
38.1
Poverty Rate
4.5%
Labor force participation
60.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
34.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2130.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
458.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1672.0
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
61.0°F
Annual Precipitation
11.9"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
39
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Oceanside's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
174,064 residents
2021
173,046 residents
2022
171,763 residents
2023
170,812 residents
2024
170,796 residents
2025
170,483 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Slowing
Total Permits (2024)
317
housing units authorized
Single-Family
167
detached homes
Multifamily
150
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.8
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
356
71
285
$64.9M
2020
223
33
190
$36.5M
2021
491
72
419
$110.2M
2022
518
82
436
$99.7M
2023
345
140
205
$44.9M
2024
317
167
150
$80.9M
Permit volume decreased 11% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
25.2 minutes
Drive Alone
71.4%
Carpool
7.9%
Public Transit
2.1%
Walk
1.1%
Work from Home
14.8%
Other
2.7%
Based on 86,102 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 Oceanside. 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 Oceanside 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 Oceanside sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Oceanside 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.