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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-OJAI-CA · Ojai, CA 7,576 pop · income 61st 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 Ojai
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Ojai on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Arcadia · lowest
38,388
Arcadia · lowest
38,388 median HH income
23.1% of the leader · rank #1
Lannon · near
79,191
Lannon · near
79,191 median HH income
47.6% of the leader · rank #2
New Richmond · near
79,195
New Richmond · near
79,195 median HH income
47.6% of the leader · rank #3
Spencerport · near
79,200
Spencerport · near
79,200 median HH income
47.6% of the leader · rank #4
Ojai · this city
79,202
Ojai · this city
79,202 median HH income
47.6% of the leader · rank #5
Wright-Patter… · near
79,205
Wright-Patter… · near
79,205 median HH income
47.6% of the leader · rank #6
Gold River · highest
166,250
Gold River · highest
166,250 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 Ojai 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: 7,576.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Ojai - the verdict
Nationally, Ojai sits in the 61st percentile for household income and the 62nd percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
61st
percentile, household income
97th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
62nd
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: Ojai, CA
California's Ojai is a small town, with 7,576 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in Ojai report a median income of $79,202 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 7.9%. Ojai's housing stock carries a median value of $947,000, and the median resident age is 48.3 years. 46.2% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 50.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 10 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 52% from five years earlier. Ojai reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1038.9 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Ojai's yearly average temperature at 60.1°F with 20.7 inches of precipitation per year and 0.1 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). 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. Natural-hazard exposure scores 88.7 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Very High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Ojai'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 schools and households to housing and income to work and mobility to climate and hazard context to reported crime to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Ojai, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, local building permits, matched public-school count, 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 Ojai 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 -149 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.0% 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 NCES join finds 9 public schools within the city match. 46.2% 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.
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.
How far does income reach against housing in Ojai?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 12.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 7.9%, 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 Ojai?
Within California, the closest population matches are Hughson (7,541 residents, $92,303 income); Cotati (7,533 residents, $112,841 income); California Polytechnic State University (7,529 residents). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are London, KY (7,576 residents); Brighton, MI (7,576 residents); Baywood, NY (7,577 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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Ojai?
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 60.5%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
1.3%
Work from home
23.2%
Drive alone
60.5%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 3,062 workers age 16+.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 60.1°F, with 20.7 inches of precipitation and 0.1 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.
Mean temperature
60.1°F
Annual precipitation
20.7 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.
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 1038.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 54% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
769.0
Violent rate
269.8
Total reported rate
1038.9
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Above median income · poverty 7.9% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
D
City profile score · Ojai, CA
45/100
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-
46.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income C
$79,202
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate D
7.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
270 /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.
Ojai profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 80/100 (A-) · 46.2%
Household income: 59/100 (C) · $79,202
Poverty rate: 48/100 (D) · 7.9%
Violent crime: 37/100 (F) · 270 /100k
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Ojai sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Ojai'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 - Ojai highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Ojai, CA (this city): home $947,000, crime 1,039/100k
London, KY : home $155,500, crime 2,749/100k
Brighton, MI : home $302,800, crime 1,339/100k
Ellwood City, PA : home $120,400, crime 906/100k
Arcadia, FL : home $158,900, crime 1,878/100k
Uniontown, OH : home $241,900, crime 1,525/100k
Hughson, CA : home $480,100, crime 581/100k
Cotati, CA : home $702,500, crime 1,247/100k
Woodlake, CA : home $263,700, crime 1,556/100k
How does Ojai compare to other US cities?
Here's how Ojai stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income61% higher than other cities
Home value97% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety62% 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, Ojai ranks #64 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 Ojai 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 Ojai near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Ojai ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Ojai only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#789 of 1,338
41st percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#266 of 1,343
80th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#619 of 1,450
57th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#321 of 1,458
78th 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
61st percentile nationally for median household income · 62nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Ojai's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Ojai'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 Ojai's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$947,0003rd 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
Ojai's home-value-to-income ratio: 12.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#15,451 of 15,516
More affordable than 0% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#11,280 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 12.0×, Ojai sits in the pressured band:
national rank #15,451 of 15,516 and #11,280 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
$79,202Ojai, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Ojai, 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 Ojai, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)46.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)7.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)50.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
7,576
Median Income
$79,202
Median Home Value
$947,000
Median Age
48.3
Poverty Rate
7.9%
Labor force participation
50.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
46.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1038.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
269.8
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
769.0
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
60.1°F
Annual Precipitation
20.7"
Annual Snowfall
0.1"
Schools
Total Schools
9
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Ojai's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
7,623 residents
2021
7,595 residents
2022
7,538 residents
2023
7,505 residents
2024
7,515 residents
2025
7,474 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
10
housing units authorized
Single-Family
10
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
21
15
6
$2.6M
2020
26
26
0
$0.5M
2021
21
21
0
$0.5M
2022
42
42
0
$4.6M
2023
13
13
0
$2.2M
2024
10
10
0
$1.2M
Permit volume decreased 52% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
60.5%
Carpool
6.9%
Public Transit
1.3%
Walk
5.1%
Work from Home
23.2%
Other
3.0%
Based on 3,062 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 Ojai. 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 Ojai 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 Ojai sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Ojai 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.