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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-ORANGE-CA · Orange, CA 138,723 pop · income 86th 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 Orange
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Orange on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Carolina zona… · lowest
35,843
Carolina zona… · lowest
35,843 median HH income
20.6% of the leader · rank #1
Pocono Woodla… · near
116,932
Pocono Woodla… · near
116,932 median HH income
67.3% of the leader · rank #2
Lake Mary · near
116,944
Lake Mary · near
116,944 median HH income
67.3% of the leader · rank #3
Orange · this city
116,945
Orange · this city
116,945 median HH income
67.3% of the leader · rank #4
Beach Haven W… · near
116,949
Beach Haven W… · near
116,949 median HH income
67.3% of the leader · rank #5
Hibernia · near
116,971
Hibernia · near
116,971 median HH income
67.4% of the leader · rank #6
Santa Clara · highest
173,670
Santa Clara · highest
173,670 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 Orange 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: 138,723.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Orange - the verdict
Orange ranks in the 86th percentile for household income and the 46th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
86th
percentile, household income
96th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
46th
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: Orange, CA
Orange is a mid-sized U.S. city in California, home to 138,723 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $116,945 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 5.4%. Home values in Orange run a median of $900,700, and the median resident age is 36.9 years. About 40.1% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 63.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 232 residential building permits were authorized in Orange (Construction Slowdown), down 47% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Orange reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 1514.1 crimes per 100,000 residents, below the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score).
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. 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. 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 Orange'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 reported crime to work and mobility to housing and income to comparison shortlist to population change to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Orange, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
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.
Question 1
What can the FBI record say about safety in Orange?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1514.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 34% 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Orange?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 69.1%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
How far does income reach against housing in Orange?
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 7.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 5.4%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Orange?
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 Pasadena (136,462 residents, $103,778 income); Fullerton (141,278 residents, $104,219 income); Victorville (135,983 residents, $70,663 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Metairie, LA (138,995 residents); Carolina zona urbana, PR (139,051 residents); Warren, MI (138,128 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 Orange growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -1,098 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 232 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.
2020 estimate
139,463
2025 estimate
138,365
Period change
-0.8%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
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 28 public schools within the city match. 40.1% 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
5.4%
Bachelor's degree+
40.1%
Matched public schools
28
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
C
City profile score · Orange, CA
55/100
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 A-
$116,945
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share B+
40.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate C+
5.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime D
226 /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.
Orange profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 84/100 (A-) · $116,945
Bachelor's+ share: 75/100 (B+) · 40.1%
Poverty rate: 63/100 (C+) · 5.4%
Violent crime: 44/100 (D) · 226 /100k
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Orange sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Orange'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 - Orange highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Orange, CA (this city): home $900,700, crime 1,514/100k
Warren, MI : home $181,900, crime 2,096/100k
Columbia, SC : home $243,500, crime 4,003/100k
Hampton, VA : home $234,100, crime 3,130/100k
Pasadena, CA : home $1,045,000, crime 3,177/100k
Fullerton, CA : home $859,600, crime 2,479/100k
Victorville, CA : home $342,500, crime 3,145/100k
Visalia, CA : home $340,600, crime 2,566/100k
Torrance, CA : home $1,036,600, crime 3,087/100k
Santa Clara, CA : home $1,527,900, crime 2,684/100k
How does Orange compare to other US cities?
Where Orange sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income86% higher than other cities
Home value96% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety46% 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: Orange ranks #148 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 Orange 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 Orange near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Orange ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Orange only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#354 of 1,338
74th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#290 of 1,343
78th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#803 of 1,450
44th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#419 of 1,458
71st 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
86th percentile nationally for median household income · 46th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Orange's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Orange'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 Orange's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$900,7004th percentilemore affordable than 4% 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
Orange's home-value-to-income ratio: 7.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,934 of 15,516
More affordable than 4% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#683 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 7.7×, Orange sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,934 of 15,516 and #683 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
$116,945Orange, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Orange, 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 Orange, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)40.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)5.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)63.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
138,723
Median Income
$116,945
Median Home Value
$900,700
Median Age
36.9
Poverty Rate
5.4%
Labor force participation
63.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
40.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1514.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
226.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1288.0
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.
Schools
Total Schools
28
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Orange's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
139,463 residents
2021
138,673 residents
2022
138,416 residents
2023
138,558 residents
2024
138,324 residents
2025
138,365 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
232
housing units authorized
Single-Family
66
detached homes
Multifamily
166
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
440
75
365
$63.1M
2020
40
40
0
$5.7M
2021
131
79
52
$19.0M
2022
78
76
2
$9.9M
2023
55
53
2
$7.0M
2024
232
66
166
$37.4M
Permit volume decreased 47% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
69.1%
Carpool
9.3%
Public Transit
1.2%
Walk
3.2%
Work from Home
15.9%
Other
1.3%
Based on 70,565 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 Orange. 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 Orange 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 Orange sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Orange 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, 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.