Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetCA-PALO-CEDRO-CA · Palo Cedro, CA 3,561 pop · income 87th 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 Palo Cedro
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Palo Cedro on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Blackshear · lowest
34,267
Blackshear · lowest
34,267 median HH income
13.7% of the leader · rank #1
Wethersfield · near
118,523
Wethersfield · near
118,523 median HH income
47.4% of the leader · rank #2
Arlington Hei… · near
118,529
Arlington Hei… · near
118,529 median HH income
47.4% of the leader · rank #3
Arlington Hei… · near
118,532
Arlington Hei… · near
118,532 median HH income
47.4% of the leader · rank #4
Palo Cedro · this city
118,542
Palo Cedro · this city
118,542 median HH income
47.4% of the leader · rank #5
Farmington · near
118,556
Farmington · near
118,556 median HH income
47.4% of the leader · rank #6
Compo · highest
250,001
Compo · highest
250,001 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Palo Cedro on ACS population and median household income
. 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: 3,561.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Palo Cedro lands in the 87th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
87th
percentile, household income
86th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
📝 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: Palo Cedro, CA
Palo Cedro is a small town in California, home to 3,561 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $118,542 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 1.4%. Typical homes in Palo Cedro are valued around $529,900, and the median resident age is 41.2 years. 44.3% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 58.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 4 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
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). 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 Palo Cedro'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 schools and households to comparison shortlist to work and mobility to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Palo Cedro, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Palo Cedro?
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 4 public schools within the city match. 44.3% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Palo Cedro?
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.
Within California, the closest population matches are Del Monte Forest (3,576 residents, $154,730 income); Squaw Valley (3,584 residents, $81,094 income); Marin (3,597 residents, $73,077 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Compo, CT (3,561 residents); Kensington Park, FL (3,561 residents); Blackshear, GA (3,562 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Palo Cedro?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 76.4%. 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 Palo Cedro?
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 4.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 1.4%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
B-
City profile score · Palo Cedro, CA
65/100
4 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.
Poverty rate A+
1.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income A
$118,542
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share B+
44.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; 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 N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Palo Cedro profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 90/100 (A+) · 1.4%
Household income: 85/100 (A) · $118,542
Bachelor's+ share: 79/100 (B+) · 44.3%
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
How does Palo Cedro compare to other US cities?
Palo Cedro measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income87% higher than other cities
Home value86% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Palo Cedro 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 Palo Cedro near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Palo Cedro ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Palo Cedro only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#339 of 1,338
75th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#664 of 1,343
51st percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#1,146 of 1,450
20th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#347 of 1,458
76th 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
87th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Palo Cedro's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$529,90014th percentilemore affordable than 14% 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
Palo Cedro's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,915 of 15,516
More affordable than 23% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#9,140 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.5×, Palo Cedro sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,915 of 15,516 and #9,140 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
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
$118,542Palo Cedro, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Palo Cedro, 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 Palo Cedro, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)44.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)1.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)58.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
3,561
Median Income
$118,542
Median Home Value
$529,900
Median Age
41.2
Poverty Rate
1.4%
Labor force participation
58.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
44.3%
Schools
Total Schools
4
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
76.4%
Carpool
5.1%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
1.2%
Work from Home
17.3%
Based on 1,384 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 Palo Cedro. 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 Palo Cedro 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 Palo Cedro sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Palo Cedro 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, 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.