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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-PARADISE-CA · Paradise, CA 6,793 pop · income 46th 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 Paradise
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Paradise on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Donaldsonville · lowest
24,160
Donaldsonville · lowest
24,160 median HH income
20.0% of the leader · rank #1
Nellis AFB · near
67,036
Nellis AFB · near
67,036 median HH income
55.4% of the leader · rank #2
Paradise · this city
67,042
Paradise · this city
67,042 median HH income
55.4% of the leader · rank #3
Breesport · near
67,043
Breesport · near
67,043 median HH income
55.4% of the leader · rank #4
Benjamin · near
67,045
Benjamin · near
67,045 median HH income
55.4% of the leader · rank #5
Hurley · near
67,051
Hurley · near
67,051 median HH income
55.4% of the leader · rank #6
Ben Lomond · highest
120,977
Ben Lomond · highest
120,977 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 Paradise 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: 6,793.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Paradise - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Paradise lands in the 46th percentile for household income and the 65th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
46th
percentile, household income
77th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
65th
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: Paradise, CA
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 6,793 residents in Paradise, a small town within California. Median household income here is $67,042 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 18.4%. Paradise's housing stock carries a median value of $391,100, and the median resident age is 60.3 years. About 30.9% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 29.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 461 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Rapid Growth), up 48% from five years earlier. Paradise reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 978.7 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 61.5°F with 56.3 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). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $2,053 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $275 across California, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Paradise'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 climate and hazard context to housing and income to schools and households to comparison shortlist to work and mobility to population change to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Paradise, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, local building permits, annual population history.
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 physical conditions frame life in Paradise?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 61.5°F, with 56.3 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Paradise?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 5.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 18.4%, 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.
The NCES join finds 9 public schools within the city match. 30.9% 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.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Paradise?
Within California, the closest population matches are Vandenberg (6,793 residents, $104,714 income); Loomis (6,809 residents, $103,435 income); Joshua Tree (6,767 residents, $64,036 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Spotsylvania Courthouse, VA (6,793 residents); Donaldsonville, LA (6,792 residents); Bowleys Quarters, MD (6,795 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 Paradise?
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 77.6%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
1.5%
Work from home
14.6%
Drive alone
77.6%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 1,718 workers age 16+.
Is Paradise growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +4,933 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +96.9% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 461 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+96.9%
2025 estimate
10,023
2020 estimate
5,090
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Paradise?
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 978.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 57% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
693.2
Violent rate
285.5
Total reported rate
978.7
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Below median income · poverty 18.4% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
F
City profile score · Paradise, CA
31/100
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 C
30.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income D
$67,042
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
286 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate F
18.4%
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.
Paradise profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 59/100 (C) · 30.9%
Household income: 45/100 (D) · $67,042
Violent crime: 35/100 (F) · 286 /100k
Poverty rate: 16/100 (F) · 18.4%
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Paradise sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Paradise'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 - Paradise highlighted among 24 peers.Read the chart values
Paradise, CA (this city): home $391,100, crime 979/100k
Marshall, MI : home $169,800, crime 1,391/100k
Bennettsville, SC : home $82,700, crime 4,557/100k
Sturtevant, WI : home $231,000, crime 554/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Paradise compare to other US cities?
Where Paradise sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income46% higher than other cities
Home value77% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety65% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at California, Paradise ranks #55 of 441 California cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Paradise 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 Paradise near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Paradise ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Paradise only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#960 of 1,338
28th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#879 of 1,343
35th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#216 of 1,450
85th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#605 of 1,458
58th 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
46th percentile nationally for median household income · 65th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Paradise's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Paradise'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 Paradise's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$391,10023rd percentilemore affordable than 23% 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
Paradise's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#13,956 of 15,516
More affordable than 10% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#10,377 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 5.8×, Paradise sits in the pressured band:
national rank #13,956 of 15,516 and #10,377 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
$67,042Paradise, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Paradise, 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 Paradise, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)30.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)18.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)29.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
6,793
Median Income
$67,042
Median Home Value
$391,100
Median Age
60.3
Poverty Rate
18.4%
Labor force participation
29.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
30.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
978.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
285.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
693.2
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
61.5°F
Annual Precipitation
56.3"
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
Paradise's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
5,090 residents
2021
6,565 residents
2022
7,654 residents
2023
8,512 residents
2024
9,264 residents
2025
10,023 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Rapid Growth
Total Permits (2024)
461
housing units authorized
Single-Family
345
detached homes
Multifamily
116
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
67.9
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
312
312
0
$78.6M
2020
1,035
826
209
$195.5M
2021
764
672
92
$146.6M
2022
559
471
88
$176.6M
2023
374
291
83
$67.6M
2024
461
345
116
$76.5M
Permit volume increased 48% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
77.6%
Carpool
4.0%
Public Transit
1.5%
Walk
1.2%
Work from Home
14.6%
Other
1.1%
Based on 1,718 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 Paradise. 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 Paradise 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 Paradise sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Paradise 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.