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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-PASADENA-CA · Pasadena, CA 136,462 pop · income 80th 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 Pasadena
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Pasadena on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Dayton · lowest
43,454
Dayton · lowest
43,454 median HH income
25.0% of the leader · rank #1
Grantfork · near
103,750
Grantfork · near
103,750 median HH income
59.7% of the leader · rank #2
Donahue · near
103,750
Donahue · near
103,750 median HH income
59.7% of the leader · rank #3
Alexandria · near
103,750
Alexandria · near
103,750 median HH income
59.7% of the leader · rank #4
Sunbury · near
103,774
Sunbury · near
103,774 median HH income
59.8% of the leader · rank #5
Pasadena · this city
103,778
Pasadena · this city
103,778 median HH income
59.8% 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 Pasadena 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: 136,462.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Pasadena - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Pasadena lands in the 80th percentile for household income and the 14th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
80th
percentile, household income
97th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
14th
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: Pasadena, CA
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 136,462 residents in Pasadena, a mid-sized U.S. city within California. The typical household in Pasadena brings in $103,778 a year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 7.9%. Pasadena's housing stock carries a median value of $1,045,000, and the median resident age is 40.1 years. Educational attainment runs 56.0% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 63.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 149 residential building permits were authorized in Pasadena (Construction Slowdown), down 41% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Pasadena's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 3177.3 crimes per 100,000 residents, above the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Pasadena's yearly average temperature at 66.0°F with 20.1 inches of precipitation per year.
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. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts California's average monthly utility costs around $275 (state average). Workers in Pasadena report an average commute of 20.8 minutes, with 58.7% driving alone and 23.6% working from home. 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 Pasadena'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 comparison shortlist to work and mobility to schools and households to population change to climate and hazard context to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Pasadena, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, local building permits.
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. Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Pasadena?
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 3177.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 39% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Which cities make useful reference points for Pasadena?
Within California, the closest population matches are Victorville (135,983 residents, $70,663 income); Orange (138,723 residents, $116,945 income); Fullerton (141,278 residents, $104,219 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Dayton, OH (136,741 residents); Cedar Rapids, IA (136,859 residents); Miramar, FL (135,986 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 journey to work look like in Pasadena?
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 58.7%. The reported mean trip to work is 20.8 minutes.
The NCES join finds 19 public schools within the city match. 56.0% 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.
Population change
Is Pasadena 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 -3,556 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.6% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 149 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
-2.6%
2025 estimate
135,804
2020 estimate
139,360
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 66.0°F, with 20.1 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
66.0°F
Annual precipitation
20.1 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Pasadena?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 10.1 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.
Household income
$103,778
Home value
$1,045,000
Value / income
10.1×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
D
City profile score · Pasadena, 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.
Bachelor's+ share A
56.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income B+
$103,778
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
480 /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.
Pasadena profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 89/100 (A) · 56.0%
Household income: 79/100 (B+) · $103,778
Poverty rate: 48/100 (D) · 7.9%
Violent crime: 17/100 (F) · 480 /100k
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Pasadena sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Pasadena'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 - Pasadena highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Pasadena, CA (this city): home $1,045,000, crime 3,177/100k
Dayton, OH : home $93,200, crime 5,673/100k
Cedar Rapids, IA : home $177,100, crime 2,951/100k
Elizabeth, NJ : home $393,500, crime 3,066/100k
Stamford, CT : home $614,300, crime 1,383/100k
Hampton, VA : home $234,100, crime 3,130/100k
Victorville, CA : home $342,500, crime 3,145/100k
Orange, CA : home $900,700, crime 1,514/100k
Fullerton, CA : home $859,600, crime 2,479/100k
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 Pasadena compare to other US cities?
Where Pasadena sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income80% higher than other cities
Home value97% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety14% 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, Pasadena ranks #377 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 Pasadena 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 Pasadena near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Pasadena ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Pasadena only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#469 of 1,338
65th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#215 of 1,343
84th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#619 of 1,450
57th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#212 of 1,458
85th 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
80th percentile nationally for median household income · 14th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Pasadena's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Pasadena'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 Pasadena's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$1,045,0003rd 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
Pasadena's home-value-to-income ratio: 10.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#15,358 of 15,516
More affordable than 1% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#733 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 10.1×, Pasadena sits in the pressured band:
national rank #15,358 of 15,516 and #733 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
$103,778Pasadena, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Pasadena, 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 Pasadena, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)56.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)7.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)63.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
136,462
Median Income
$103,778
Median Home Value
$1,045,000
Median Age
40.1
Poverty Rate
7.9%
Labor force participation
63.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
56.0%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3177.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
480.4
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2696.9
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
66.0°F
Annual Precipitation
20.1"
Annual Snowfall
0.0"
Schools
Total Schools
19
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Pasadena's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
139,360 residents
2021
137,066 residents
2022
135,652 residents
2023
135,719 residents
2024
136,398 residents
2025
135,804 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
149
housing units authorized
Single-Family
96
detached homes
Multifamily
53
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
252
35
217
$56.3M
2020
336
23
313
$78.8M
2021
330
46
284
$34.9M
2022
96
51
45
$22.7M
2023
57
55
2
$16.7M
2024
149
96
53
$46.8M
Permit volume decreased 41% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
20.8 minutes
Drive Alone
58.7%
Carpool
4.7%
Public Transit
4.1%
Walk
4.7%
Work from Home
23.6%
Other
4.2%
Based on 72,641 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 Pasadena. 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 Pasadena 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 Pasadena sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Pasadena 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.