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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-PETALUMA-CA · Petaluma, CA 59,321 pop · income 83rd 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 Petaluma
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Petaluma on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Mayagüez zona… · lowest
17,092
Mayagüez zona… · lowest
17,092 median HH income
7.4% of the leader · rank #1
Barbourmeade · near
109,800
Barbourmeade · near
109,800 median HH income
47.5% of the leader · rank #2
Glasgow · near
109,803
Glasgow · near
109,803 median HH income
47.5% of the leader · rank #3
James · near
109,808
James · near
109,808 median HH income
47.5% of the leader · rank #4
Lodi · near
109,821
Lodi · near
109,821 median HH income
47.5% of the leader · rank #5
Petaluma · this city
109,823
Petaluma · this city
109,823 median HH income
47.5% of the leader · rank #6
Cupertino · highest
231,139
Cupertino · highest
231,139 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 Petaluma 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: 59,321.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Petaluma - the verdict
Petaluma ranks in the 83rd percentile for household income and the 48th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
83rd
percentile, household income
95th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
48th
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: Petaluma, CA
California's Petaluma is a small city, with 59,321 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Petaluma households earn a median of $109,823 annually, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 2.5%. Typical homes in Petaluma are valued around $834,900, and the median resident age is 45.0 years. About 42.9% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 60.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 9 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 86% from five years earlier. Petaluma reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 1444.6 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). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 58.0°F with 25.6 inches of precipitation per year.
California carries a cost-of-living premium: the state registers 110.7 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Well Above Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $2,053 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in California run around $275, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. The average commute for Petaluma workers runs 24.9 minutes, with 69.6% driving alone and 18.0% working from home. 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 Petaluma'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 comparison shortlist to climate and hazard context to population change to work and mobility to housing and income to reported crime to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Petaluma, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, local building permits, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, 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
Which cities make useful reference points for Petaluma?
Within California, the closest population matches are Hanford (59,389 residents, $73,544 income); Santee (59,485 residents, $105,613 income); Monterey Park (59,639 residents, $77,605 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Shoreline, WA (59,280 residents); Dubuque, IA (59,271 residents); Kokomo, IN (59,375 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.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 58.0°F, with 25.6 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.
Is Petaluma growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -64 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 9 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
What does the journey to work look like in Petaluma?
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 69.6%. The reported mean trip to work is 24.9 minutes.
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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Petaluma?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 7.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 2.5%, 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
$109,823
Home value
$834,900
Value / income
7.6×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Petaluma?
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 1444.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 37% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1172.8
Violent rate
271.8
Total reported rate
1444.6
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
The NCES join finds 36 public schools within the city match. 42.9% 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.
Matched public schools
36
Bachelor's degree+
42.9%
Poverty estimate
2.5%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
C
City profile score · Petaluma, CA
57/100
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.
Poverty rate A-
2.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income A-
$109,823
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share B+
42.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime F
272 /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.
Petaluma profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 82/100 (A-) · 2.5%
Household income: 81/100 (A-) · $109,823
Bachelor's+ share: 78/100 (B+) · 42.9%
Violent crime: 37/100 (F) · 272 /100k
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Petaluma sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Petaluma'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 - Petaluma highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Petaluma, CA (this city): home $834,900, crime 1,445/100k
Shoreline, WA : home $759,400, crime 2,745/100k
Dubuque, IA : home $193,100, crime 1,836/100k
Kokomo, IN : home $126,500, crime 1,902/100k
Des Plaines, IL : home $318,200, crime 1,260/100k
Blue Springs, MO : home $241,500, crime 2,684/100k
Hanford, CA : home $323,600, crime 1,636/100k
Santee, CA : home $653,400, crime 826/100k
Monterey Park, CA : home $818,300, crime 2,385/100k
Cupertino, CA : home $2,000,000+, crime 1,678/100k
Gardena, CA : home $667,600, crime 3,755/100k
Gilroy, CA : home $975,800, crime 2,625/100k
How does Petaluma compare to other US cities?
Where Petaluma sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income83% higher than other cities
Home value95% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety48% 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: Petaluma ranks #129 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 Petaluma 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 Petaluma near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Petaluma ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Petaluma only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#404 of 1,338
70th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#334 of 1,343
75th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#1,072 of 1,450
25th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#372 of 1,458
74th 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
83rd percentile nationally for median household income · 48th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Petaluma's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Petaluma'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 Petaluma's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$834,9005th percentilemore affordable than 5% 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
Petaluma's home-value-to-income ratio: 7.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,907 of 15,516
More affordable than 4% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#679 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 7.6×, Petaluma sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,907 of 15,516 and #679 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
$109,823Petaluma, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Petaluma, 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 Petaluma, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)42.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)2.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)60.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
59,321
Median Income
$109,823
Median Home Value
$834,900
Median Age
45.0
Poverty Rate
2.5%
Labor force participation
60.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
42.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1444.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
271.8
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1172.8
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
58.0°F
Annual Precipitation
25.6"
Annual Snowfall
0.0"
Schools
Total Schools
36
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Petaluma's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
59,752 residents
2021
59,295 residents
2022
58,906 residents
2023
59,030 residents
2024
59,438 residents
2025
59,688 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
9
housing units authorized
Single-Family
9
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
64
47
17
$14.6M
2020
21
21
0
$5.4M
2021
111
111
0
$28.3M
2022
90
46
44
$36.9M
2023
221
37
184
$50.3M
2024
9
9
0
$4.5M
Permit volume decreased 86% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
24.9 minutes
Drive Alone
69.6%
Carpool
6.8%
Public Transit
1.5%
Walk
2.5%
Work from Home
18.0%
Other
1.6%
Based on 29,578 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 Petaluma. 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 Petaluma 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 Petaluma sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Petaluma 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.