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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-SALIDA-CA · Salida, CA 14,457 pop · income 72nd 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 Salida
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Salida on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Corinth · lowest
41,243
Corinth · lowest
41,243 median HH income
16.5% of the leader · rank #1
Richland · near
91,979
Richland · near
91,979 median HH income
36.8% of the leader · rank #2
Salida · this city
91,990
Salida · this city
91,990 median HH income
36.8% of the leader · rank #3
Point Lay · near
92,000
Point Lay · near
92,000 median HH income
36.8% of the leader · rank #4
Northfield · near
92,000
Northfield · near
92,000 median HH income
36.8% of the leader · rank #5
Palm Valley · near
92,000
Palm Valley · near
92,000 median HH income
36.8% of the leader · rank #6
Alamo · highest
250,001
Alamo · 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 Salida 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: 14,457.
Salida ranks in the 72nd percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
72nd
percentile, household income
81st
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: Salida, CA
California's Salida is a small town, with 14,457 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Salida households earn a median of $91,990 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 10.3%. Salida's housing stock carries a median value of $448,700, and the median resident age is 33.9 years. 18.5% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 63.0% 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). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $2,053 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $275 across California, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 88.7 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Very High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Salida'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 schools and households 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 Salida, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Comparison shortlist
Which cities make useful reference points for Salida?
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 Livingston (14,450 residents, $76,158 income); Alamo (14,441 residents, $250,000+ income); Parlier (14,545 residents, $50,910 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Wilmington Island, GA (14,457 residents); Corinth, MS (14,450 residents); Oneonta, NY (14,467 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.
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. 18.5% 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Salida?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 84.8%. 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. 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Salida?
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 4.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 10.3%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Above median income · poverty 10.3% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
F
City profile score · Salida, CA
39/100
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.
Household income B
$91,990
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
10.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
18.5%
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).
Salida profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 71/100 (B) · $91,990
Poverty rate: 38/100 (F) · 10.3%
Bachelor's+ share: 30/100 (F) · 18.5%
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
How does Salida compare to other US cities?
Where Salida sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income72% higher than other cities
Home value81% 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 Salida 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 Salida near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Salida ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Salida only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#609 of 1,338
54th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#785 of 1,343
42nd percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#476 of 1,450
67th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#943 of 1,458
35th 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
72nd percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Salida's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$448,70019th percentilemore affordable than 19% 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
Salida's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#12,678 of 15,516
More affordable than 18% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,543 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 4.9×, Salida sits in the moderate band:
national rank #12,678 of 15,516 and #2,543 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$91,990Salida, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Salida, 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 Salida, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)18.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)10.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)63.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
14,457
Median Income
$91,990
Median Home Value
$448,700
Median Age
33.9
Poverty Rate
10.3%
Labor force participation
63.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
18.5%
Schools
Total Schools
4
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
84.8%
Carpool
9.6%
Public Transit
0.7%
Walk
0.3%
Work from Home
4.2%
Based on 7,070 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 Salida. 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 Salida 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 Salida sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Salida 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.