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-SAN-FERNANDO-CA · San Fernando, CA 23,716 pop · income 61st 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 San Fernando
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest San Fernando on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Brookings · lowest
61,979
Brookings · lowest
61,979 median HH income
33.6% of the leader · rank #1
Colchester · near
79,685
Colchester · near
79,685 median HH income
43.2% of the leader · rank #2
Flint Hill · near
79,688
Flint Hill · near
79,688 median HH income
43.2% of the leader · rank #3
Bloomville · near
79,688
Bloomville · near
79,688 median HH income
43.2% of the leader · rank #4
Markleysburg · near
79,688
Markleysburg · near
79,688 median HH income
43.2% of the leader · rank #5
San Fernando · this city
79,694
San Fernando · this city
79,694 median HH income
43.3% of the leader · rank #6
Ladera Ranch · highest
184,257
Ladera Ranch · highest
184,257 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 San Fernando 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: 23,716.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
San Fernando - the verdict
Nationally, San Fernando sits in the 61st percentile for household income and the 22nd percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
61st
percentile, household income
90th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
22nd
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: San Fernando, CA
23,716 people live in San Fernando, California - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in San Fernando report a median income of $79,694 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 8.5%. Typical homes in San Fernando are valued around $630,700, and the median resident age is 36.3 years. Educational attainment runs 16.1% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 61.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 20 residential building permits were authorized in San Fernando (Construction Slowdown), down 73% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 2541.8 crimes per 100,000 residents, near the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score).
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). Commute times here average 28.2 minutes, with 75.9% driving alone and 5.0% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. 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 San Fernando'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 population change to work and mobility to schools and households to housing and income to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For San Fernando, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
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 can the FBI record say about safety in San Fernando?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2541.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 11% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
Is San Fernando growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -499 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 20 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
What does the journey to work look like in San Fernando?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 75.9%. The reported mean trip to work is 28.2 minutes.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for San Fernando?
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.
Within California, the closest population matches are Ladera Ranch (23,609 residents, $184,257 income); East San Gabriel (23,521 residents, $107,184 income); Rosemont (23,448 residents, $86,178 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Brookings, SD (23,710 residents); Munster, IN (23,733 residents); Chantilly, VA (23,744 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.
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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for San Fernando?
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 15 public schools within the city match. 16.1% 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.
Poverty estimate
8.5%
Bachelor's degree+
16.1%
Matched public schools
15
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
How far does income reach against housing in San Fernando?
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 7.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 8.5%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
7.9×
Home value
$630,700
Household income
$79,694
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Above median income · poverty 8.5% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
F
City profile score · San Fernando, CA
34/100
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.
Household income C
$79,694
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate D
8.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
363 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
16.1%
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.
San Fernando profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 59/100 (C) · $79,694
Poverty rate: 46/100 (D) · 8.5%
Violent crime: 25/100 (F) · 363 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 23/100 (F) · 16.1%
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where San Fernando sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
San Fernando'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 - San Fernando highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
San Fernando, CA (this city): home $630,700, crime 2,542/100k
Brookings, SD : home $243,600, crime 1,262/100k
Munster, IN : home $312,000, crime 1,080/100k
Highland, IN : home $219,500, crime 1,694/100k
Farmington, MN : home $345,100, crime 413/100k
Oakdale, CA : home $432,800, crime 1,605/100k
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 San Fernando compare to other US cities?
Here's how San Fernando stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income61% higher than other cities
Home value90% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety22% 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, San Fernando ranks #315 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 San Fernando 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 San Fernando near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, San Fernando ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares San Fernando only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#781 of 1,338
42nd percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#536 of 1,343
60th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#581 of 1,450
60th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,007 of 1,458
31st 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
61st percentile nationally for median household income · 22nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
San Fernando's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
San Fernando'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 San Fernando's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$630,70010th percentilemore affordable than 10% 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
San Fernando's home-value-to-income ratio: 7.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,982 of 15,516
More affordable than 3% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,190 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 7.9×, San Fernando sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,982 of 15,516 and #3,190 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$79,694San Fernando, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context San Fernando, 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 San Fernando, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)16.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)8.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)61.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
23,716
Median Income
$79,694
Median Home Value
$630,700
Median Age
36.3
Poverty Rate
8.5%
Labor force participation
61.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
16.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2541.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
362.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2179.3
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.
Schools
Total Schools
15
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
San Fernando's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
23,948 residents
2021
23,697 residents
2022
23,560 residents
2023
23,491 residents
2024
23,500 residents
2025
23,449 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
20
housing units authorized
Single-Family
18
detached homes
Multifamily
2
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.8
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
75
71
4
$4.3M
2020
99
88
11
$7.2M
2021
101
92
9
$7.0M
2022
85
76
9
$6.3M
2023
27
24
3
$2.4M
2024
20
18
2
$2.1M
Permit volume decreased 73% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
28.2 minutes
Drive Alone
75.9%
Carpool
13.5%
Public Transit
2.2%
Walk
1.2%
Work from Home
5.0%
Other
2.2%
Based on 11,347 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 San Fernando. 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 San Fernando 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 San Fernando sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How San Fernando 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, 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.