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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-SANTA-CLARA-CA · Santa Clara, CA 129,239 pop · income 97th 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 Santa Clara
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Santa Clara on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Lehigh Acres · lowest
62,330
Lehigh Acres · lowest
62,330 median HH income
35.9% of the leader · rank #1
Santa Clara · this city
173,670
Santa Clara · this city
173,670 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #2
Hopkinton · near
173,750
Hopkinton · near
173,750 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #3
Annetta · near
173,750
Annetta · near
173,750 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #4
Linganore · near
173,763
Linganore · near
173,763 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #5
Salisbury · highest
173,808
Salisbury · highest
173,808 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #6
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 Santa Clara 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: 129,239.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Santa Clara - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Santa Clara places in the 97th percentile for household income and the 20th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
97th
percentile, household income
99th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
20th
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: Santa Clara, CA
California's Santa Clara is a mid-sized U.S. city, with 129,239 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $173,670 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 4.4%. Typical homes in Santa Clara are valued around $1,527,900, and the median resident age is 34.5 years. Educational attainment runs 65.3% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 68.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 97 residential building permits were authorized in Santa Clara (Construction Slowdown), down 85% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 2683.8 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, near the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
California carries a cost-of-living premium: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, California scores 110.7 (Well Above Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $2,053 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in California run around $275, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Commute times here average 17.7 minutes, with 61.0% driving alone and 23.7% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. 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 Santa Clara'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 work and mobility to schools and households to reported crime to population change 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 Santa Clara, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, annual population history, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, 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.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Santa Clara?
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 61.0%. The reported mean trip to work is 17.7 minutes.
What does the education layer cover for Santa Clara?
The NCES join finds 24 public schools within the city match. 65.3% 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Santa Clara?
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 2683.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 18% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Which cities make useful reference points for Santa Clara?
Within California, the closest population matches are Simi Valley (125,769 residents, $117,703 income); Thousand Oaks (125,676 residents, $134,367 income); Vallejo (124,637 residents, $89,496 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Fargo, ND (129,064 residents); Norman, OK (128,714 residents); Lewisville, TX (128,313 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.
Population change
Is Santa Clara 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 +4,832 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +3.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 97 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
+3.8%
2025 estimate
133,446
2020 estimate
128,614
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
How far does income reach against housing in Santa Clara?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 8.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 4.4%, 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.
Household income
$173,670
Home value
$1,527,900
Value / income
8.8×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Top-decile income · poverty 4.4% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
C+
City profile score · Santa Clara, CA
64/100
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 A+
$173,670
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share A+
65.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate B-
4.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime C-
182 /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.
Santa Clara profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 100/100 (A+) · $173,670
Bachelor's+ share: 95/100 (A+) · 65.3%
Poverty rate: 69/100 (B-) · 4.4%
Violent crime: 50/100 (C-) · 182 /100k
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Santa Clara sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Santa Clara'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 - Santa Clara highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Santa Clara, CA (this city): home $1,527,900, crime 2,684/100k
Fargo, ND : home $269,800, crime 4,195/100k
Norman, OK : home $239,300, crime 2,527/100k
Lewisville, TX : home $350,200, crime 1,705/100k
Columbia, MO : home $268,300, crime 2,665/100k
Abilene, TX : home $178,900, crime 2,188/100k
Simi Valley, CA : home $753,500, crime 1,053/100k
Thousand Oaks, CA : home $951,200, crime 1,123/100k
Vallejo, CA : home $557,500, crime 4,730/100k
Concord, CA : home $755,900, crime 3,371/100k
Clovis, CA : home $453,300, crime 1,911/100k
Victorville, CA : home $342,500, crime 3,145/100k
How does Santa Clara compare to other US cities?
Here's how Santa Clara stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income97% higher than other cities
Home value99% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety20% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to California alone, Santa Clara ranks #336 of 441 California cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Santa Clara 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 Santa Clara near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Santa Clara ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Santa Clara only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#112 of 1,338
92nd percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#104 of 1,343
92nd percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#902 of 1,450
37th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#140 of 1,458
90th 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
97th percentile nationally for median household income · 20th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Santa Clara's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Santa Clara'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 Santa Clara's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$1,527,9001st percentilemore affordable than 1% 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
Santa Clara's home-value-to-income ratio: 8.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#15,214 of 15,516
More affordable than 2% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#713 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 8.8×, Santa Clara sits in the pressured band:
national rank #15,214 of 15,516 and #713 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
$173,670Santa Clara, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Santa Clara, 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 Santa Clara, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)65.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)4.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)68.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
129,239
Median Income
$173,670
Median Home Value
$1,527,900
Median Age
34.5
Poverty Rate
4.4%
Labor force participation
68.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
65.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2683.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
182.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2501.9
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.
Schools
Total Schools
24
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Santa Clara's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
128,614 residents
2021
128,641 residents
2022
129,415 residents
2023
131,036 residents
2024
132,377 residents
2025
133,446 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
97
housing units authorized
Single-Family
61
detached homes
Multifamily
36
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
628
257
371
$167.3M
2020
612
130
482
$126.4M
2021
409
360
49
$134.0M
2022
2,543
1,926
617
$747.5M
2023
898
54
844
$239.6M
2024
97
61
36
$30.4M
Permit volume decreased 85% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
17.7 minutes
Drive Alone
61.0%
Carpool
7.4%
Public Transit
2.5%
Walk
2.7%
Work from Home
23.7%
Other
2.7%
Based on 73,109 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 Santa Clara. 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 Santa Clara 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 Santa Clara sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Santa Clara 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.