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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-SANTA-CLARITA-CA · Santa Clarita, CA 229,021 pop · income 87th 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 Clarita
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Santa Clarita on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Baton Rouge · lowest
49,944
Baton Rouge · lowest
49,944 median HH income
28.3% of the leader · rank #1
Oswego · near
119,881
Oswego · near
119,881 median HH income
68.0% of the leader · rank #2
Wabasso Beach · near
119,901
Wabasso Beach · near
119,901 median HH income
68.0% of the leader · rank #3
Santa Clarita · this city
119,926
Santa Clarita · this city
119,926 median HH income
68.0% of the leader · rank #4
Huntersville · near
119,951
Huntersville · near
119,951 median HH income
68.0% of the leader · rank #5
Milltown · near
119,958
Milltown · near
119,958 median HH income
68.0% of the leader · rank #6
Fremont · highest
176,350
Fremont · highest
176,350 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 Santa Clarita 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: 229,021.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Santa Clarita - the verdict
Santa Clarita ranks in the 87th percentile for household income and the 51st percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
87th
percentile, household income
93rd
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
51st
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 Clarita, CA
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 229,021 residents in Santa Clarita, a mid-sized U.S. city within California. The typical household in Santa Clarita brings in $119,926 a year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 5.2%. Santa Clarita's housing stock carries a median value of $721,000, and the median resident age is 38.1 years. 39.3% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 63.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 269 residential building permits were authorized in Santa Clarita (Construction Slowdown), down 70% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Santa Clarita reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1342.1 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below 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. 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 29.0 minutes, with 70.9% driving alone and 16.2% 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 Clarita'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 population change to schools and households to reported crime to housing and income to work and mobility to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Santa Clarita, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, local building permits, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count.
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
Is Santa Clarita growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -3,976 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 269 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 education layer cover for Santa Clarita?
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 10 public schools within the city match. 39.3% 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Santa Clarita?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1342.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 41% lower 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Santa Clarita?
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 Fremont (228,518 residents, $176,350 income); San Bernardino (221,774 residents, $63,988 income); Modesto (218,614 residents, $77,899 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Spokane, WA (229,228 residents); Richmond, VA (227,595 residents); Enterprise, NV (232,043 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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Santa Clarita?
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 6.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 5.2%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
6.0×
Home value
$721,000
Household income
$119,926
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What does the journey to work look like in Santa Clarita?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 70.9%. The reported mean trip to work is 29.0 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. 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.
Drive alone
70.9%
Work from home
16.2%
Public transit
1.9%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 109,877 workers age 16+.
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
C
City profile score · Santa Clarita, CA
58/100
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
$119,926
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share B
39.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate C+
5.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime C
165 /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 Clarita profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 86/100 (A) · $119,926
Bachelor's+ share: 74/100 (B) · 39.3%
Poverty rate: 64/100 (C+) · 5.2%
Violent crime: 55/100 (C) · 165 /100k
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Santa Clarita sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Santa Clarita'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 Clarita highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Santa Clarita, CA (this city): home $721,000, crime 1,342/100k
Spokane, WA : home $326,200, crime 5,516/100k
Richmond, VA : home $328,100, crime 3,516/100k
Norfolk, VA : home $271,900, crime 4,242/100k
Fremont, CA : home $1,289,400, crime 2,523/100k
San Bernardino, CA : home $384,900, crime 3,795/100k
Modesto, CA : home $415,600, crime 3,071/100k
Fontana, CA : home $558,500, crime 1,487/100k
Moreno Valley, CA : home $461,400, crime 1,938/100k
Oxnard, CA : home $617,800, crime 2,474/100k
How does Santa Clarita compare to other US cities?
Santa Clarita measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income87% higher than other cities
Home value93% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety51% 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, Santa Clarita ranks #115 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 Santa Clarita 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 Clarita near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Santa Clarita ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Santa Clarita only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#328 of 1,338
75th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#421 of 1,343
69th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#825 of 1,450
43rd percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#435 of 1,458
70th 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
87th percentile nationally for median household income · 51st percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Santa Clarita's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Santa Clarita'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 Clarita's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$721,0007th percentilemore affordable than 7% 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 Clarita's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,106 of 15,516
More affordable than 9% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#91 of 117
Large cities (200,000–999,999)
At 6.0×, Santa Clarita sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,106 of 15,516 and #91 of 117large cities (200,000–999,999).
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
$119,926Santa Clarita, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Santa Clarita, 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 Clarita, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)39.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)5.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)63.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
229,021
Median Income
$119,926
Median Home Value
$721,000
Median Age
38.1
Poverty Rate
5.2%
Labor force participation
63.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
39.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1342.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
165.4
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1176.7
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
10
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Santa Clarita's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
232,406 residents
2021
229,818 residents
2022
229,852 residents
2023
229,837 residents
2024
229,361 residents
2025
228,430 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
269
housing units authorized
Single-Family
269
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
894
389
505
$179.7M
2020
1,471
1,114
357
$296.4M
2021
366
364
2
$91.6M
2022
216
214
2
$99.0M
2023
966
707
259
$531.7M
2024
269
269
0
$182.9M
Permit volume decreased 70% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
29.0 minutes
Drive Alone
70.9%
Carpool
8.3%
Public Transit
1.9%
Walk
0.7%
Work from Home
16.2%
Other
2.0%
Based on 109,877 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 Clarita. 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 Clarita 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 Clarita sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Santa Clarita 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.