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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-SANTA-PAULA-CA · Santa Paula, CA 31,202 pop · income 58th 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 Paula
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Santa Paula on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Jackson · lowest
42,848
Jackson · lowest
42,848 median HH income
17.1% of the leader · rank #1
Birch Bay · near
77,120
Birch Bay · near
77,120 median HH income
30.8% of the leader · rank #2
East End · near
77,122
East End · near
77,122 median HH income
30.8% of the leader · rank #3
Meadow Woods · near
77,124
Meadow Woods · near
77,124 median HH income
30.8% of the leader · rank #4
Santa Paula · this city
77,130
Santa Paula · this city
77,130 median HH income
30.9% of the leader · rank #5
Northridge · near
77,130
Northridge · near
77,130 median HH income
30.9% of the leader · rank #6
Los Altos · highest
250,001
Los Altos · 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, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Santa Paula 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: 31,202.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Santa Paula - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Santa Paula places in the 58th percentile for household income and the 56th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
58th
percentile, household income
87th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
56th
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 Paula, CA
Santa Paula is a small city in California, home to 31,202 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Santa Paula households earn a median of $77,130 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 12.2%. Home values in Santa Paula run a median of $559,300, and the median resident age is 35.2 years. Educational attainment runs 14.7% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 59.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 139 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Stable), down 5% from five years earlier. Santa Paula reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1201.0 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: 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. Monthly utility costs average around $275 across California, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. The average commute for Santa Paula workers runs 25.8 minutes, with 74.6% driving alone and 4.6% working from home. 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 Santa Paula'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 housing and income to population change to work and mobility to schools and households to reported crime to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Santa Paula, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, local building permits, matched public-school count, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates.
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
How far does income reach against housing in Santa Paula?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 7.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 12.2%, 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.
Is Santa Paula 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 +995 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +3.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 139 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 Santa Paula?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 74.6%. The reported mean trip to work is 25.8 minutes.
Which cities make useful reference points for Santa Paula?
Within California, the closest population matches are Orcutt (31,284 residents, $108,682 income); Lawndale (31,113 residents, $83,538 income); El Paso de Robles (Paso Robles) (31,399 residents, $93,098 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Jackson, MI (31,206 residents); New Smyrna Beach, FL (31,212 residents); Holladay, UT (31,236 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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Santa Paula?
The NCES join finds 13 public schools within the city match. 14.7% 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
13
Bachelor's degree+
14.7%
Poverty estimate
12.2%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Santa Paula?
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 1201.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 47% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
874.3
Violent rate
326.7
Total reported rate
1201.0
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Above median income · poverty 12.2% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
F
City profile score · Santa Paula, CA
30/100
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
$77,130
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
12.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
327 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
14.7%
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.
Santa Paula profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 57/100 (C) · $77,130
Poverty rate: 31/100 (F) · 12.2%
Violent crime: 29/100 (F) · 327 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 19/100 (F) · 14.7%
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Santa Paula sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Santa Paula'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 Paula highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Santa Paula, CA (this city): home $559,300, crime 1,201/100k
Jackson, MI : home $94,700, crime 4,797/100k
Haines City, FL : home $250,700, crime 926/100k
Lawndale, CA : home $726,000, crime 2,459/100k
Laguna Hills, CA : home $944,000, crime 1,365/100k
La Verne, CA : home $793,900, crime 2,586/100k
Los Altos, CA : home $2,000,000+, crime 1,289/100k
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 Santa Paula compare to other US cities?
Santa Paula measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income58% higher than other cities
Home value87% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety56% 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 Paula ranks #102 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 Paula 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 Paula near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Santa Paula ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Santa Paula only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#825 of 1,338
38th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#633 of 1,343
53rd percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#389 of 1,450
73rd percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,059 of 1,458
27th 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
58th percentile nationally for median household income · 56th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Santa Paula's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Santa Paula'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 Paula's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$559,30013th percentilemore affordable than 13% 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 Paula's home-value-to-income ratio: 7.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,792 of 15,516
More affordable than 5% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,150 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 7.3×, Santa Paula sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,792 of 15,516 and #3,150 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
$77,130Santa Paula, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Santa Paula, 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 Paula, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)14.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)12.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)59.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
31,202
Median Income
$77,130
Median Home Value
$559,300
Median Age
35.2
Poverty Rate
12.2%
Labor force participation
59.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
14.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1201.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
326.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
874.3
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
13
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Santa Paula's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
30,779 residents
2021
31,163 residents
2022
31,462 residents
2023
31,631 residents
2024
31,754 residents
2025
31,774 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Stable
Total Permits (2024)
139
housing units authorized
Single-Family
125
detached homes
Multifamily
14
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
4.5
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
146
146
0
$56.2M
2020
160
160
0
$61.6M
2021
210
210
0
$73.3M
2022
167
98
69
$34.7M
2023
91
59
32
$19.2M
2024
139
125
14
$38.5M
Permit volume decreased 5% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
25.8 minutes
Drive Alone
74.6%
Carpool
17.0%
Public Transit
0.4%
Walk
2.5%
Work from Home
4.6%
Other
0.9%
Based on 13,994 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 Paula. 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 Paula 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 Paula sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Santa Paula 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.