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-SEBASTOPOL-CA · Sebastopol, CA 7,466 pop · income 77th 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 Sebastopol
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Sebastopol on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Creston · lowest
50,752
Creston · lowest
50,752 median HH income
38.3% of the leader · rank #1
Buffalo · near
99,583
Buffalo · near
99,583 median HH income
75.1% of the leader · rank #2
Sebastopol · this city
99,600
Sebastopol · this city
99,600 median HH income
75.1% of the leader · rank #3
Bixby · near
99,602
Bixby · near
99,602 median HH income
75.1% of the leader · rank #4
Hebron · near
99,605
Hebron · near
99,605 median HH income
75.1% of the leader · rank #5
Renaissance a… · near
99,615
Renaissance a… · near
99,615 median HH income
75.1% of the leader · rank #6
Winters · highest
132,650
Winters · highest
132,650 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 Sebastopol 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: 7,466.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Sebastopol - the verdict
Sebastopol ranks in the 77th percentile for household income and the 32nd percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
77th
percentile, household income
95th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
32nd
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: Sebastopol, CA
Sebastopol is a small town in California, home to 7,466 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $99,600 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 3.6%. Home values in Sebastopol run a median of $821,400, and the median resident age is 48.4 years. About 51.7% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 57.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 9 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 125% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 2003.8 incidents per 100,000 residents, near the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not 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). 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. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 88.7 out of 100 (Very High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Sebastopol'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 comparison shortlist to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Sebastopol, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, local building permits.
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. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Sebastopol?
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 8.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Is Sebastopol growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -60 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 9 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
What does the journey to work look like in Sebastopol?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 66.0%. 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. 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Sebastopol?
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 Winters (7,453 residents, $132,650 income); Franklin CDP (Merced County) (7,487 residents, $56,274 income); Escalon (7,429 residents, $86,875 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Creston, IA (7,466 residents); Wickenburg, AZ (7,468 residents); Nyack, NY (7,469 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 Sebastopol?
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 14 public schools within the city match. 51.7% 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.
Poverty estimate
3.6%
Bachelor's degree+
51.7%
Matched public schools
14
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Sebastopol?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2003.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 12% 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.
Total reported rate
2003.8
Violent rate
422.6
Property rate
1581.2
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
C-
City profile score · Sebastopol, CA
52/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share A
51.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income B+
$99,600
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate B
3.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
423 /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.
Sebastopol profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 85/100 (A) · 51.7%
Household income: 77/100 (B+) · $99,600
Poverty rate: 74/100 (B) · 3.6%
Violent crime: 21/100 (F) · 423 /100k
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Sebastopol sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Sebastopol'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 - Sebastopol highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Sebastopol, CA (this city): home $821,400, crime 2,004/100k
Creston, IA : home $112,600, crime 1,307/100k
Wickenburg, AZ : home $449,400, crime 971/100k
Winters, CA : home $598,700, crime 623/100k
Escalon, CA : home $461,700, crime 1,722/100k
Cotati, CA : home $702,500, crime 1,247/100k
Hughson, CA : home $480,100, crime 581/100k
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 Sebastopol compare to other US cities?
Here's how Sebastopol stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income77% higher than other cities
Home value95% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety32% 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, Sebastopol ranks #240 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 Sebastopol 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 Sebastopol near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Sebastopol ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Sebastopol only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#515 of 1,338
62nd percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#346 of 1,343
74th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#984 of 1,450
32nd percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#256 of 1,458
82nd 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
77th percentile nationally for median household income · 32nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Sebastopol's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Sebastopol'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 Sebastopol's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$821,4005th percentilemore affordable than 5% 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
Sebastopol's home-value-to-income ratio: 8.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#15,102 of 15,516
More affordable than 3% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#11,080 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 8.2×, Sebastopol sits in the pressured band:
national rank #15,102 of 15,516 and #11,080 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$99,600Sebastopol, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Sebastopol, 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 Sebastopol, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)51.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)57.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
7,466
Median Income
$99,600
Median Home Value
$821,400
Median Age
48.4
Poverty Rate
3.6%
Labor force participation
57.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
51.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2003.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
422.6
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1581.2
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
14
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Sebastopol's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
7,592 residents
2021
7,585 residents
2022
7,526 residents
2023
7,480 residents
2024
7,502 residents
2025
7,532 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
9
housing units authorized
Single-Family
9
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
4
4
0
$0.5M
2020
25
25
0
$5.9M
2021
6
6
0
$1.2M
2022
9
9
0
$2.3M
2023
4
4
0
$2.2M
2024
9
9
0
$1.5M
Permit volume increased 125% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
66.0%
Carpool
3.1%
Public Transit
0.2%
Walk
5.6%
Work from Home
22.7%
Other
2.4%
Based on 3,614 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 Sebastopol. 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 Sebastopol 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 Sebastopol sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Sebastopol 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.