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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-SELMA-CA · Selma, CA 24,586 pop · income 29th 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 Selma
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Selma on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Watertown · lowest
49,692
Watertown · lowest
49,692 median HH income
31.1% of the leader · rank #1
Mesa del Caba… · near
55,833
Mesa del Caba… · near
55,833 median HH income
34.9% of the leader · rank #2
Hazelton · near
55,833
Hazelton · near
55,833 median HH income
34.9% of the leader · rank #3
Dana · near
55,833
Dana · near
55,833 median HH income
34.9% of the leader · rank #4
Middletown · near
55,833
Middletown · near
55,833 median HH income
34.9% of the leader · rank #5
Selma · this city
55,839
Selma · this city
55,839 median HH income
34.9% of the leader · rank #6
Bainbridge Is… · highest
159,882
Bainbridge Is… · highest
159,882 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 Selma 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: 24,586.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Selma - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Selma lands in the 29th percentile for household income and the 28th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
29th
percentile, household income
63rd
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
28th
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: Selma, CA
24,586 people live in Selma, California - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Selma households earn a median of $55,839 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 14.9%. Selma's housing stock carries a median value of $288,700, and the median resident age is 33.3 years. About 11.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 53.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 40 residential building permits were authorized in Selma (Building Boom), up 54% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 2172.2 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). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $2,053 per month. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts California's average monthly utility costs around $275 (state average). 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 Selma'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 comparison shortlist to work and mobility to reported crime to housing and income to population change to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Selma, 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.
1. Comparison shortlist
Which cities make useful reference points for Selma?
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 Maywood (24,593 residents, $61,655 income); Soledad (24,476 residents, $93,204 income); Bloomington (24,324 residents, $81,220 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Wyandotte, MI (24,593 residents); Watertown, NY (24,574 residents); Greenbelt, MD (24,572 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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 81.8%. 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. 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Selma?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2172.2 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 5% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Selma?
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 5.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 14.9%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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 Selma growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -65 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.3% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 40 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.
2020 estimate
24,767
2025 estimate
24,702
Period change
-0.3%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
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 11 public schools within the city match. 11.4% 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
14.9%
Bachelor's degree+
11.4%
Matched public schools
11
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Below median income · poverty 14.9% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
F
City profile score · Selma, CA
17/100
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 F
$55,839
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
14.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
574 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
11.4%
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.
Selma profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 28/100 (F) · $55,839
Poverty rate: 23/100 (F) · 14.9%
Violent crime: 11/100 (F) · 574 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 10/100 (F) · 11.4%
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Selma sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Selma'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 - Selma highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Selma, CA (this city): home $288,700, crime 2,172/100k
Wyandotte, MI : home $159,700, crime 1,064/100k
Watertown, NY : home $149,800, crime 4,528/100k
Greenbelt, MD : home $258,600, crime 5,026/100k
Bainbridge Island, WA : home $1,076,200, crime 989/100k
Maywood, CA : home $595,000, crime 1,921/100k
Soledad, CA : home $571,600, crime 785/100k
Patterson, CA : home $427,400, crime 1,232/100k
Seal Beach, CA : home $492,200, crime 3,231/100k
Riverbank, CA : home $442,300, crime 1,689/100k
How does Selma compare to other US cities?
Where Selma sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income29% higher than other cities
Home value63% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety28% 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, Selma ranks #271 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 Selma 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 Selma near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Selma ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Selma only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,109 of 1,338
17th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#1,075 of 1,343
20th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#294 of 1,450
79th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,165 of 1,458
20th 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
29th percentile nationally for median household income · 28th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Selma's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Selma'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 Selma's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$288,70037th percentilemore affordable than 37% 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
Selma's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#13,148 of 15,516
More affordable than 15% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,696 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 5.2×, Selma sits in the pressured band:
national rank #13,148 of 15,516 and #2,696 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
$55,839Selma, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Selma, 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 Selma, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)11.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)14.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)53.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
24,586
Median Income
$55,839
Median Home Value
$288,700
Median Age
33.3
Poverty Rate
14.9%
Labor force participation
53.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
11.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2172.2
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
573.8
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1598.4
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
11
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Selma's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
24,767 residents
2021
24,725 residents
2022
24,675 residents
2023
24,710 residents
2024
24,784 residents
2025
24,702 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
40
housing units authorized
Single-Family
40
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.6
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
26
26
0
$4.9M
2020
69
69
0
$9.7M
2021
10
10
0
$1.7M
2022
6
6
0
$1.1M
2023
11
11
0
$2.3M
2024
40
40
0
$7.2M
Permit volume increased 54% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
81.8%
Carpool
10.8%
Public Transit
0.6%
Walk
0.3%
Work from Home
3.5%
Other
3.0%
Based on 9,808 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 Selma. 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 Selma 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 Selma sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Selma 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.