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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-SIERRA-MADRE-CA · Sierra Madre, CA 11,020 pop · income 93rd 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 Sierra Madre
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Sierra Madre on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Guthrie · lowest
54,640
Guthrie · lowest
54,640 median HH income
21.9% of the leader · rank #1
East Douglas · near
141,042
East Douglas · near
141,042 median HH income
56.4% of the leader · rank #2
Lovettsville · near
141,042
Lovettsville · near
141,042 median HH income
56.4% of the leader · rank #3
Sierra Madre · this city
141,094
Sierra Madre · this city
141,094 median HH income
56.4% of the leader · rank #4
Carnation · near
141,097
Carnation · near
141,097 median HH income
56.4% of the leader · rank #5
Salt Point · near
141,141
Salt Point · near
141,141 median HH income
56.5% of the leader · rank #6
Piedmont · highest
250,001
Piedmont · 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 Sierra Madre 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: 11,020.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Sierra Madre - the verdict
Sierra Madre ranks in the 93rd percentile for household income and the 72nd percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
93rd
percentile, household income
98th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
72nd
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: Sierra Madre, CA
California's Sierra Madre is a small town, with 11,020 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. The typical household in Sierra Madre brings in $141,094 a year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 3.8%. Home values in Sierra Madre run a median of $1,172,200, and the median resident age is 46.9 years. Educational attainment runs 65.4% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 65.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 5 residential building permits were authorized in Sierra Madre (Low Activity), per Census BPS data. Sierra Madre reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 806.1 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects 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. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $2,053 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $275 across California, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Sierra Madre'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 schools and households to reported crime to housing and income to work and mobility to comparison shortlist to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Sierra Madre, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, local building permits, 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. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Sierra Madre?
The matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
The NCES join finds 2 public schools within the city match. 65.4% 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Sierra Madre?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 806.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 65% 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 Sierra Madre?
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 8.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.8%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Sierra Madre?
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 Piedmont (11,012 residents, $250,000+ income); Sun (11,009 residents, $68,284 income); Quartz Hill (10,968 residents, $104,017 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Guthrie, OK (11,021 residents); Heartland, TX (11,019 residents); Burlington, WI (11,021 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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Sierra Madre?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 67.1%. 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.
Drive alone
67.1%
Work from home
23.2%
Public transit
4.8%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 5,882 workers age 16+.
Is Sierra Madre growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -615 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -5.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 5 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.
2020 estimate
11,235
2025 estimate
10,620
Period change
-5.5%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Top-decile income · poverty 3.8% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
C+
City profile score · Sierra Madre, CA
63/100
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+
65.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income A+
$141,094
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate B
3.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime D
209 /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.
Sierra Madre profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 95/100 (A+) · 65.4%
Household income: 93/100 (A+) · $141,094
Poverty rate: 73/100 (B) · 3.8%
Violent crime: 46/100 (D) · 209 /100k
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Sierra Madre sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Sierra Madre'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 - Sierra Madre highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Sierra Madre, CA (this city): home $1,172,200, crime 806/100k
Guthrie, OK : home $176,200, crime 1,835/100k
Burlington, WI : home $268,300, crime 1,060/100k
Celina, OH : home $158,800, crime 1,021/100k
Piedmont, CA : home $2,000,000+, crime 3,469/100k
Clayton, CA : home $1,017,300, crime 591/100k
Canyon Lake, CA : home $647,300, crime 802/100k
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 Sierra Madre compare to other US cities?
Sierra Madre measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income93% higher than other cities
Home value98% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety72% 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, Sierra Madre ranks #34 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 Sierra Madre 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 Sierra Madre near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Sierra Madre ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Sierra Madre only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#207 of 1,338
85th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#170 of 1,343
87th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#963 of 1,450
33rd percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#139 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
93rd percentile nationally for median household income · 72nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Sierra Madre's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Sierra Madre'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 Sierra Madre's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$1,172,2002nd percentilemore affordable than 2% 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
Sierra Madre's home-value-to-income ratio: 8.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#15,118 of 15,516
More affordable than 3% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,214 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 8.3×, Sierra Madre sits in the pressured band:
national rank #15,118 of 15,516 and #3,214 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
$141,094Sierra Madre, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Sierra Madre, 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 Sierra Madre, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)65.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)65.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
11,020
Median Income
$141,094
Median Home Value
$1,172,200
Median Age
46.9
Poverty Rate
3.8%
Labor force participation
65.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
65.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
806.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
208.6
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
597.5
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
2
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Sierra Madre's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
11,235 residents
2021
11,010 residents
2022
10,867 residents
2023
10,795 residents
2024
10,746 residents
2025
10,620 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Low Activity
Total Permits (2024)
5
housing units authorized
Single-Family
5
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.5
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
15
15
0
$1.3M
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
1
1
0
$0.6M
2023
1
1
0
$0.8M
2024
5
5
0
$3.5M
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
67.1%
Carpool
2.9%
Public Transit
4.8%
Walk
0.1%
Work from Home
23.2%
Other
1.9%
Based on 5,882 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 Sierra Madre. 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 Sierra Madre 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 Sierra Madre sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Sierra Madre 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.