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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-WHITTIER-CA · Whittier, CA 85,925 pop · income 73rd 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 Whittier
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Whittier on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Bryan · lowest
56,861
Bryan · lowest
56,861 median HH income
28.8% of the leader · rank #1
Combine · near
92,360
Combine · near
92,360 median HH income
46.8% of the leader · rank #2
Whittier · this city
92,374
Whittier · this city
92,374 median HH income
46.8% of the leader · rank #3
Lewes · near
92,375
Lewes · near
92,375 median HH income
46.8% of the leader · rank #4
Moreland · near
92,375
Moreland · near
92,375 median HH income
46.8% of the leader · rank #5
Royal Palm Be… · near
92,382
Royal Palm Be… · near
92,382 median HH income
46.8% of the leader · rank #6
San Ramon · highest
197,358
San Ramon · highest
197,358 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 Whittier 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: 85,925.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Whittier - the verdict
Nationally, Whittier sits in the 73rd percentile for household income and the 17th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
73rd
percentile, household income
94th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
17th
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: Whittier, CA
85,925 people live in Whittier, California - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $92,374 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 5.6%. Typical homes in Whittier are valued around $751,700, and the median resident age is 38.3 years. Educational attainment runs 29.2% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 59.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 85 residential building permits were authorized in Whittier (Building Boom), up 118% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Whittier's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 2865.9 crimes per 100,000 residents, above the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than 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. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $2,053 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in California run around $275, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Commute times here average 29.6 minutes, with 74.9% driving alone and 10.9% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. 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 Whittier'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 reported crime to population change to comparison shortlist to schools and households to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Whittier, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, annual population history, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, 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 Whittier?
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 8.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 5.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Whittier?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2865.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 26% higher 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.
Is Whittier growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -2,904 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -3.3% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 85 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Whittier?
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 Hawthorne (85,933 residents, $72,719 income); Livermore (85,870 residents, $153,602 income); Lake Forest (85,846 residents, $131,378 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Medford, OR (85,794 residents); Danbury, CT (86,086 residents); Melbourne, FL (85,718 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 Whittier?
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 42 public schools within the city match. 29.2% 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
5.6%
Bachelor's degree+
29.2%
Matched public schools
42
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in Whittier?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 74.9%. The reported mean trip to work is 29.6 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. 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.
Drive alone
74.9%
Work from home
10.9%
Public transit
1.7%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 39,794 workers age 16+.
Above median income · poverty 5.6% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
D
City profile score · Whittier, CA
44/100
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 B
$92,374
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate C+
5.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share C
29.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime F
491 /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.
Whittier profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 72/100 (B) · $92,374
Poverty rate: 62/100 (C+) · 5.6%
Bachelor's+ share: 57/100 (C) · 29.2%
Violent crime: 17/100 (F) · 491 /100k
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Whittier sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Whittier'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 - Whittier highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Whittier, CA (this city): home $751,700, crime 2,866/100k
Medford, OR : home $387,000, crime 4,324/100k
Danbury, CT : home $381,600, crime 1,519/100k
Bryan, TX : home $210,600, crime 1,833/100k
Sioux City, IA : home $162,600, crime 3,879/100k
Mission, TX : home $160,800, crime 1,338/100k
Hawthorne, CA : home $813,700, crime 3,193/100k
Livermore, CA : home $1,038,600, crime 2,560/100k
Lake Forest, CA : home $876,300, crime 975/100k
San Ramon, CA : home $1,359,100, crime 1,200/100k
Manteca, CA : home $561,200, crime 1,816/100k
Citrus Heights, CA : home $432,100, crime 2,566/100k
How does Whittier compare to other US cities?
Where Whittier sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income73% higher than other cities
Home value94% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety17% 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, Whittier ranks #352 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 Whittier 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 Whittier near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Whittier ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Whittier only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#604 of 1,338
55th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#399 of 1,343
70th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#788 of 1,450
46th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#640 of 1,458
56th 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
73rd percentile nationally for median household income · 17th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Whittier's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Whittier'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 Whittier's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$751,7006th percentilemore affordable than 6% 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
Whittier's home-value-to-income ratio: 8.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#15,081 of 15,516
More affordable than 3% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#693 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 8.1×, Whittier sits in the pressured band:
national rank #15,081 of 15,516 and #693 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
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
$92,374Whittier, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Whittier, 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 Whittier, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)29.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)5.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)59.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
85,925
Median Income
$92,374
Median Home Value
$751,700
Median Age
38.3
Poverty Rate
5.6%
Labor force participation
59.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
29.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2865.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
490.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2375.4
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
42
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Whittier's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
88,719 residents
2021
87,462 residents
2022
86,788 residents
2023
86,438 residents
2024
86,366 residents
2025
85,815 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
85
housing units authorized
Single-Family
81
detached homes
Multifamily
4
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
39
25
14
$8.8M
2020
327
327
0
$71.4M
2021
253
189
64
$56.2M
2022
114
60
54
$25.0M
2023
56
46
10
$7.4M
2024
85
81
4
$19.0M
Permit volume increased 118% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
29.6 minutes
Drive Alone
74.9%
Carpool
9.3%
Public Transit
1.7%
Walk
1.5%
Work from Home
10.9%
Other
1.7%
Based on 39,794 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 Whittier. 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 Whittier 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 Whittier sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Whittier 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.