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Place dossier plate
SheetTX-SAN-DIEGO-TX · San Diego, TX 3,795 pop · income 15th 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 San Diego
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest San Diego on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Arnoldsville · lowest
46,964
Arnoldsville · lowest
46,964 median HH income
18.8% of the leader · rank #1
West Hazleton · near
46,968
West Hazleton · near
46,968 median HH income
18.8% of the leader · rank #2
East Cleveland · near
46,968
East Cleveland · near
46,968 median HH income
18.8% of the leader · rank #3
San Diego · this city
46,969
San Diego · this city
46,969 median HH income
18.8% of the leader · rank #4
Alamosa · near
46,969
Alamosa · near
46,969 median HH income
18.8% of the leader · rank #5
Brattleboro · near
46,972
Brattleboro · near
46,972 median HH income
18.8% of the leader · rank #6
Bunker Hill · highest
250,001
Bunker Hill · 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for San Diego on ACS population and median household income
. 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: 3,795.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, San Diego lands in the 15th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
15th
percentile, household income
1st
percentile, home value
40th
percentile, median rent
📝 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: San Diego, TX
3,795 people live in San Diego, Texas - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in San Diego brings in $46,969 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 20.4%. Typical homes in San Diego are valued around $59,600, and the median resident age is 35.6 years. 6.8% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 55.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 3 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
Texas tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Texas at 97.1 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Near Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,149 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Texas's average monthly utility costs around $223 (state average). On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 49.0 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of San Diego'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 comparison shortlist to work and mobility to housing and income to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For San Diego, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for San Diego?
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 6.8% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for San Diego?
Within Texas, the closest population matches are Bunker Hill (3,801 residents, $250,000+ income); Edgecliff (3,752 residents, $85,236 income); Wills Point (3,848 residents, $66,144 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are West Liberty, IA (3,795 residents); Mission Hills, CA (3,794 residents); Pixley, CA (3,796 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.
What does the journey to work look like in San Diego?
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 63.6%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
How far does income reach against housing in San Diego?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 1.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 20.4%, 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. The ratio makes housing the clearest place to start this profile, but a low multiple can coexist with slow demand, older stock, or household-level hardship. Compare the home-value distribution and same-state peer table before treating it as an advantage.
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 San Diego growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -234 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -6.3% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
-6.3%
2025 estimate
3,503
2020 estimate
3,737
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
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.
Cost of living C-
97.1 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Household income F
$46,969
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
20.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
6.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
San Diego profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Household income: 16/100 (F) · $46,969
Poverty rate: 13/100 (F) · 20.4%
Bachelor's+ share: 0/100 (F) · 6.8%
How does San Diego compare to other US cities?
Here's how San Diego stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income15% higher than other cities
Home value1% pricier than other cities
Median rent40% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares San Diego against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Texas only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Texas-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places San Diego near the bottom of Texas's cities
Among the 1,663 Texas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, San Diego ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares San Diego only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,215 of 1,520
20th percentile in Texas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,663
0th percentile in Texas
Median Home Value
#1,409 of 1,505
6th percentile in Texas
Poverty Rate
#317 of 1,663
81st percentile in Texas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,432 of 1,663
14th percentile in Texas
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 Texas only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
15th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How San Diego's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$59,600Among the most affordablemore affordable than 99% 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
San Diego's home-value-to-income ratio: 1.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#151 of 15,516
More affordable than 99% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#149 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 1.3×, San Diego sits in the affordable band:
national rank #151 of 15,516 and #149 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
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
$46,969San Diego, TX median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context San Diego, TX median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for San Diego, TX.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)6.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)20.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)55.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
3,795
Median Income
$46,969
Median Home Value
$59,600
Median Age
35.6
Poverty Rate
20.4%
Labor force participation
55.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
6.8%
Schools
Total Schools
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
San Diego's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
3,737 residents
2021
3,708 residents
2022
3,648 residents
2023
3,626 residents
2024
3,585 residents
2025
3,503 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
63.6%
Carpool
24.1%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
1.8%
Work from Home
10.6%
Based on 1,391 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Texas statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $223
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Texas at $223 (electricity about $130 , water and sewer about $48 ).
These are Texas statewide averages, not a meter reading for San Diego. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Texas's BEA cost-of-living index is 97.1 (Near Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around San Diego is $1,149/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Texas statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 49.0 / 100 (Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Texas statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county San Diego sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How San Diego compares to similar-size Texas 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, NCES CCD, 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.