American Canyon, California

Area Profile

21,691 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for American Canyon, in Napa County.

58out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 40% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 27% of 3,904 published cities67
GrowthTop 49% of 2,973 published cities51
Housing affordability3488th of 4,223 published cities58
ClimateTop 15% of 4,223 published cities81
Physical resilience3492nd of 4,182 published cities22
Access2936th of 4,226 published cities86
Economic stabilityTop 30% of 4,226 published cities70
The quick read

Residential permitting has slowed: 140 units authorized over the past twelve months, 23% below the prior year.

Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 5.7 times median household income, against a historic benchmark near three — while rent takes 25% of it.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by inland flooding, earthquake and drought.

At a glance

Population
21,691
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$121,700
Top 10% nationally
Density
3,568/sq mi
6.1 sq mi of land
Median age
36.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Napa County
California
Metro area
Napa, CA
Nearest major airport
OAK
32 mi · Oakland San Francisco Bay
Median home value
$692,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.0% is lower than 62% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.3% over the past year, to 71,951 employed residents.

33% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 73% of measured US cities.

Household income is higher than at least 90% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$11,895$121,700Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,310$43,319Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate9.3%Bottom 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute32.7 minTop 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher32.7%Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment71,951Top 44%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.3%Bottom 46%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.3%Top 35%June 2026
Labor force74,986Top 44%June 2026
Labor force participation67.5%Top 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$72,110Top 36%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$55,210Top 34%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.2%Bottom 35%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.0%Bottom 38%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024124k118k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $121,700 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Napa, CA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse3,520$44,370
Home Health and Personal Care Aides2,900$34,320
Retail Salespersons2,150$40,780
Waiters and Waitresses1,930$37,130
Registered Nurses1,610
Cashiers1,540$38,500

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Napa County, CA, which contains this city.

There are 24.4 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
4
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
24.4
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
American Canyon HighNapa Valley Unified1,72023.6
Pleasant Hill MiddleMt. Diablo Unified73823.8
Canyon Oaks ElementaryNapa Valley Unified69626.8
Napa Junction ElementaryNapa Valley Unified53125.3

57.2% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against California’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $2,537 takes 25% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.7 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
25.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$2,537
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$692,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income5.69Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate74.3%Bottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2606,131Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$242$2,537Top 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$32,310$692,600Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income25.0%Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate2.3%Bottom 17%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
51/ 100
Top 49% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing, measured from 2022 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has been broadly flat since 2020, at 21,742 in 2024.

Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before.

62% of recently permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.

At 6.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
140
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
6.5
Top 23% nationally
Year over year
−23%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
62.1%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202422k22k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
202220232024202525780
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+26%).

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 79°F and January a low of 38°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 20.2 inches.

30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station NAPA CO AP, 2.6 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation20.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low38°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high79°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing20°F1991-2020 Normals

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today.

Physical risk

22 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, earthquake and drought.

DroughtHigh
LandslideModerate
EarthquakeHigh
Inland floodingHigh
WildfireModerate
Coastal floodingModerate
Heat waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: volcanic activity, lightning, tornado, hail, strong wind, tsunami, avalanche, winter weather.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Napa County records 2.6 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 6.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 12.0 per 100,000 residents in Napa County.

Homicide
2.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
6.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
12.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
7.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Napa County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around American Canyon rather than American Canyon itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

6 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 32 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Oakland San Francisco BayOAK32 mi10,520 ft
San Francisco IntlSFO39 mi11,870 ft
Sacramento IntlSMF51 mi8,605 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
58
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Other cities in Napa, CA

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
NapaNapa County78,23951vs American Canyon

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

ZIP codes in American Canyon

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
9450321,841$121,08858