Coalinga, California

Area Profile

17,203 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Coalinga, in Fresno County.

48out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 10% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3256th of 3,904 published cities39
Growth2219th of 2,973 published cities36
Housing affordabilityTop 21% of 4,223 published cities95
Climate2310th of 4,223 published cities69
Physical resilience3820th of 4,182 published cities13
Access3791st of 4,226 published cities67
Economic stability3843rd of 4,226 published cities32
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 7.7% and the Opportunity signal places Coalinga in the bottom 17%.

Rent takes 17% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.5 times that income.

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

At a glance

Population
17,203
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$75,451
Top 39% nationally
Density
2,561/sq mi
6.7 sq mi of land
Median age
36.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Fresno County
California
Metro area
Fresno, CA
Nearest major airport
FAT
56 mi · Fresno Yosemite Intl
Median home value
$262,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 7.7% is lower than 2% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.4% over the past year, to 436,400 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$15,064$75,451Top 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,400$24,315Bottom 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate21.7%Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute23.0 minBottom 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher12.7%Bottom 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment436,400Top 17%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.2%Top 32%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.4%Top 39%June 2026
Labor force472,956Top 16%June 2026
Labor force participation43.9%Bottom 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$63,820Bottom 27%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$46,910Bottom 15%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.7%Bottom 11%June 2026
Unemployment rate7.7%Top 2%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202478k65k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $75,451 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 — Fresno, CA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides33,580$34,320
Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse28,570$34,610
Fast Food and Counter Workers12,330$39,480
Registered Nurses11,030$125,420
Cashiers9,780$35,270
Retail Salespersons9,290$36,460

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 Fresno County, CA, which contains this city.

There are 19.9 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
8
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
19.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Coalinga HighCoalinga-Huron Unified1,25620.3
Coalinga MiddleCoalinga-Huron Unified66219.5
Sunset ElementaryCoalinga-Huron Unified44227.6
Henry F. Bishop ElementaryCoalinga-Huron Unified41218.7
Nell Dawson ElementaryCoalinga-Huron Unified40518.4
Annie E. Cheney KindergartenCoalinga-Huron Unified7418.5
Cambridge HighCoalinga-Huron Unified489.6
Miles W. Culwell Community DayCoalinga-Huron Unified55.0

76.8% 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 $1,093 takes 17% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.5 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
17.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,093
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$262,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.48Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate53.6%Bottom 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3384,316Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$110$1,093Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$27,248$262,400Top 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income17.4%Bottom 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate3.6%Bottom 22%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
36/ 100
Ranks 2219 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is broadly steady, measured from 2020 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 fallen 5% since 2020, reaching 16,722 in 2024.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 0.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
8
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.5
Bottom 20% nationally
Year over year
+300%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202418k17k
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
2020202120222023202420251560.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 98°F and January a low of 37°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 7.2 inches.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station LEMOORE REEVES NAS, 25.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND1.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation7.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low37°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high98°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing34°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

13 / 100
Physical resilience

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

DroughtHigh
EarthquakeHigh
WildfireElevated
Inland floodingModerate
Heat waveModerate
AvalancheModerate

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

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.

Fresno County records 4.8 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 8.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 18.6 per 100,000 residents in Fresno County.

Homicide
4.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
8.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
18.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
10.3
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 Fresno 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 Coalinga rather than Coalinga 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

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 56 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Fresno Yosemite IntlFAT56 mi9,539 ft
Santa Maria Pub/Capt G Allan Hancock FldSMX85 mi8,004 ft
Meadows FldBFL87 mi10,849 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
48
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Other cities in Fresno, CA

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
FresnoFresno County545,97050vs Coalinga
ClovisFresno County124,72558vs Coalinga
MaderaMadera County67,83141vs Coalinga
SangerFresno County26,69951vs Coalinga
ReedleyFresno County25,60945vs Coalinga
SelmaFresno County24,65940vs Coalinga
ChowchillaMadera County19,02044vs Coalinga
KermanFresno County16,81545vs Coalinga
ParlierFresno County14,50741vs Coalinga
MendotaFresno County12,57743vs Coalinga

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 Coalinga

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
9321018,491$74,81746