Stanislaus County, CA

County Profile

553,990 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Stanislaus County, CA.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

52out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 14% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity1069th of 1,255 counties36
GrowthTop 31% of 1,226 counties60
Housing affordability1160th of 1,255 counties61
ClimateTop 16% of 1,254 counties77
Physical resilience1113th of 1,255 counties25
AccessTop 30% of 1,255 counties89
Economic stabilityTop 42% of 1,255 counties67
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published profiles: unemployment is 7.0% and the Opportunity signal places Stanislaus County in the bottom 15%.

Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 5.5 times median household income, against a historic benchmark near three — while rent takes 24% of it.

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

At a glance

Population
553,990
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$81,468
Top 16% nationally
Density
370/sq mi
1496.2 sq mi of land
Median age
34.9
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Stanislaus County
California
Metro area
Modesto, CA
Nearest major airport
SCK
26 mi · Stockton Metro
Median home value
$450,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 7.0% is lower than 3% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 1.5% over the past year, to 232,684 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$1,473$81,468Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$575$34,849Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate13.5%Top 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute31.2 minTop 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher19.6%Bottom 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment232,684Top 12%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.0%Bottom 47%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.5%Bottom 30%June 2026
Labor force250,262Top 11%June 2026
Labor force participation61.9%Top 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.5%Bottom 16%June 2026
Unemployment rate7.0%Top 3%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/069.54.6
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 7.0% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202481k68k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $81,468 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 — Modesto, CA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides9,160$34,320
Fast Food and Counter Workers6,700$42,630
Retail Salespersons5,140$37,430
Cashiers4,890$36,490
Registered Nurses4,850$132,590
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand4,810$46,630

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.

There are 22.1 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
179
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
22.1
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Turlock HighTurlock Unified2,47921.0
Joseph A. Gregori HighModesto City High2,34623.0
Central Valley HighCeres Unified2,31723.6
James C. Enochs HighModesto City High2,30423.8
Modesto HighModesto City High2,29222.3
Thomas Downey HighModesto City High2,19224.1
Grace M. Davis HighModesto City High2,08322.2
Peter Johansen HighModesto City High2,02922.5
John H. Pitman HighTurlock Unified1,98622.3
Patterson HighPatterson Joint Unified1,83020.8
Ceres HighCeres Unified1,66022.7
Fred C. Beyer HighModesto City High1,60922.0

71.1% 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 $1,623 takes 24% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.5 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
23.9%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,623
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$450,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income5.52Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate61.2%Bottom 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±132185,149Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$24$1,623Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$3,186$450,100Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income23.9%Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate3.9%Bottom 2%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
60/ 100
Top 31% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 3 consecutive years, 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 grown 1% since 2020, reaching 556,972 in 2024.

Permit activity has risen for 3 consecutive years.

At 2.7 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
1,495
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.7
Bottom 47% nationally
Year over year
+83%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
23.9%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024557k552k
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
20222023202420251k690
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+53%).

Weather & climate

8 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 95°F and January a low of 39°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 12.3 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 53, in the Moderate band, and about 38 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

30°50°70°90°110°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station MODESTO CITY CO AP, 5.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND2.6"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index101.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation12.3"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low39°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high95°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months81991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 100382024 calendar year
Median air quality index53.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing31°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
53
Moderate on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
101
90th percentile index
Days above 100
38
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

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. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

25 / 100
Physical resilience

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

DroughtHigh
EarthquakeHigh
Heat waveElevated
Inland floodingModerate
WildfireModerate
AvalancheModerate

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

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. 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.

Stanislaus County records 2.7 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 6.2 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 23.2 per 100,000 residents in Stanislaus County.

Homicide
2.7
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
6.2
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
23.2
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
9.6
per 100,000 residents

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 Stanislaus 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 Stanislaus County rather than Stanislaus County 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

7 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 26 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Stockton MetroSCK26 mi10,245 ft
Norman Y Mineta San Jose IntlSJC53 mi11,000 ft
Oakland San Francisco BayOAK68 mi10,520 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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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
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
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

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.