Cupertino, California

Area Profile

58,566 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Cupertino, in Santa Clara County.

58out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 41% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 24% of 3,904 published cities69
Growth2379th of 2,973 published cities32
Housing affordability3483rd of 4,223 published cities58
ClimateTop 8% of 4,223 published cities89
Physical resilience3339th of 4,182 published cities25
AccessTop 8% of 4,226 published cities99
Economic stabilityTop 28% of 4,226 published cities70
The quick read

Cupertino ranks in the top 24% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 4.2% and median household income of $234,707.

Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 8.5 times median household income, against a historic benchmark near three — while rent takes 18% of it.

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

At a glance

Population
58,566
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$234,707
Top 1% nationally
Density
5,165/sq mi
11.3 sq mi of land
Median age
41.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Santa Clara County
California
Metro area
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
Nearest major airport
SJC
7 mi · Norman Y Mineta San Jose Intl
Median home value
$2,000,001
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.2% is lower than 55% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.7% over the past year, to 27,478 employed residents.

82% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 99% of measured US cities.

Household income is higher than at least 99% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$12,596$234,707Top 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$5,134$110,519Top 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate4.1%Bottom 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute25.7 minBottom 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher82.2%Top 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment27,478Bottom 35%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.1%Top 50%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.7%Top 48%June 2026
Labor force28,693Bottom 35%June 2026
Labor force participation62.9%Top 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$119,230Top 1%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$84,050Top 1%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.4%Bottom 26%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.2%Bottom 45%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.62.2
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.2% 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
2021202220232024235k200k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $234,707 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 — San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Software Developers87,350$213,110
Home Health and Personal Care Aides49,610$37,640
Fast Food and Counter Workers23,060$44,570
Registered Nurses22,930$216,740
Computer and Information Systems Managers19,070$291,660
Retail Salespersons18,340$44,220

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 22.5 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
13
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
22.5
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Homestead HighFremont Union High2,22422.7
Cupertino HighFremont Union High1,80023.1
Monta Vista HighFremont Union High1,63024.0
John F. Kennedy MiddleCupertino Union88021.5
Sam H. Lawson MiddleCupertino Union84119.6
Warren E. Hyde MiddleCupertino Union80020.0
Abraham Lincoln ElementaryCupertino Union66225.5
William Faria ElementaryCupertino Union61425.6
L. P. Collins ElementaryCupertino Union49822.6
C. B. Eaton ElementaryCupertino Union48923.3
Garden Gate ElementaryCupertino Union47121.4
D. J. Sedgwick ElementaryCupertino Union40722.6

14.6% 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 $3,501 takes 18% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 8.5 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
17.9%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
8.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$3,501
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$2,000,001
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income8.52Top 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate60.6%Bottom 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±46322,158Top 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent$3,501Top 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value$2,000,001Top 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income17.9%Bottom 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate5.1%Bottom 29%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
32/ 100
Ranks 2379 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing — 2 consecutive years, 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 2% since 2020, reaching 58,710 in 2024.

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

At 1.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
58
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.0
Bottom 31% nationally
Year over year
−5%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202460k58k
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
20202021202220232024202512049
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+35%).

Weather & climate

9 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 77°F and January a low of 42°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 13.4 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 47, in the Good band, and one day a year passes 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station MOFFETT FEDERAL AIRFIELD, 6.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND2.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index63.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation13.4"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low42°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high77°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months91991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index47.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing17°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
47
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
63
90th percentile index
Days above 100
1
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 earthquake, inland flooding and heat wave.

EarthquakeHigh
Inland floodingHigh
DroughtModerate
Heat waveModerate
AvalancheModerate

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

Santa Clara County records 1.7 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, lower than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 3.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 14.0 per 100,000 residents in Santa Clara County.

Homicide
1.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
3.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
14.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
7.1
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 Santa Clara 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 Cupertino rather than Cupertino 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 7 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Norman Y Mineta San Jose IntlSJC7 mi11,000 ft
San Francisco IntlSFO28 mi11,870 ft
Oakland San Francisco BayOAK29 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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Area Score
58
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Other cities in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
San JoseSanta Clara County990,13861vs Cupertino
SunnyvaleSanta Clara County154,23660vs Cupertino
Santa ClaraSanta Clara County130,25664vs Cupertino
Mountain ViewSanta Clara County83,73264vs Cupertino
MilpitasSanta Clara County78,57858vs Cupertino
Palo AltoSanta Clara County67,23763vs Cupertino
GilroySanta Clara County59,00459vs Cupertino
Morgan HillSanta Clara County45,42562vs Cupertino
HollisterSan Benito County43,81155vs Cupertino
CampbellSanta Clara County42,78161vs Cupertino
Los GatosSanta Clara County32,78654vs Cupertino
Los AltosSanta Clara County30,69860vs Cupertino

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
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.

ZIP codes in Cupertino

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
9501460,932$230,91358