Highland, California

Area Profile

56,675 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Highland, in San Bernardino County.

53out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 23% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity2930th of 3,904 published cities44
GrowthTop 12% of 2,973 published cities73
Housing affordability3675th of 4,223 published cities53
ClimateTop 5% of 4,223 published cities90
Physical resilience4073rd of 4,182 published cities7
AccessTop 1% of 4,226 published cities100
Economic stability2893rd of 4,226 published cities50
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 5.0% and the Opportunity signal places Highland in the bottom 25%.

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 534 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 290% on the prior year.

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

At a glance

Population
56,675
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$77,120
Top 37% nationally
Density
3,052/sq mi
18.6 sq mi of land
Median age
33.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
San Bernardino County
California
Metro area
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA
Nearest major airport
SBD
4 mi · San Bernardino Intl
Median home value
$485,600
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.0% is lower than 25% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 1.4% over the past year, to 24,522 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$6,818$77,120Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,975$33,970Top 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate17.1%Top 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute31.1 minTop 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher22.7%Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment24,522Bottom 32%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.4%Top 42%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.4%Bottom 36%June 2026
Labor force25,823Bottom 32%June 2026
Labor force participation60.9%Top 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$65,160Bottom 30%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$48,400Bottom 25%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-1.0%Bottom 5%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.0%Top 25%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/069.13.6
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 5.0% 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
202120222023202478k69k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $77,120 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 — Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides102,760$34,320
Stockers and Order Fillers77,160$43,200
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand69,820$46,060
Fast Food and Counter Workers51,310$42,280
Retail Salespersons41,270$36,720
Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers40,230$60,580

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

Public schools
15
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
20.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Beattie MiddleRedlands Unified1,07221.4
Serrano MiddleSan Bernardino City Unified71617.5
Belvedere ElementarySan Bernardino City Unified55721.4
Lankershim ElementarySan Bernardino City Unified55120.4
Entrepreneur High · charterEntrepreneur High District52818.2
Arroyo Verde ElementaryRedlands Unified51823.5
Cypress ElementarySan Bernardino City Unified51719.1
Cram ElementaryRedlands Unified50724.1
Highland Grove ElementaryRedlands Unified50425.2
New Vision Middle · charterNew Vision Middle District46030.7
Thompson ElementarySan Bernardino City Unified45522.8
Oehl ElementarySan Bernardino City Unified43622.9

80.4% 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 $1,629 takes 25% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 6.3 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
25.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
6.3×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,629
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$485,600
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income6.30Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate64.1%Bottom 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±53616,795Top 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$93$1,629Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$15,010$485,600Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income25.3%Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate3.2%Bottom 20%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
73/ 100
Top 12% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 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 1% since 2020, reaching 56,499 in 2024.

61% 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 9.4 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
534
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
9.4
Top 14% nationally
Year over year
+290%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
61.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202457k56k
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
20202021202220232024202556931
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+935%).

Weather & climate

11 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 93°F and January a low of 44°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 9.4 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 87, in the Moderate band, and about 144 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 RIVERSIDE MUNI AP, 19.2 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND2.4"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index185.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation9.4"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low44°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high93°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months111991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 1001442024 calendar year
Median air quality index87.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing25°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
87
Moderate on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
185
90th percentile index
Days above 100
144
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

7 / 100
Physical resilience

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

WildfireHigh
EarthquakeHigh
Inland floodingHigh
AvalancheModerate

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

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.

San Bernardino County records 4.3 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 7.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 19.8 per 100,000 residents in San Bernardino County.

Homicide
4.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
7.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
19.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
9.3
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 San Bernardino 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 Highland rather than Highland 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

8 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 4 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
San Bernardino IntlSBD4 mi10,000 ft
Ontario IntlONT25 mi12,197 ft
Palm Springs IntlPSP43 mi10,000 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
53
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Other cities in Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
RiversideRiverside County319,06952vs Highland
San BernardinoSan Bernardino County222,72446vs Highland
FontanaSan Bernardino County214,16955vs Highland
Moreno ValleyRiverside County211,66648vs Highland
OntarioSan Bernardino County180,54752vs Highland
Rancho CucamongaSan Bernardino County175,41152vs Highland
CoronaRiverside County159,67055vs Highland
VictorvilleSan Bernardino County137,62743vs Highland
MurrietaRiverside County112,06453vs Highland
TemeculaRiverside County111,16755vs Highland
MenifeeRiverside County110,30555vs Highland
Jurupa ValleyRiverside County107,01154vs Highland

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 Highland

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
9234656,179$85,16354