Indio, California

Area Profile

91,950 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Indio, in Riverside County.

46out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 7% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3184th of 3,904 published cities41
GrowthTop 31% of 2,973 published cities61
Housing affordability3241st of 4,223 published cities62
Climate3782nd of 4,223 published cities59
Physical resilience4154th of 4,182 published cities4
AccessTop 19% of 4,226 published cities98
Economic stability3283rd of 4,226 published cities44
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 5.9% and the Opportunity signal places Indio in the bottom 18%.

Residential permitting has slowed: 407 units authorized over the past twelve months, 20% below the prior year.

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

At a glance

Population
91,950
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$77,167
Top 37% nationally
Density
2,771/sq mi
33.2 sq mi of land
Median age
38.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Riverside County
California
Metro area
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA
Nearest major airport
TRM
8 mi · Jacqueline Cochran Rgnl
Median home value
$458,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.9% is lower than 8% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 1.4% over the past year, to 41,920 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$6,265$77,167Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,684$35,590Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate11.5%Top 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.4 minBottom 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher20.5%Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment41,920Bottom 46%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.4%Top 28%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.4%Bottom 37%June 2026
Labor force44,551Bottom 46%June 2026
Labor force participation59.8%Bottom 47%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)-0.7%Bottom 14%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.9%Top 8%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/069.23.9
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 5.9% 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
202120222023202479k59k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $77,167 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 23.2 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
21
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
23.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Indio HighDesert Sands Unified1,96223.6
Shadow Hills HighDesert Sands Unified1,65023.6
John Glenn Middle School of International StudiesDesert Sands Unified1,09925.0
Desert Ridge AcademyDesert Sands Unified96224.1
Indio MiddleDesert Sands Unified76822.6
Andrew Jackson ElementaryDesert Sands Unified75022.7
Amelia Earhart Elementary School of International StudiesDesert Sands Unified74824.9
Mountain Vista ElementaryCoachella Valley Unified59921.4
Dr. Reynaldo J. Carreon Jr. AcademyDesert Sands Unified59222.8
Thomas Jefferson MiddleDesert Sands Unified59128.1
Richard R. Oliphant ElementaryDesert Sands Unified56821.8
James Monroe ElementaryDesert Sands Unified56225.5

83.8% 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 $1,437 takes 22% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.9 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
22.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.9×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,437
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$458,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income5.94Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate67.1%Bottom 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±95237,179Top 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$53$1,437Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$9,713$458,400Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income22.3%Top 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate15.9%Top 32%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
61/ 100
Top 31% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, 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 grown 5% since 2020, reaching 94,275 in 2024.

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

Population is still rising, but more slowly than in the preceding year.

At 4.4 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
407
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
4.4
Top 33% nationally
Year over year
−20%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
36.9%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202494k89k
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
202020212022202320242025808251
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+29%).

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 107°F and January a low of 39°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 3.0 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 87, in the Moderate band, and about 147 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 DESERT RESORTS RGNL AP, 8.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND0.6"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index174.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation3.0"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall0.0"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low39°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high107°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 1001472024 calendar year
Median air quality index87.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing38°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
87
Moderate on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
174
90th percentile index
Days above 100
147
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

4 / 100
Physical resilience

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

WildfireHigh
Inland floodingHigh
EarthquakeHigh
LandslideModerate
Heat waveModerate
AvalancheModerate
Cold waveModerate

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

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.

Riverside County records 2.9 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 6.7 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 21.3 per 100,000 residents in Riverside County.

Homicide
2.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
6.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
21.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
10.2
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 Riverside 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 Indio rather than Indio 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

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

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Jacqueline Cochran RgnlTRM8 mi8,500 ft
Palm Springs IntlPSP17 mi10,000 ft
San Bernardino IntlSBD63 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
46
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Other cities in Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA

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

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.

Compare

Put Indio side by side with a similar place.

Indio vs VictorvilleIndio vs FresnoIndio vs BakersfieldIndio vs San Jacinto

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 Indio

2 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
9220165,825$66,75843
9220334,735$97,31147