Lamont, California

Area Profile

13,164 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Lamont, in Kern County.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signal: growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3763rd of 3,904 published cities26
Housing affordability4016th of 4,223 published cities41
Climate2343rd of 4,223 published cities69
Physical resilience3738th of 4,182 published cities15
AccessTop 31% of 4,226 published cities96
Economic stability3625th of 4,226 published cities38
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 8.8% and the Opportunity signal places Lamont in the bottom 4%.

Housing costs more relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 32% of median household income and the median home is 5.9 times it.

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

At a glance

Population
13,164
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$37,217
Bottom 8% nationally
Density
2,744/sq mi
4.8 sq mi of land
Median age
31.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Kern County
California
Metro area
Bakersfield-Delano, CA
Nearest major airport
BFL
14 mi · Meadows Fld
Median home value
$220,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 8.8% is lower than 1% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.1% over the past year, to 370,080 employed residents.

Median household income of $37,217 is below 92% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,737$37,217Bottom 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,103$15,193Bottom 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate35.4%Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute26.5 minBottom 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher4.6%Bottom 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment370,080Top 19%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.4%Top 43%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.1%Top 32%June 2026
Labor force405,667Top 19%June 2026
Labor force participation62.4%Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$64,650Bottom 29%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$47,470Bottom 19%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.6%Bottom 15%June 2026
Unemployment rate8.8%Top 1%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202440k34k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $37,217 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 — Bakersfield-Delano, CA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse32,500$34,620
Home Health and Personal Care Aides17,270$34,320
Fast Food and Counter Workers9,180$39,470
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand8,440$46,890
Cashiers8,350$35,220
Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers7,050$57,690

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 Kern County, CA, which contains this city.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $991 takes 32% of median household income, above 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
32.0%
Above the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.9×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$991
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$220,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income5.93Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate47.9%Bottom 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3183,863Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$145$991Top 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$14,992$220,700Top 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income32.0%Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.4%Bottom 40%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 →

No building-permit activity is published for this location by 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 41°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 6.4 inches.

30°50°70°90°110°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station BAKERSFIELD AP, 14.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND1.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation6.4"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall0.1"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low41°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high98°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing36°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

15 / 100
Physical resilience

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

WildfireHigh
Heat waveHigh
EarthquakeHigh
Inland floodingModerate
AvalancheModerate

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

Kern County records 8.0 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, higher than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 13.0 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 31.0 per 100,000 residents in Kern County.

Homicide
8.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
13.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
31.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
13.4
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 Kern 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 Lamont rather than Lamont 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

5 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 14 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Meadows FldBFL14 mi10,849 ft
Mojave Air & Space Port/Rutan FldMHV46 mi12,503 ft
Van NuysVNY77 mi8,001 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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Other cities in Bakersfield-Delano, CA

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
BakersfieldKern County411,98653vs Lamont
DelanoKern County51,67951vs Lamont
OildaleKern County34,687vs Lamont
East NilesKern County28,532vs Lamont
RidgecrestKern County28,22552vs Lamont
WascoKern County26,55842vs Lamont
RosamondKern County21,473vs Lamont
ShafterKern County21,19352vs Lamont
ArvinKern County19,53942vs Lamont
RosedaleKern County18,877vs Lamont
California CityKern County14,41444vs Lamont
McFarlandKern County14,22249vs Lamont

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 Lamont side by side with a similar place.

Lamont vs East BakersfieldLamont vs HillcrestLamont vs ArvinLamont vs Aldine

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
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
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

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.