91950National City, California

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 91950.

36out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 1% of 5,298 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity5416th of 6,210 ZIP areas measured34
Growth5292nd of 5,428 ZIP areas measured12
Housing affordability6587th of 6,685 ZIP areas measured27
ClimateTop 4% of 6,789 ZIP areas measured100
Physical resilience6459th of 6,709 ZIP areas measured8
Access6569th of 6,791 ZIP areas measured49
Economic stability3883rd of 6,742 ZIP areas measured56
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published ZIP profiles: unemployment is 5.4% and the Opportunity signal places 91950 in the bottom 13%.

Housing costs more relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 30% of median household income and the median home is 9.2 times it.

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

At a glance

Population
59,891
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$66,426
Bottom 41% nationally
Density
8,163/sq mi
7.3 sq mi of land
Median age
35.9
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
National City
California
Metro area
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA
Nearest major airport
TRM
85 mi · Jacqueline Cochran Rgnl
Median home value
$612,200
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.4% is lower than 16% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 1.1% over the past year, to 26,338 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$4,467$66,426Bottom 41%of 31,2952024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,409$30,466Bottom 28%of 32,8222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate14.9%Top 32%of 32,9702024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute26.9 minBottom 46%of 32,8872024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher18.0%Bottom 34%of 33,1932024 ACS 5-Year
Employment26,338Bottom 27%of 6,544June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.1%Top 49%of 6,542June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.1%Bottom 42%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force27,827Bottom 27%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force participation66.3%Top 27%of 33,2522024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$79,060Top 16%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Median annual wage$58,690Top 21%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.2%Bottom 41%of 6,544June 2026
Unemployment rate5.4%Top 16%of 6,544June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202466k51k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $66,426 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 Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides57,080$35,300
Fast Food and Counter Workers42,550$42,190
Retail Salespersons34,390$37,810
Cashiers30,420$37,020
Registered Nurses28,680$139,520
Office Clerks, General28,470$49,920

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 does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for National City, CA, the city containing this ZIP code.

There are 24.5 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
16
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
24.5
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
San Diego Workforce Innovation High · charterSan Diego Workforce Innovation High District2,72226.4
Sweetwater HighSweetwater Union High2,29025.4
Granger Junior HighSweetwater Union High72421.9
National City MiddleSweetwater Union High70926.3
Central ElementaryNational Elementary47723.9
Las PalmasNational Elementary45824.1
OlivewoodNational Elementary42423.6
Lincoln AcresNational Elementary42324.9
Ira HarbisonNational Elementary39323.1
Integrity Charter · charterIntegrity Charter District39319.6
Palmer WayNational Elementary38722.8
El Toyon ElementaryNational Elementary38122.4

82.8% 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 →

Prices for everything a household buys run about 11% above the national average, on the Bureau of Economic Analysis index. Housing drives most of that difference.

Median rent of $1,670 takes 30% of median household income, above the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 9.2 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Cost of living
110.7

Prices here run about 11% above the national average. The spread between places is driven mostly by housing — goods vary far less — and this excludes taxes.

Rent as a share of income
30.2%
Above the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
9.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,670
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$612,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Cost of living index110.7Top 17%of 6,0712023
Home price to income9.22Top 3%of 30,4042024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate35.7%Bottom 4%of 32,9102024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±57719,616Top 4%of 33,7722024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$44$1,670Top 17%of 26,6182024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$12,178$612,200Top 9%of 30,9412024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income30.2%Top 5%of 26,4702024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.4%Bottom 30%of 33,0282024 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
12/ 100
Ranks 5292 of 5,428 published city profiles

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.

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

At 0.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
2
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.0
Bottom 4% nationally
Year over year
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for National City, CA, the city containing this ZIP code.

Weather & climate

12 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 74°F and January a low of 49°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 9.3 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 71, in the Moderate band, and about 52 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station NORTH ISLAND NAS, 6.6 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND1.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index105.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation9.3"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall0.0"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low49°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high74°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months121991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 100522024 calendar year
Median air quality index71.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing14°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
71
Moderate on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
105
90th percentile index
Days above 100
52
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

8 / 100
Physical resilience

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

WildfireHigh
Inland floodingModerate
EarthquakeHigh
Heat waveModerate
AvalancheModerate

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

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

San Diego County records 2.1 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 5.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 18.5 per 100,000 residents in San Diego County.

Homicide
2.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
5.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
18.5
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 San Diego 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 91950 rather than 91950 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
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes
Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 85 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Jacqueline Cochran RgnlTRM85 mi8,500 ft
Palm Springs IntlPSP87 mi10,000 ft
San Bernardino IntlSBD99 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
36
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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)
HousingU.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Regional price parities and county personal income
2023Annually, each December
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)
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)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
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.

91950 vs National City

How this ZIP area compares with National City as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

91950
National City
Median household income
$66,426
vs
$66,841
Per capita income
$30,466
vs
$30,909
Population density
8,163/sq mi
vs
8,015/sq mi
Median home value
$612,200
vs
$612,200
Median gross rent
$1,670
vs
$1,692
Homeownership rate
35.7%
vs
34.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher
18.0%
vs
18.1%
Poverty rate
14.9%
vs
14.6%
Median age
35.9
vs
36.1

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.