94621Oakland, California

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 94621.

45out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 5% of 5,298 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity5792nd of 6,210 ZIP areas measured28
GrowthTop 49% of 5,428 ZIP areas measured51
Housing affordability6652nd of 6,685 ZIP areas measured17
ClimateTop 10% of 6,789 ZIP areas measured85
Physical resilience4735th of 6,709 ZIP areas measured36
AccessTop 8% of 6,791 ZIP areas measured99
Economic stability5135th of 6,742 ZIP areas measured44
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published ZIP profiles: unemployment is 4.6% and the Opportunity signal places 94621 in the bottom 7%.

Housing costs more relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 36% of median household income and the median home is 10.4 times it.

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

At a glance

Population
33,840
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$52,049
Bottom 18% nationally
Density
3,975/sq mi
8.5 sq mi of land
Median age
33.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Oakland
California
Metro area
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
Nearest major airport
OAK
2 mi · Oakland San Francisco Bay
Median home value
$543,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.6% is lower than 43% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 1.7% over the past year, to 222,362 employed residents.

Median household income of $52,049 is below 82% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$6,988$52,049Bottom 18%of 31,2952024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,213$24,854Bottom 13%of 32,8222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate19.8%Top 19%of 32,9702024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute30.6 minTop 35%of 32,8872024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher13.5%Bottom 20%of 33,1932024 ACS 5-Year
Employment222,362Top 21%of 6,544June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.8%Bottom 22%of 6,542June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.7%Bottom 26%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force233,178Top 21%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force participation61.4%Top 47%of 33,2522024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$100,220Top 2%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Median annual wage$74,260Top 2%of 6,0722025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.4%Bottom 23%of 6,544June 2026
Unemployment rate4.6%Top 43%of 6,544June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202454k47k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $52,049 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 Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides119,120$35,950
Software Developers69,030$186,640
Fast Food and Counter Workers49,970$43,870
General and Operations Managers43,520$149,990
Registered Nurses41,750$186,610
Retail Salespersons39,460$43,850

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 Oakland, CA, the city containing this ZIP code.

There are 21.1 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
14
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
21.1
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Coliseum College Prep AcademyOakland Unified86115.1
Lockwood STEAM Academy ElementaryOakland Unified67825.1
GreenleafOakland Unified61323.6
Lighthouse Community Charter · charterLighthouse Community Charter District54918.9
Achieve Academy · charterAchieve Academy District53724.4
Highland CommunityOakland Unified45722.9
Aspire Golden State College Preparatory Academy · charterAspire Golden State College Preparatory Academy District40525.3
East Oakland Pride ElementaryOakland Unified31422.4
ACORN Woodland ElementaryOakland Unified29124.3
EnCompass Academy ElementaryOakland Unified28321.8
Lighthouse Community Charter High · charterLighthouse Community Charter High District28114.1
Oakland Unity Middle · charterOakland Unity Middle District13266.0

95.6% 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 →

Prices for everything a household buys run about 18% above the national average, on the Bureau of Economic Analysis index. Housing drives most of that difference.

Median rent of $1,551 takes 36% of median household income, above the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 10.4 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Cost of living
117.6

Prices here run about 18% 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
35.8%
Above the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
10.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,551
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$543,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Cost of living index117.6Top 2%of 6,0712023
Home price to income10.45Top 1%of 30,4042024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate36.4%Bottom 5%of 32,9102024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±58411,063Top 14%of 33,7722024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$140$1,551Top 20%of 26,6182024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$33,663$543,700Top 11%of 30,9412024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income35.8%Top 2%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
51/ 100
Top 49% 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.

80% 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 2.3 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
991
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.3
Bottom 44% nationally
Year over year
+241%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
80.4%
units in 5+ unit buildings

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

Weather & climate

8 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 72°F and January a low of 42°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 18.7 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 49, 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 OAKLAND METRO INTL AP, 2.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index63.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation18.7"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low42°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high72°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months81991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index49.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing15°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
49
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

36 / 100
Physical resilience

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

EarthquakeHigh
Inland floodingElevated
WildfireModerate
DroughtModerate

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

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.

Alameda County records 3.9 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 6.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 16.9 per 100,000 residents in Alameda County.

Homicide
3.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
6.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
16.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
8.8
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 Alameda 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 94621 rather than 94621 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

6 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 2 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Oakland San Francisco BayOAK2 mi10,520 ft
San Francisco IntlSFO13 mi11,870 ft
Norman Y Mineta San Jose IntlSJC31 mi11,000 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
45
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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.

94621 vs Oakland

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

94621
Oakland
Median household income
$52,049
vs
$101,600
Per capita income
$24,854
vs
$61,757
Population density
3,975/sq mi
vs
7,852/sq mi
Median home value
$543,700
vs
$929,900
Median gross rent
$1,551
vs
$1,979
Homeownership rate
36.4%
vs
42.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher
13.5%
vs
48.7%
Poverty rate
19.8%
vs
13.4%
Median age
33.3
vs
37.9

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.