Placerville, California

Area Profile

10,762 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Placerville, in El Dorado County.

51out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 19% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity2844th of 3,904 published cities45
GrowthTop 21% of 2,973 published cities67
Housing affordability3531st of 4,223 published cities57
Climate2245th of 4,223 published cities70
Physical resilience3574th of 4,182 published cities21
Access2993rd of 4,226 published cities85
Economic stability3176th of 4,226 published cities45
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 4.7% and the Opportunity signal places Placerville in the bottom 27%.

Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 7.0 times median household income, against a historic benchmark near three — while rent takes 22% of it.

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

At a glance

Population
10,762
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$67,274
Top 49% nationally
Density
1,843/sq mi
5.8 sq mi of land
Median age
46.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
El Dorado County
California
Metro area
Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA
Nearest major airport
MCC
33 mi · Mc Clellan Airfield
Median home value
$473,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.7% is lower than 36% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 1.4% over the past year, to 84,772 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$14,025$67,274Top 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,617$40,994Top 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate15.9%Top 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute28.1 minTop 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher23.4%Top 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment84,772Top 41%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.4%Top 42%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.4%Bottom 36%June 2026
Labor force88,957Top 41%June 2026
Labor force participation58.7%Bottom 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$77,150Top 25%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$59,750Top 21%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.4%Bottom 26%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.7%Top 36%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202471k64k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $67,274 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 — Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides60,350$34,320
Management Analysts25,600$82,990
Fast Food and Counter Workers24,910$42,860
Registered Nurses23,590$171,460
Retail Salespersons22,970$38,100
Office Clerks, General21,340$48,940

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 El Dorado County, CA, which contains this city.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,234 takes 22% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 7.0 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
22.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
7.0×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,234
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$473,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income7.03Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate58.3%Bottom 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3525,074Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$175$1,234Top 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$17,383$473,100Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income22.0%Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate5.9%Bottom 33%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
67/ 100
Top 21% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is broadly steady, 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 been broadly flat since 2020, at 10,695 in 2024.

69% 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 3.3 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
36
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
3.3
Top 40% nationally
Year over year
+414%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
69.4%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202411k11k
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
2020202120222023202420257.02.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+50%).

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 94°F and January a low of 34°F.

Air quality measures a median index of 44, in the Good band, and about 8 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station PLACERVILLE, 2.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index80.02024 calendar year
Average January low34°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high94°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10082024 calendar year
Median air quality index44.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing32°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
44
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
80
90th percentile index
Days above 100
8
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

21 / 100
Physical resilience

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

WildfireHigh
LandslideModerate
Inland floodingElevated
EarthquakeHigh
AvalancheModerate
DroughtModerate
Heat waveModerate

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

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.

El Dorado County records 2.3 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 10.4 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 El Dorado County.

Homicide
2.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
10.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
19.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
16.6
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 El Dorado 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 Placerville rather than Placerville 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

6 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 33 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Mc Clellan AirfieldMCC33 mi10,599 ft
Sacramento IntlSMF43 mi8,605 ft
Lake TahoeTVL45 mi8,541 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.

Customize your score

What matters to you?

Choose what you weight most heavily. Nothing is saved to an account — your preferences stay in this browser, and the Area Score never changes.

Area Score
51
Your Score

Select one or more priorities to see how this location scores against them.

Other cities in Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
SacramentoSacramento County528,70664vs Placerville
Elk GroveSacramento County179,15568vs Placerville
RosevillePlacer County155,95565vs Placerville
Arden-ArcadeSacramento County94,994vs Placerville
Citrus HeightsSacramento County86,99561vs Placerville
FolsomSacramento County83,91671vs Placerville
Rancho CordovaSacramento County81,84967vs Placerville
CarmichaelSacramento County76,948vs Placerville
RocklinPlacer County73,32768vs Placerville
DavisYolo County66,97852vs Placerville
WoodlandYolo County61,85452vs Placerville
West SacramentoYolo County54,92760vs Placerville

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
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.