Pleasanton, California

Area Profile

76,960 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Pleasanton, in Alameda County.

56out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 34% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 49% of 3,904 published cities56
Growth2088th of 2,973 published cities39
Housing affordability3512th of 4,223 published cities57
ClimateTop 15% of 4,223 published cities81
Physical resilience3044th of 4,182 published cities34
AccessTop 43% of 4,226 published cities94
Economic stabilityTop 22% of 4,226 published cities73
The quick read

Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 8.1 times median household income, against a historic benchmark near three — while rent takes 19% of it.

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

A major airport is 19 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
76,960
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$190,124
Top 2% nationally
Density
3,188/sq mi
24.1 sq mi of land
Median age
43.1
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Alameda County
California
Metro area
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
Nearest major airport
OAK
19 mi · Oakland San Francisco Bay
Median home value
$1,537,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.3% is lower than 51% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 1.7% over the past year, to 35,374 employed residents.

70% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 96% of measured US cities.

Household income is higher than at least 98% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$9,119$190,124Top 2%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,759$88,401Top 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate5.3%Bottom 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute37.6 minTop 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher69.9%Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment35,374Bottom 42%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-2.6%Bottom 13%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.7%Bottom 26%June 2026
Labor force36,946Bottom 42%June 2026
Labor force participation65.4%Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$100,220Top 2%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$74,260Top 2%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.3%Bottom 30%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.3%Bottom 49%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/065.42.5
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.3% 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
2021202220232024190k168k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $190,124 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.

There are 23.4 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
16
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
23.4
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Amador Valley HighPleasanton Unified2,58323.5
Foothill HighPleasanton Unified2,16922.4
Thomas S. Hart MiddlePleasanton Unified1,12923.5
Harvest Park MiddlePleasanton Unified1,01522.6
Pleasanton MiddlePleasanton Unified94421.5
Donlon ElementaryPleasanton Unified70024.1
Fairlands ElementaryPleasanton Unified67025.8
Valley View ElementaryPleasanton Unified62924.2
Walnut Grove ElementaryPleasanton Unified62927.3
Lydiksen ElementaryPleasanton Unified58624.4
Alisal ElementaryPleasanton Unified54423.7
Vintage Hills ElementaryPleasanton Unified52224.9

10.0% 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 $3,060 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 8.1 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
19.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
8.1×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$3,060
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$1,537,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income8.08Top 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate67.0%Bottom 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±55128,975Top 2%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$123$3,060Top 2%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$30,347$1,537,100Top 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.3%Top 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate3.8%Bottom 23%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
39/ 100
Ranks 2088 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 fallen 5% since 2020, reaching 75,664 in 2024.

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

At 2.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
165
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.1
Bottom 48% nationally
Year over year
+21%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
57.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202480k76k
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
202020212022202320242025153119
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+27%).

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 88°F and January a low of 38°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 15.2 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 LIVERMORE MUNI AP, 4.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND2.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index63.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation15.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low38°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high88°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index49.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing25°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

34 / 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. 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.

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 Pleasanton rather than Pleasanton 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 19 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Oakland San Francisco BayOAK19 mi10,520 ft
Norman Y Mineta San Jose IntlSJC21 mi11,000 ft
San Francisco IntlSFO27 mi11,870 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
56
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Other cities in San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
San FranciscoSan Francisco County830,23559vs Pleasanton
OaklandAlameda County439,41855vs Pleasanton
FremontAlameda County228,29560vs Pleasanton
HaywardAlameda County158,80151vs Pleasanton
ConcordContra Costa County124,03550vs Pleasanton
BerkeleyAlameda County120,25753vs Pleasanton
AntiochContra Costa County116,47749vs Pleasanton
RichmondContra Costa County115,50549vs Pleasanton
San MateoSan Mateo County103,10557vs Pleasanton
Daly CitySan Mateo County101,96459vs Pleasanton
San LeandroAlameda County87,82650vs Pleasanton
San RamonContra Costa County85,99356vs Pleasanton

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
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 Pleasanton

2 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
9456644,222$191,15557
9458834,328$191,07356