Salida, California

Area Profile

13,900 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Salida, in Stanislaus 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
Opportunity3324th of 3,904 cities measured38
Housing affordability3361st of 4,223 cities measured60
ClimateTop 25% of 4,223 cities measured77
Physical resilience3480th of 4,182 cities measured22
AccessTop 31% of 4,226 cities measured96
Economic stabilityTop 17% of 4,226 cities measured75
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 7.0% and the Opportunity signal places Salida in the bottom 15%.

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

A major airport is 15 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
13,900
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$94,935
Top 22% nationally
Density
6,270/sq mi
2.2 sq mi of land
Median age
35.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Stanislaus County
California
Metro area
Modesto, CA
Nearest major airport
SCK
15 mi · Stockton Metro
Median home value
$461,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 7.0% is lower than 3% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 1.5% over the past year, to 232,684 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$8,905$94,935Top 22%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$7,077$42,511Top 28%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate8.2%Bottom 39%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute31.5 minTop 28%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher19.6%Bottom 47%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment232,684Top 27%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.0%Top 48%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.5%Bottom 33%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force250,262Top 26%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation66.9%Top 27%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$67,230Bottom 45%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$50,610Bottom 46%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.5%Bottom 17%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate7.0%Top 3%of 3,904June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202495k88k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $94,935 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 — Modesto, CA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides9,160$34,320
Fast Food and Counter Workers6,700$42,630
Retail Salespersons5,140$37,430
Cashiers4,890$36,490
Registered Nurses4,850$132,590
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand4,810$46,630

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 Stanislaus County, CA, which contains this city.

There are 20.0 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
4
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
20.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Salida Middle School - Vella CampusSalida Union Elementary67318.2
Dena Boer ElementarySalida Union Elementary44420.2
Sisk ElementarySalida Union Elementary28622.0
Salida ElementarySalida Union Elementary27322.8

79.8% 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 →

Median rent of $2,081 takes 26% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.9 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
26.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.9×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$2,081
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$461,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income4.86Top 17%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate77.3%Top 47%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4424,286Top 13%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$220$2,081Top 8%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$10,374$461,100Top 14%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income26.3%Top 13%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate0.0%Bottom 1%of 32,0012024 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

8 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 95°F and January a low of 39°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 12.3 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 53, in the Moderate band, and about 38 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

30°50°70°90°110°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station MODESTO CITY CO AP, 9.4 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND2.6"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index101.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation12.3"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low39°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high95°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months81991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 100382024 calendar year
Median air quality index53.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing31°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
53
Moderate on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
101
90th percentile index
Days above 100
38
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

22 / 100
Physical resilience

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

DroughtHigh
EarthquakeHigh
Heat waveElevated
Inland floodingModerate
WildfireModerate
AvalancheModerate

Low or minimal exposure: lightning, landslide, volcanic activity, hail, winter weather, 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.

Stanislaus County records 2.7 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 6.2 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 23.2 per 100,000 residents in Stanislaus County.

Homicide
2.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
6.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
23.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
9.6
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 Stanislaus 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 Salida rather than Salida 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 and full cost of living
No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. 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. 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

7 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 15 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Stockton MetroSCK15 mi10,245 ft
Norman Y Mineta San Jose IntlSJC52 mi11,000 ft
Oakland San Francisco BayOAK62 mi10,520 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 Modesto, CA

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
ModestoStanislaus County219,21551vs Salida
TurlockStanislaus County72,50249vs Salida
CeresStanislaus County49,34243vs Salida
RiverbankStanislaus County25,16654vs Salida
PattersonStanislaus County24,69356vs Salida
OakdaleStanislaus County23,19452vs Salida
NewmanStanislaus County12,31644vs Salida

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 Salida side by side with a similar place.

Salida vs PrincetonSalida vs DixonSalida vs WoodlandSalida vs Riverbank

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)
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 Salida

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
9536813,900$94,935