San Anselmo, California
Area Profile
12,679 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for San Anselmo, in Marin County.
Residential permitting has slowed: 15 units authorized over the past twelve months, 32% below the prior year.
Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 9.1 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 inland flooding, earthquake and coastal flooding.
At a glance
Jobs & opportunity
Unemployment of 4.0% is lower than 62% of the 3,904 measured US cities.
Employment fell 2.0% over the past year, to 117,487 employed residents.
71% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 96% of measured US cities.
Household income is higher than at least 97% of measured US cities.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income ±$17,464 | $173,641 | Top 3%of 29,573 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per capita income ±$12,235 | $104,254 | Top 2%of 31,420 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Poverty rate | 7.4% | Bottom 35%of 31,900 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Average commute | 31.1 min | Top 29%of 31,543 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher | 70.6% | Top 4%of 31,919 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Employment | 117,487 | Top 37%of 3,904 | June 2026 |
| Employment change (3 years) | -3.2% | Bottom 10%of 3,903 | June 2026 |
| Employment change (year over year) | -2.0% | Bottom 18%of 3,904 | June 2026 |
| Labor force | 122,406 | Top 37%of 3,904 | June 2026 |
| Labor force participation | 69.6% | Top 19%of 31,933 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Mean annual wage | $100,220 | Top 2%of 3,658 | 2025 OEWS |
| Median annual wage | $74,260 | Top 2%of 3,658 | 2025 OEWS |
| Unemployment change (year over year) | -0.4% | Bottom 21%of 3,904 | June 2026 |
| Unemployment rate | 4.0% | Bottom 38%of 3,904 | June 2026 |
| Occupation | People employed | Median annual wage |
|---|---|---|
| Home Health and Personal Care Aides | 119,120 | $35,950 |
| Software Developers | 69,030 | $186,640 |
| Fast Food and Counter Workers | 49,970 | $43,870 |
| General and Operations Managers | 43,520 | $149,990 |
| Registered Nurses | 41,750 | $186,610 |
| Retail Salespersons | 39,460 | $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 publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Marin County, CA, which contains this city.
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 $2,797 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.
A median home costs 9.1 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.
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.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost of living index | 117.6 | Top 2%of 3,658 | 2023 |
| Home price to income | 9.08 | Top 2%of 28,473 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Homeownership rate | 68.4% | Bottom 35%of 31,843 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Housing units ±323 | 5,498 | Top 11%of 32,330 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median gross rent ±$327 | $2,797 | Top 2%of 23,432 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median home value ±$70,899 | $1,576,700 | Top 1%of 29,342 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Rent as a share of income | 19.3% | Top 45%of 23,201 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacancy rate | 5.0% | Bottom 29%of 32,001 | 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 →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 1% since 2020, reaching 12,645 in 2024.
New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.
At 1.2 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.
Weather & climate
9 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 66°F and January a low of 47°F.
Normal annual precipitation is 22.9 inches.
Air quality measures a median index of 28, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| 90th percentile air quality index | 52.0 | 2024 calendar year |
| Annual precipitation | 22.9" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low | 47°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high | 66°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months | 9 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Days above AQI 100 | 0 | 2024 calendar year |
| Median air quality index | 28.0 | 2024 calendar year |
| Seasonal temperature swing | 11°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
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
The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, earthquake and coastal flooding.
Low or minimal exposure: landslide, heat wave, volcanic activity, drought, lightning, tornado, strong wind, winter weather, hail.
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.
Safety
How it’s measured →These are deaths, not offences — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.
Marin County records 1.2 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 4.3 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 Marin County.
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 Marin 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 San Anselmo rather than San Anselmo 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 26 miles away.
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oakland San Francisco Bay | OAK | 26 mi | 10,520 ft |
| San Francisco Intl | SFO | 27 mi | 11,870 ft |
| Norman Y Mineta San Jose Intl | SJC | 55 mi | 11,000 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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Other cities in San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
Same metropolitan area, measured the same way| City | County | Population | Area Score | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | San Francisco County | 830,235 | 59 | vs San Anselmo |
| Oakland | Alameda County | 439,418 | 55 | vs San Anselmo |
| Fremont | Alameda County | 228,295 | 60 | vs San Anselmo |
| Hayward | Alameda County | 158,801 | 51 | vs San Anselmo |
| Concord | Contra Costa County | 124,035 | 50 | vs San Anselmo |
| Berkeley | Alameda County | 120,257 | 53 | vs San Anselmo |
| Antioch | Contra Costa County | 116,477 | 49 | vs San Anselmo |
| Richmond | Contra Costa County | 115,505 | 49 | vs San Anselmo |
| San Mateo | San Mateo County | 103,105 | 57 | vs San Anselmo |
| Daly City | San Mateo County | 101,964 | 59 | vs San Anselmo |
| San Leandro | Alameda County | 87,826 | 50 | vs San Anselmo |
| San Ramon | Contra Costa County | 85,993 | 56 | vs San Anselmo |
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.
Similar places
Matched on AreaProfile signals, not geographyCompare
Put San Anselmo side by side with a similar place.
Data & methodology
| Used for | Source | Source period | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access | Federal Aviation Administration Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service | NASR current cycle | 28-day NASR cycle |
| Physical risk | Federal Emergency Management Agency National Risk Index | National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0) | Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current) |
| Climate | NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly) | 1991-2020 Normals | Every ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period) |
| Housing | U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional price parities and county personal income | 2023 | Annually, each December |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics | June 2026 | Monthly |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics | 2025 OEWS | Annual (spring release) |
| Development | U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey | 12 months ending July 2026 | Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month |
| Demographics | U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program | July 1, 2024 estimate | Annual (vintage released each spring) |
| Demographics, Housing, Income, Jobs | U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File) | 2024 ACS 5-Year | Annual (5-year estimates released each December) |
| safety | U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics Provisional county-level mortality by intent | April, 2025 to March, 2026 | Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years |
| Climate | U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System Daily Air Quality Index by county | 2024 calendar year | Annually, 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.