93405San Luis Obispo, California

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 93405.

48out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 11% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3583rd of 6,210 published ZIP areas51
GrowthTop 35% of 5,428 published ZIP areas59
Housing affordability6664th of 6,685 published ZIP areas9
ClimateTop 8% of 6,789 published ZIP areas89
Physical resilience5087th of 6,709 published ZIP areas31
Access5274th of 6,791 published ZIP areas81
Economic stability6263rd of 6,742 published ZIP areas28
The quick read

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 220 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 21% on the prior year.

Housing costs more relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 40% of median household income and the median home is 15.7 times it.

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

At a glance

Population
25,002
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$60,399
Bottom 30% nationally
Density
279/sq mi
89.7 sq mi of land
Median age
22.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
San Luis Obispo
California
Metro area
San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA
Nearest major airport
SMX
32 mi · Santa Maria Pub/Capt G Allan Hancock Fld
Median home value
$949,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.7% is lower than 78% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 3.2% over the past year, to 25,675 employed residents.

55% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 90% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$8,180$60,399Bottom 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,147$35,940Bottom 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate43.5%Top 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute15.7 minBottom 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher54.8%Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment25,675Bottom 26%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.2%Bottom 46%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-3.2%Bottom 6%June 2026
Labor force26,667Bottom 26%June 2026
Labor force participation57.7%Bottom 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$70,150Top 39%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$50,770Top 50%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.2%Bottom 40%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.7%Bottom 22%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202460k48k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $60,399 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 Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides4,160$34,320
Retail Salespersons3,390$37,780
Fast Food and Counter Workers3,310$42,350
Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse3,100$36,570
Cashiers3,010$36,550
Office Clerks, General2,860$46,110

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 San Luis Obispo, CA, the city containing this ZIP code.

There are 22.2 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
7
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
22.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Laguna MiddleSan Luis Coastal Unified78020.0
C L Smith ElementarySan Luis Coastal Unified52823.0
Pacheco ElementarySan Luis Coastal Unified48824.4
Bishop's Peak ElementarySan Luis Coastal Unified35821.1
Teach ElementarySan Luis Coastal Unified19332.2
Bellevue-Santa Fe Charter · charterBellevue-Santa Fe Charter District16323.3
Pacific Beach HighSan Luis Coastal Unified6215.5

41.0% 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 $2,020 takes 40% of median household income, above the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 15.7 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
40.1%
Above the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
15.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$2,020
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$949,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income15.72Top 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate34.7%Bottom 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4759,858Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$127$2,020Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$44,814$949,700Top 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income40.1%Top 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate9.9%Bottom 45%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
59/ 100
Top 35% 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.

At 4.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
220
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
4.5
Top 34% nationally
Year over year
+21%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
20.5%
units in 5+ unit buildings

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

Weather & climate

9 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 78°F and January a low of 41°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 17.9 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 49, in the Good band, and about 10 days a year pass 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 SAN LUIS OBISPO AP, 6.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index80.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation17.9"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low41°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high78°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months91991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 100102024 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
80
90th percentile index
Days above 100
10
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

31 / 100
Physical resilience

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

DroughtHigh
LandslideModerate
WildfireElevated
EarthquakeHigh
Inland floodingHigh
Heat waveModerate
TsunamiModerate

Low or minimal exposure: coastal flooding, lightning, hail, tornado, avalanche, strong wind, 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. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

San Luis Obispo County records 2.8 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 5.3 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 24.1 per 100,000 residents in San Luis Obispo County.

Homicide
2.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
5.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
24.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
11.0
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 San Luis Obispo 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 93405 rather than 93405 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

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 32 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Santa Maria Pub/Capt G Allan Hancock FldSMX32 mi8,004 ft
Meadows FldBFL95 mi10,849 ft
Fresno Yosemite IntlFAT117 mi9,539 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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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.

93405 vs San Luis Obispo

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

93405
San Luis Obispo
Median household income
$60,399
vs
$73,685
Per capita income
$35,940
vs
$48,106
Population density
279/sq mi
vs
3,555/sq mi
Median home value
$949,700
vs
$935,100
Median gross rent
$2,020
vs
$1,965
Homeownership rate
34.7%
vs
40.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher
54.8%
vs
54.4%
Poverty rate
43.5%
vs
30.4%
Median age
22.6
vs
26.3

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.