San Pablo, California

Area Profile

31,720 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for San Pablo, in Contra Costa County.

44out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 5% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3145th of 3,904 published cities41
Growth2843rd of 2,973 published cities15
Housing affordability4073rd of 4,223 published cities38
ClimateTop 8% of 4,223 published cities89
Physical resilience3454th of 4,182 published cities23
AccessTop 41% of 4,226 published cities94
Economic stabilityTop 49% of 4,226 published cities61
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 4.3% and the Opportunity signal places San Pablo in the bottom 19%.

Residential permitting has slowed: 5 units authorized over the past twelve months, 76% below the prior year.

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

At a glance

Population
31,720
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$79,478
Top 34% nationally
Density
12,088/sq mi
2.6 sq mi of land
Median age
34.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Contra Costa County
California
Metro area
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
Nearest major airport
OAK
18 mi · Oakland San Francisco Bay
Median home value
$551,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

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

Employment fell 1.8% over the past year, to 13,697 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,342$79,478Top 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,795$30,103Bottom 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate12.6%Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute35.6 minTop 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher16.8%Bottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment13,697Bottom 11%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-2.5%Bottom 14%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.8%Bottom 23%June 2026
Labor force14,316Bottom 11%June 2026
Labor force participation64.4%Top 36%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)-1.2%Bottom 2%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.3%Bottom 49%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/068.83.3
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
202120222023202479k67k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $79,478 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.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $2,018 takes 30% of median household income, above the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 6.9 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
30.5%
Above the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
6.9×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$2,018
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$551,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income6.94Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate42.0%Bottom 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4579,943Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$118$2,018Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$24,624$551,700Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income30.5%Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate2.0%Bottom 16%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
15/ 100
Ranks 2843 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing — 2 consecutive years, 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 2% since 2020, reaching 31,562 in 2024.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 0.2 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
5
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.2
Bottom 11% nationally
Year over year
−76%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202432k31k
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
202020212022202320242025693.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−11%).

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 48, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station SAN FRANCISCO DWTN, 14.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index63.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation22.9"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low47°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high66°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months91991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index48.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing11°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
48
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
63
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
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

23 / 100
Physical resilience

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

EarthquakeHigh
Inland floodingHigh
LandslideModerate
Heat waveModerate
WildfireModerate
DroughtModerate
AvalancheModerate

Low or minimal exposure: lightning, volcanic activity, coastal flooding, tornado, tsunami, strong wind, hail, 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.

Contra Costa County records 3.8 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 6.1 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 Contra Costa County.

Homicide
3.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
6.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
16.9
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 Contra Costa 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 Pablo rather than San Pablo 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 18 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Oakland San Francisco BayOAK18 mi10,520 ft
San Francisco IntlSFO24 mi11,870 ft
Norman Y Mineta San Jose IntlSJC47 mi11,000 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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Area Score
44
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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 San Pablo
OaklandAlameda County439,41855vs San Pablo
FremontAlameda County228,29560vs San Pablo
HaywardAlameda County158,80151vs San Pablo
ConcordContra Costa County124,03550vs San Pablo
BerkeleyAlameda County120,25753vs San Pablo
AntiochContra Costa County116,47749vs San Pablo
RichmondContra Costa County115,50549vs San Pablo
San MateoSan Mateo County103,10557vs San Pablo
Daly CitySan Mateo County101,96459vs San Pablo
San LeandroAlameda County87,82650vs San Pablo
San RamonContra Costa County85,99356vs San Pablo

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.