South Whittier, California

Area Profile

55,650 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for South Whittier, in Los Angeles County.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signals: opportunity, growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Housing affordability3588th of 4,223 cities measured55
ClimateTop 4% of 4,223 cities measured100
Physical resilience3897th of 4,182 cities measured11
AccessTop 8% of 4,226 cities measured99
Economic stabilityTop 35% of 4,226 cities measured67
The quick read

Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 7.0 times median household income, against a historic benchmark near three — while rent takes 23% of it.

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

A major airport is 11 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
55,650
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$100,800
Top 18% nationally
Density
10,425/sq mi
5.3 sq mi of land
Median age
36.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Los Angeles County
California
Metro area
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
Nearest major airport
LGB
11 mi · Long Beach (Daugherty Fld)
Median home value
$708,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$4,774$100,800Top 18%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,342$33,807Top 50%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate10.6%Bottom 48%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute34.1 minTop 19%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher17.8%Bottom 43%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Labor force participation67.2%Top 26%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$77,270Top 24%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$55,850Top 33%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024101k86k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $100,800 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 — Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides385,530$34,320
Fast Food and Counter Workers160,270$42,110
Retail Salespersons130,650$37,700
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand120,720$42,390
Office Clerks, General112,270$48,100
Cashiers109,940$36,980

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

Public schools
11
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
22.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
California HighWhittier Union High2,26122.2
Granada MiddleEast Whittier City Elementary98920.6
Rancho-Starbuck IntermediateLowell Joint68723.7
Hillview MiddleEast Whittier City Elementary64319.5
Scott Avenue ElementaryEast Whittier City Elementary49424.7
Ceres ElementaryEast Whittier City Elementary49222.4
Orchard Dale ElementaryEast Whittier City Elementary47223.6
Meadow Green ElementaryLowell Joint47024.7
Los Altos ElementarySouth Whittier Elementary45721.8
Howard J. McKibben ElementarySouth Whittier Elementary43023.9
La Colima ElementaryEast Whittier City Elementary37821.0

70.9% 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 $1,908 takes 23% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 7.0 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
22.7%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
7.0×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,908
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$708,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income7.03Top 5%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate64.7%Bottom 28%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±42315,690Top 4%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$87$1,908Top 10%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$18,742$708,300Top 6%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income22.7%Top 26%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate2.2%Bottom 16%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

12 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 84°F and January a low of 46°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 11.9 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 80, in the Moderate band, and about 133 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 FULLERTON MUNI AP, 5.2 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.0"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index164.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation11.9"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low46°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high84°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months121991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 1001332024 calendar year
Median air quality index80.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing20°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
80
Moderate on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
164
90th percentile index
Days above 100
133
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

11 / 100
Physical resilience

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

EarthquakeHigh
Inland floodingHigh
WildfireModerate

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, landslide, tornado, lightning, hail, avalanche, coastal flooding, strong wind, winter weather, tsunami, drought, cold wave.

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.

Los Angeles County records 4.7 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 6.3 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 17.8 per 100,000 residents in Los Angeles County.

Homicide
4.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
6.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
17.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
8.1
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 Los Angeles 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 South Whittier rather than South Whittier 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

7 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 11 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Long Beach (Daugherty Fld)LGB11 mi10,000 ft
Los Angeles IntlLAX22 mi12,923 ft
Ontario IntlONT26 mi12,197 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 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
Los AngelesLos Angeles County3,857,26348vs South Whittier
Long BeachLos Angeles County455,54846vs South Whittier
AnaheimOrange County344,52146vs South Whittier
Santa AnaOrange County312,53453vs South Whittier
IrvineOrange County311,69055vs South Whittier
Santa ClaritaLos Angeles County230,22149vs South Whittier
Huntington BeachOrange County195,24052vs South Whittier
GlendaleLos Angeles County190,74844vs South Whittier
Garden GroveOrange County170,96454vs South Whittier
LancasterLos Angeles County169,16938vs South Whittier
PalmdaleLos Angeles County164,63441vs South Whittier
PomonaLos Angeles County147,94344vs South Whittier

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
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 South Whittier

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
9060439,276$105,074