Valley Center, California

Area Profile

11,119 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Valley Center, in San Diego 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
OpportunityTop 40% of 3,904 published cities61
Housing affordability2911th of 4,223 published cities68
ClimateTop 10% of 4,223 published cities84
Physical resilience4030th of 4,182 published cities9
Access3573rd of 4,226 published cities74
Economic stability2532nd of 4,226 published cities55
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.4% and median household income $132,361, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

Rent takes 16% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 6.7 times that income.

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

At a glance

Population
11,119
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$132,361
Top 8% nationally
Density
405/sq mi
27.4 sq mi of land
Median age
42.1
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
San Diego County
California
Metro area
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA
Nearest major airport
PSP
51 mi · Palm Springs Intl
Median home value
$883,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.4% is lower than 48% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 1.1% over the past year, to 1,567,556 employed residents.

38% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 80% of measured US cities.

Household income is higher than at least 92% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$25,204$132,361Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$6,100$52,880Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate6.7%Bottom 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute40.4 minTop 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher38.4%Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment1,567,556Top 3%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.1%Top 50%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.1%Bottom 42%June 2026
Labor force1,640,465Top 3%June 2026
Labor force participation60.0%Bottom 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$79,060Top 19%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$58,690Top 26%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.3%Bottom 30%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.4%Top 48%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024132k103k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $132,361 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 Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides57,080$35,300
Fast Food and Counter Workers42,550$42,190
Retail Salespersons34,390$37,810
Cashiers30,420$37,020
Registered Nurses28,680$139,520
Office Clerks, General28,470$49,920

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 San Diego County, CA, which contains this city.

There are 22.9 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
9
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
22.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Valley Center HighValley Center-Pauma Unified1,075
Valley Center MiddleValley Center-Pauma Unified76622.5
Valley Center PrimaryValley Center-Pauma Unified49620.7
Valley Center ElementaryValley Center-Pauma Unified47626.4
LilacValley Center-Pauma Unified43821.9
All Tribes Elementary Charter · charterAll Tribes Elementary Charter District8442.0
All Tribes Charter · charterAll Tribes Charter District8213.7
Oak Glen HighValley Center-Pauma Unified7839.0
Valley Center PrepValley Center-Pauma Unified5628.0

63.8% 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 $1,750 takes 16% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 6.7 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
15.9%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
6.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,750
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$883,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income6.68Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate92.6%Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4203,887Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$599$1,750Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$39,501$883,700Top 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income15.9%Bottom 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate11.5%Top 44%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 →

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 89°F and January a low of 37°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 14.6 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 71, in the Moderate band, and about 52 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station RAMONA AP, 14.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.7"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index105.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation14.6"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low37°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high89°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months81991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 100522024 calendar year
Median air quality index71.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing24°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
71
Moderate on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
105
90th percentile index
Days above 100
52
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

9 / 100
Physical resilience

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

WildfireHigh
Inland floodingModerate
EarthquakeHigh
Heat waveModerate
AvalancheModerate

Low or minimal exposure: landslide, lightning, hail, coastal flooding, tornado, drought, tsunami, strong wind, winter weather, volcanic activity, hurricane, 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.

San Diego County records 2.1 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 5.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 18.5 per 100,000 residents in San Diego County.

Homicide
2.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
5.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
18.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
10.2
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 Diego 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 Valley Center rather than Valley Center 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 51 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Palm Springs IntlPSP51 mi10,000 ft
Jacqueline Cochran RgnlTRM56 mi8,500 ft
San Bernardino IntlSBD61 mi10,000 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 Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
San DiegoSan Diego County1,389,52653vs Valley Center
Chula VistaSan Diego County276,37553vs Valley Center
OceansideSan Diego County172,24247vs Valley Center
EscondidoSan Diego County149,66847vs Valley Center
CarlsbadSan Diego County114,37352vs Valley Center
El CajonSan Diego County104,44943vs Valley Center
VistaSan Diego County99,11448vs Valley Center
San MarcosSan Diego County94,88254vs Valley Center
EncinitasSan Diego County61,48057vs Valley Center
La MesaSan Diego County60,79750vs Valley Center
SanteeSan Diego County59,33250vs Valley Center
National CitySan Diego County58,89337vs Valley Center

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)
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 Valley Center

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
9208221,727$126,544