City safety & data profile

BerkeleyCA

Berkeley, CA is a 121K-resident city in Alameda County with a median household income of $108,092.

Alameda County, California. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Berkeley, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Berkeley has a population larger than 94% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $1,413,900, and 1 hospital serving the surrounding area.

Data updated 2026-09-03

121K
Population (place)
Top 6%
By size
$108,092
Median income (place)
$1,413,900
Median home (place)
17.3%
Poverty rate (place)
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The read on Berkeley

Berkeley posts a median household income higher than 75% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 1 hospital serves the Berkeley area.

Top 25%
by median income, US cities
1
hospital in & near Berkeley

Where Berkeley income ranks nationally

Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)

$108,092 Top 25% higher than 75% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Berkeley $0 $260,000 every profiled place, bucketed by value

Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year

Largest cities in CA

Population among 482 CA places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.

residents

What this shows Los Angeles is the largest CA city on this list; Alamo leads median income.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

Highest median incomes in CA

Median household income among the same 482-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.

median

What this shows Alamo posts the highest place-level median income in CA; Los Angeles is largest by headcount.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

The quick read

Reading Berkeley, CA beyond the headline numbers

Berkeley sits inside Alameda County, California, at roughly 37.87°N, -122.27°W. Population 120,972, $108,092 median household income. Median home value $1,413,900, median rent $2,133. Poverty rate 17.3%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

1 hospital in/around Berkeley, 4/5 avg rating, 1 with an ER.

17.3% of Berkeley, CA residents live below the poverty line, placing it in the hardest-hit quarter of reporting cities. Read every median on this page against that: half the households are above it, and a large minority are far below.

The median home in Berkeley costs around 13.1 times what a median household earns in a year -- the most expensive quarter of reporting cities, and far enough ahead of local pay that ownership is largely closed to median earners.

37.1% of Berkeley workers report working from home, the highest quarter of reporting cities. Where that share runs this high, local income increasingly reflects employers located somewhere else.

Among the CDC measures on this page, high blood pressure departs furthest from its peer median: 23.7% in Berkeley, the lowest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.

12.4% of Berkeley workers commute by public transit, a larger share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.

Berkeley's median age is 33.2 years, in the youngest quarter of reporting cities.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Berkeley from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.

Population (place)
120,972
Berkeley · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$108,092
+21% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$1,413,900
+242% vs avg
Median Age (place)
33.2
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Alameda County): Berkeley's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.

20132024
Population
1.6M+7%
Median Income
$129,367+79%
Median Home Value
$1,090,100+121%
Poverty Rate
9.2%-26%
Unemployment
5.4%-48%

Economics

Economics indicators for Berkeley, CA
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$2,133/mo
Poverty Rate
17.3% +40% vs avg
Unemployment 5.6%
Bachelor's Degree+ 74.9%
Work From Home 37.1%
Public Transit 12.4%

Population

White 52.2%
African American 7.9%
Asian 20.5%
Two or More Ethnicities 6.6%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

Short Sleep Duration
32.9%
High Blood Pressure
23.7%
Obesity
22.2%
Frequent Mental Distress
18.1%
Binge Drinking
18.1%
Physical Inactivity
17.1%
Frequent Physical Distress
10.4%
Current Asthma
9.7%
Current Smoking
8%
Diabetes
7.4%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 66.3%
Annual Checkup 70.2%

Other Measures

Lack of Health Insurance
6.1%
Coronary Heart Disease
3.9%
Stroke
2.2%

Hospitals 1 total

Rating Distribution
★★★★★
0
★★★★
1
★★★
0
★★
0
★
0
Average Rating
4/5
Total Hospitals
1
With ER
1
ALTA BATES SUMMIT MEDICAL CENTER - ALTA BATES CAMP
BERKELEY · Acute Care Hospitals · ER
★★★★☆

What alerts and safety updates affect Berkeley?

No area-tagged alerts are on record for Berkeley right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet CA-BERKELEY · Berkeley

Berkeley: 5 tagged alerts; lead category NSW RFS bushfire alert.

  • VOL-LIGHT 5 on record
  • MIX-LED 60% au-bushfires
  • DESK-MIX NOAA
  • PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Chicago

Tagged alert mix: Berkeley

Published notices carrying this city slug or location tag

Value

What this shows 5 tagged notices on record for Berkeley.

Source Areazine publication corpus As of Live tagged feed

Nearest tagged-volume peer: Chicago, IL (5 tagged · Δ0)

Counts reflect published articles tagged to Berkeley; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse California state hubs · Methodology

Cities with a similar tagged alert volume 4

Nearest published-notice counts on Areazine (5 tagged here), a feed-density peer set, not an ACS demographic match.

Chicago, IL 5 alerts Philadelphia, PA 5 alerts Indianapolis, IN 5 alerts Atlanta, GA 5 alerts

Read with this city profile

Tracking Safety Alerts in Your Area

How Areazine tags Berkeley in the CAP feed
All safety guides →

Frequently Asked Questions 6

What is the population of Berkeley, CA? ▼
Berkeley, CA has a population of 120,972 people, located in Alameda County, California.
What is the median household income in Berkeley? ▼
The median household income in Berkeley, CA is $108,092 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 17.3%.
What is the median home value in Berkeley? ▼
The median home value in Berkeley, CA is $1,413,900. Median rent is $2,133/month.
What are the top health concerns in Berkeley? ▼
The top health indicators in Berkeley include Short Sleep Duration (32.9%), High Blood Pressure (23.7%), Obesity (22.2%). Data from CDC PLACES.
How many hospitals are in Berkeley? ▼
Berkeley has 1 hospital with an average rating of 4/5 stars. 1 have emergency departments.
What is the median age in Berkeley? ▼
The median age in Berkeley, CA is 33.2 years. 74.9% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

Two ACS-derived peer sets for Berkeley, both outside California so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside CA (17.3% here).

Portsmouth, VA 17.3% Longview, TX 17.3% Chicopee, MA 17.3% New Bern, NC 17.3%

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside CA ($108,092 here).

Chandler, AZ $108,095 Takoma Park, MD $108,136 West Jordan, UT $108,153 Shelton, CT $108,185

Compare Berkeley with another city

Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.

Quick picks:

Nearby Cities 8

Albany, CA 20K Emeryville, CA 12K El Cerrito, CA 24K Piedmont, CA 11K Oakland, CA 419K Orinda, CA 19K Richmond, CA 110K Alameda, CA 79K
All cities in California → Compare Berkeley vs Albany → All comparisons → Browse all cities

Using Berkeley's profile

Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.

  • Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Berkeley area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
  • Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
  • Compare Berkeley against California peers on any ranking lens. Explore California

Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city. County-level trends are labeled when shown.

Data Sources

All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Alameda County) where that is the smallest published unit.

Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.