City safety & data profile

ChowchillaCA

Chowchilla, CA is a 19K-resident city in Madera County with a median household income of $66,514.

Madera County, California. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Chowchilla, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Chowchilla has a population larger than 39% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, and a median home value of $364,000.

Data updated 2026-09-04

19K
Population (place)
Bottom 40%
By size
$66,514
Median income (place)
$364,000
Median home (place)
19.6%
Poverty rate (place)
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The read on Chowchilla

Chowchilla posts a median household income higher than 31% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks.

Bottom 32%
by median income, US cities

Where Chowchilla income ranks nationally

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

$66,514 Bottom 31% higher than 31% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Chowchilla $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 Chowchilla, CA beyond the headline numbers

Chowchilla sits inside Madera County, California, at roughly 37.12°N, -120.26°W. Population 18,510, $66,514 median household income. Median home value $364,000, median rent $1,178. Poverty rate 19.6%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

19.6% of Chowchilla, 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 Chowchilla costs around 5.5 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.

Remote work covers 8.3% of Chowchilla workers, under the midpoint for reporting cities.

Among the CDC measures on this page, frequent mental distress departs furthest from its peer median: 22.3% in Chowchilla, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.

Chowchilla's median age is 34.2 years, in the youngest quarter of reporting cities.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Chowchilla 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)
18,510
Chowchilla · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$66,514
-26% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$364,000
-12% vs avg
Median Age (place)
34.2
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Madera County): Chowchilla'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
161K+6%
Median Income
$76,627+68%
Median Home Value
$393,200+116%
Poverty Rate
19.2%-16%
Unemployment
10.1%-5%

Economics

Economics indicators for Chowchilla, CA
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$1,178/mo
Poverty Rate
19.6% +58% vs avg
Unemployment 10.6%
Bachelor's Degree+ 15.6%
Work From Home 8.3%
Public Transit 0.4%

Population

White 40.2%
African American 6%
Asian 6.2%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

Obesity
39.6%
Short Sleep Duration
39.2%
High Blood Pressure
34.4%
Physical Inactivity
33%
Frequent Mental Distress
22.3%
Current Smoking
18.7%
Frequent Physical Distress
17.9%
Lack of Health Insurance
16.7%
Binge Drinking
15.3%
Diabetes
13.9%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 52.6%
Annual Checkup 69.2%

Other Measures

Current Asthma
11.3%
Coronary Heart Disease
6.8%
Stroke
4%

What alerts and safety updates affect Chowchilla?

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

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet CA-CHOWCHILLA · Chowchilla

Chowchilla: no area-tagged alerts on record — state hubs carry the live CAP stream.

  • FEED-QUIET No tagged alerts
  • LEAD-NONE Feed idle
  • DESK-IDLE Awaiting feed

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

Read with this city profile

Frequently Asked Questions 5

What is the population of Chowchilla, CA?
Chowchilla, CA has a population of 18,510 people, located in Madera County, California.
What is the median household income in Chowchilla?
The median household income in Chowchilla, CA is $66,514 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 19.6%.
What is the median home value in Chowchilla?
The median home value in Chowchilla, CA is $364,000. Median rent is $1,178/month.
What are the top health concerns in Chowchilla?
The top health indicators in Chowchilla include Obesity (39.6%), Short Sleep Duration (39.2%), High Blood Pressure (34.4%). Data from CDC PLACES.
What is the median age in Chowchilla?
The median age in Chowchilla, CA is 34.2 years. 15.6% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

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

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside CA (19.6% here).

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside CA ($66,514 here).

Compare Chowchilla 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

Using Chowchilla'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 Chowchilla 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 Chowchilla 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 (Madera 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.