City safety & data profile
Isla VistaCA
Isla Vista, CA is a 23K-resident city in Santa Barbara County with a median household income of $25,972.
Santa Barbara County, California. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Isla Vista, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Isla Vista has a population larger than 51% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, and a median home value of $1,218,800.
Data updated 2026-09-04
- 23K
- Population (place)
- Top 49%
- By size
- $25,972
- Median income (place)
- $1,218,800
- Median home (place)
- 70.4%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Isla Vista
Isla Vista posts a median household income higher than 0% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks.
- Bottom 1%
- by median income, US cities
Where Isla Vista income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$25,972 Bottom 1% higher than 0% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles
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.
- Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA
3,820,914 residents
- San Diego 1,404,452
San Diego, CA
1,404,452 residents
- San Jose 997,368
San Jose, CA
997,368 residents
- San Francisco 827,526
San Francisco, CA
827,526 residents
- Fresno 542,107
Fresno, CA
542,107 residents
- Sacramento 524,943
Sacramento, CA
524,943 residents
- Long Beach 474,140
Long Beach, CA
474,140 residents
- Oakland 419,267
Oakland, CA
419,267 residents
- Bakersfield 373,640
Bakersfield, CA
373,640 residents
- Anaheim 350,742
Anaheim, CA
350,742 residents
What this shows Los Angeles is the largest CA city on this list; Alamo leads median income.
Highest median incomes in CA
Median household income among the same 482-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.
- Alamo
Alamo, CA
$250,001 median
- Hillsborough
Hillsborough, CA
$250,001 median
- Los Altos
Los Altos, CA
$250,001 median
- Orinda
Orinda, CA
$250,001 median
- Piedmont
Piedmont, CA
$250,001 median
- Saratoga
Saratoga, CA
$250,001 median
- Coto De Caza
Coto De Caza, CA
$243,816 median
- Tamalpais-Ho…
Tamalpais-Homestead Valley, CA
$243,227 median
- Palos Verdes…
Palos Verdes Estates, CA
$242,014 median
- San Carlos
San Carlos, CA
$237,470 median
What this shows Alamo posts the highest place-level median income in CA; Los Angeles is largest by headcount.
The quick read
Reading Isla Vista, CA beyond the headline numbers
Isla Vista sits inside Santa Barbara County, California, at roughly 34.41°N, -119.86°W. Population 23,096, $25,972 median household income. Median home value $1,218,800, median rent $1,878. Poverty rate 70.4%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
70.4% of Isla Vista, 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 Isla Vista costs around 46.9 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 9.4% of Isla Vista workers, under the midpoint for reporting cities.
Among the CDC measures on this page, frequent mental distress departs furthest from its peer median: 30% in Isla Vista, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.
2.8% of Isla Vista workers commute by public transit, a larger share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.
Isla Vista's median age is 21.2 years, in the youngest quarter of reporting cities.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Isla Vista 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.
10-Year Trends 2013–2024
County-level trend (Santa Barbara County): Isla Vista'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.
Economics
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Median Rent | |
| Poverty Rate | 70.4% +468% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 17.3% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 43.7% |
| Work From Home | 9.4% |
| Public Transit | 2.8% |
Population
Health Profile 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
What alerts and safety updates affect Isla Vista?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Isla Vista right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet CA-ISLA-VISTA · Isla Vista
Isla Vista: 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 Isla Vista; 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 Isla Vista, CA? ▼
What is the median household income in Isla Vista? ▼
What is the median home value in Isla Vista? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Isla Vista? ▼
What is the median age in Isla Vista? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Isla Vista, both outside California so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside CA (70.4% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside CA ($25,972 here).
Compare Isla Vista 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.
Nearby Cities 8
Using Isla Vista'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 Isla Vista 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 Isla Vista 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 (Santa Barbara 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.