City safety & data profile

LafayetteCA

Lafayette, CA is a 26K-resident city in Contra Costa County with a median household income of $228,250.

Contra Costa County, California. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Lafayette, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Lafayette has a population larger than 57% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, and a median home value of $2,000,000+.

Data updated 2026-09-03

26K
Population (place)
Top 43%
By size
$228,250
Median income (place)
$2,000,000+
Median home (place)
2.9%
Poverty rate (place)
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The read on Lafayette

Lafayette posts a median household income higher than 99% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks.

Top 1%
by median income, US cities

Where Lafayette income ranks nationally

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

$228,250 Top 1% higher than 99% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Lafayette $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 Lafayette, CA beyond the headline numbers

Lafayette sits inside Contra Costa County, California, at roughly 37.89°N, -122.12°W. Population 25,843, $228,250 median household income. Median home value $2,000,000+, median rent $2,892. Poverty rate 2.9%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

Hardship is low by national standards: 2.9% of Lafayette, CA residents live below the poverty line, in the least-affected quarter of the 3,890 cities reporting a rate.

The median home in Lafayette costs around 8.8 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.

42.9% of Lafayette 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, current smoking departs furthest from its peer median: 6.1% in Lafayette, the lowest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.

10.1% of Lafayette workers commute by public transit, a larger share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.

At 45.7 years, Lafayette's median age is in the oldest quarter of reporting cities.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Lafayette 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)
25,843
Lafayette · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$228,250
+155% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$2,000,000+
+384% vs avg
Median Age (place)
45.7
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Contra Costa County): Lafayette'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
1.2M+9%
Median Income
$127,229+62%
Median Home Value
$866,800+115%
Poverty Rate
8.4%-20%
Unemployment
6.5%-37%

Economics

Economics indicators for Lafayette, CA
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$2,892/mo
Poverty Rate
2.9% -77% vs avg
Unemployment 4.3%
Bachelor's Degree+ 79%
Work From Home 42.9%
Public Transit 10.1%

Population

White 73.1%
African American 0.8%
Asian 10.2%
Two or More Ethnicities 7.9%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

High Blood Pressure
30.5%
Short Sleep Duration
30.2%
Obesity
24.6%
Binge Drinking
16.1%
Physical Inactivity
15.7%
Frequent Mental Distress
12.8%
Frequent Physical Distress
9.9%
Current Asthma
9.2%
Diabetes
8.9%
Current Smoking
6.1%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 77.1%
Annual Checkup 75.8%

Other Measures

Coronary Heart Disease
5.3%
Lack of Health Insurance
3.1%
Stroke
2.6%

What alerts and safety updates affect Lafayette?

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

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet CA-LAFAYETTE-CA · Lafayette

Lafayette: 16 tagged alerts; lead category NWS weather alert.

  • VOL-ACTIVE 16 on record
  • WX-LED 100% weather
  • DESK-MIX NOAA
  • PHOTO-FINISH ≈ El Paso

Tagged alert mix: Lafayette

Published notices carrying this city slug or location tag

Value

What this shows 16 tagged notices on record for Lafayette.

Source Areazine publication corpus As of Live tagged feed

Nearest tagged-volume peer: El Paso, TX (16 tagged · Δ0)

Counts reflect published articles tagged to Lafayette; 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 (16 tagged here), a feed-density peer set, not an ACS demographic match.

El Paso, TX 16 alerts Phoenix, AZ 15 alerts California, MD 15 alerts Victoria, TX 13 alerts

Read with this city profile

Understanding Weather Alerts

Watch vs warning vs advisory, how NOAA labels map to action
All safety guides →

Frequently Asked Questions 5

What is the population of Lafayette, CA? ▼
Lafayette, CA has a population of 25,843 people, located in Contra Costa County, California.
What is the median household income in Lafayette? ▼
The median household income in Lafayette, CA is $228,250 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 2.9%.
What is the median home value in Lafayette? ▼
The median home value in Lafayette, CA is $2,000,000+. Median rent is $2,892/month.
What are the top health concerns in Lafayette? ▼
The top health indicators in Lafayette include High Blood Pressure (30.5%), Short Sleep Duration (30.2%), Obesity (24.6%). Data from CDC PLACES.
What is the median age in Lafayette? ▼
The median age in Lafayette, CA is 45.7 years. 79% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

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

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside CA (2.9% here).

Highlands Ranch, CO 2.9% Lakeville, MN 2.9% McLean, VA 2.9% Park Ridge, IL 2.9%

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside CA ($228,250 here).

Dix Hills, NY $227,944 Winchester, MA $230,198 Western Springs, IL $230,255 Town and Country, MO $232,534

Compare Lafayette 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

Moraga, CA 17K Walnut Creek, CA 69K Orinda, CA 19K Pleasant Hill, CA 35K Alamo, CA 15K Concord, CA 129K Piedmont, CA 11K Danville, CA 44K
All cities in California → Compare Lafayette vs Moraga → All comparisons → Browse all cities

Using Lafayette'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 Lafayette 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 Lafayette 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 (Contra Costa 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.