City safety & data profile

Palm DesertCA

Palm Desert, CA is a 52K-resident city in Riverside County with a median household income of $77,513.

Riverside County, California. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Palm Desert, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Palm Desert has a population larger than 80% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, and a median home value of $542,000.

Data updated 2026-09-04

52K
Population (place)
Top 20%
By size
$77,513
Median income (place)
$542,000
Median home (place)
11%
Poverty rate (place)
My saved cities

The read on Palm Desert

Palm Desert posts a median household income higher than 46% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks.

Bottom 47%
by median income, US cities

Where Palm Desert income ranks nationally

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

$77,513 Bottom 46% higher than 46% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Palm Desert $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 Palm Desert, CA beyond the headline numbers

Palm Desert sits inside Riverside County, California, at roughly 33.72°N, -116.38°W. Population 51,869, $77,513 median household income. Median home value $542,000, median rent $1,778. Poverty rate 11%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

Poverty in Palm Desert, CA stands at 11%, above the midpoint of reporting cities. A median income can look comfortable while a share this size sits well beneath it, which is why the two figures belong together.

The median home in Palm Desert costs around 7.0 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.

14.9% of Palm Desert workers are remote, above the midpoint of reporting cities.

Among the CDC measures on this page, binge drinking departs furthest from its peer median: 11.6% in Palm Desert, the lowest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.

At 57.5 years, Palm Desert'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 Palm Desert 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)
51,869
Palm Desert · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$77,513
-13% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$542,000
+31% vs avg
Median Age (place)
57.5
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Riverside County): Palm Desert'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
2.5M+11%
Median Income
$93,074+65%
Median Home Value
$557,300+141%
Poverty Rate
10.6%-35%
Unemployment
6.5%-56%

Economics

Economics indicators for Palm Desert, CA
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$1,778/mo
Poverty Rate
11% -11% vs avg
Unemployment 6.4%
Bachelor's Degree+ 40.7%
Work From Home 14.9%
Public Transit 0.7%

Population

White 66.2%
African American 1.7%
Asian 4.7%
Two or More Ethnicities 0.7%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

High Blood Pressure
41.4%
Obesity
33.5%
Short Sleep Duration
33.4%
Physical Inactivity
24.1%
Frequent Physical Distress
15%
Frequent Mental Distress
14.3%
Diabetes
13.4%
Binge Drinking
11.6%
Current Asthma
9.6%
Current Smoking
9.5%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 69.1%
Annual Checkup 79%

Other Measures

Coronary Heart Disease
8.9%
Lack of Health Insurance
7.9%
Stroke
4.4%

What alerts and safety updates affect Palm Desert?

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

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet CA-PALM-DESERT · Palm Desert

Palm Desert: 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 Palm Desert; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse California state hubs · Methodology

Read with this city profile

Tracking Safety Alerts in Your Area

How Areazine tags Palm Desert in the CAP feed
All safety guides →

Frequently Asked Questions 5

What is the population of Palm Desert, CA? ▼
Palm Desert, CA has a population of 51,869 people, located in Riverside County, California.
What is the median household income in Palm Desert? ▼
The median household income in Palm Desert, CA is $77,513 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 11%.
What is the median home value in Palm Desert? ▼
The median home value in Palm Desert, CA is $542,000. Median rent is $1,778/month.
What are the top health concerns in Palm Desert? ▼
The top health indicators in Palm Desert include High Blood Pressure (41.4%), Obesity (33.5%), Short Sleep Duration (33.4%). Data from CDC PLACES.
What is the median age in Palm Desert? ▼
The median age in Palm Desert, CA is 57.5 years. 40.7% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

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

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside CA (11% here).

Irving, TX 11% San Angelo, TX 11% Bloomington, IL 11% Port Orange, FL 11%

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside CA ($77,513 here).

Gallatin, TN $77,518 McPherson, KS $77,529 East Wenatchee, WA $77,558 Columbus, IN $77,456

Compare Palm Desert 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

Rancho Mirage, CA 18K La Quinta, CA 40K Cathedral City, CA 54K Indio, CA 88K Palm Springs, CA 47K Coachella, CA 45K Desert Hot Springs, CA 28K Yucca Valley, CA 22K
All cities in California → Compare Palm Desert vs Rancho Mirage → All comparisons → Browse all cities

Using Palm Desert'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 Palm Desert 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 Palm Desert 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 (Riverside 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.