City safety & data profile

Palo AltoCA

Palo Alto, CA is a 67K-resident city in Santa Clara County with a median household income of $231,101.

Santa Clara County, California. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Palo Alto, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Palo Alto has a population larger than 86% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $2,000,000+, and 2 hospitals serving the surrounding area.

Data updated 2026-09-03

67K
Population (place)
Top 14%
By size
$231,101
Median income (place)
$2,000,000+
Median home (place)
6%
Poverty rate (place)
My saved cities

The read on Palo Alto

Palo Alto posts a median household income higher than 99% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 2 hospitals serve the Palo Alto area.

Top 1%
by median income, US cities
2
hospitals in & near Palo Alto

Where Palo Alto income ranks nationally

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

$231,101 Top 1% higher than 99% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Palo Alto $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 Palo Alto, CA beyond the headline numbers

Palo Alto sits inside Santa Clara County, California, at roughly 37.44°N, -122.14°W. Population 66,853, $231,101 median household income. Median home value $2,000,000+, median rent $3,484. Poverty rate 6%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

2 hospitals in/around Palo Alto, 5/5 avg rating, 1 with an ER.

Hardship is low by national standards: 6% of Palo Alto, CA residents live below the poverty line, in the least-affected quarter of the 3,890 cities reporting a rate.

The median home in Palo Alto costs around 8.7 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.

35.4% of Palo Alto 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, obesity departs furthest from its peer median: 20.2% in Palo Alto, the lowest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.

At 43.6 years, Palo Alto'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 Palo Alto 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)
66,853
Palo Alto · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$231,101
+158% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$2,000,000+
+384% vs avg
Median Age (place)
43.6
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Santa Clara County): Palo Alto'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
1.9M+5%
Median Income
$164,281+79%
Median Home Value
$1,490,600+131%
Poverty Rate
7.1%-30%
Unemployment
4.9%-49%

Economics

Economics indicators for Palo Alto, CA
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$3,484/mo
Poverty Rate
6% -52% vs avg
Unemployment 3.9%
Bachelor's Degree+ 82.3%
Work From Home 35.4%
Public Transit 2%

Population

White 45.7%
African American 1.8%
Asian 38.1%
Two or More Ethnicities 6.5%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

High Blood Pressure
28%
Short Sleep Duration
27.6%
Obesity
20.2%
Physical Inactivity
16.7%
Binge Drinking
13%
Frequent Mental Distress
11.9%
Diabetes
9.1%
Frequent Physical Distress
8.8%
Current Asthma
8.1%
Current Smoking
5.8%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 76.4%
Annual Checkup 74.6%

Other Measures

Coronary Heart Disease
4.7%
Lack of Health Insurance
3.4%
Stroke
2.4%

Hospitals 2 total

Rating Distribution
★★★★★
1
★★★★
0
★★★
0
★★
0
★
0
Average Rating
5/5
Total Hospitals
2
With ER
1
PALO ALTO VA MEDICAL CENTER
PALO ALTO · Acute Care - Veterans Administration · ER
★★★★★

What alerts and safety updates affect Palo Alto?

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

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet CA-PALO-ALTO · Palo Alto

Palo Alto: 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 Palo Alto; 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 Palo Alto in the CAP feed
All safety guides →

Frequently Asked Questions 6

What is the population of Palo Alto, CA? ▼
Palo Alto, CA has a population of 66,853 people, located in Santa Clara County, California.
What is the median household income in Palo Alto? ▼
The median household income in Palo Alto, CA is $231,101 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 6%.
What is the median home value in Palo Alto? ▼
The median home value in Palo Alto, CA is $2,000,000+. Median rent is $3,484/month.
What are the top health concerns in Palo Alto? ▼
The top health indicators in Palo Alto include High Blood Pressure (28%), Short Sleep Duration (27.6%), Obesity (20.2%). Data from CDC PLACES.
How many hospitals are in Palo Alto? ▼
Palo Alto has 2 hospitals with an average rating of 5/5 stars. 1 have emergency departments.
What is the median age in Palo Alto? ▼
The median age in Palo Alto, CA is 43.6 years. 82.3% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

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

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside CA (6% here).

Meridian, ID 6% Arlington Heights, IL 6% Des Plaines, IL 6% Apple Valley, MN 6%

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside CA ($231,101 here).

Western Springs, IL $230,255 Winchester, MA $230,198 Town and Country, MO $232,534 Westfield, NJ $232,629

Compare Palo Alto 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

East Palo Alto, CA 30K Stanford, CA 14K Menlo Park, CA 33K North Fair Oaks, CA 15K Los Altos, CA 31K Mountain View, CA 80K Redwood City, CA 85K Sunnyvale, CA 156K
All cities in California → Compare Palo Alto vs East Palo Alto → All comparisons → Browse all cities

Using Palo Alto'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 Palo Alto 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 Palo Alto 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 Clara 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.