City safety & data profile

SalinasCA

Salinas, CA is a 157K-resident city in Monterey County with a median household income of $91,908.

Monterey County, California. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Salinas, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Salinas has a population larger than 96% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $654,100, and 2 hospitals serving the surrounding area.

Data updated 2026-09-04

157K
Population (place)
Top 4%
By size
$91,908
Median income (place)
$654,100
Median home (place)
13.6%
Poverty rate (place)
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The read on Salinas

Salinas posts a median household income higher than 62% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 2 hospitals serve the Salinas area.

Top 38%
by median income, US cities
2
hospitals in & near Salinas

Where Salinas income ranks nationally

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

$91,908 Top 38% higher than 62% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Salinas $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 Salinas, CA beyond the headline numbers

Salinas sits inside Monterey County, California, at roughly 36.68°N, -121.66°W. Population 157,380, $91,908 median household income. Median home value $654,100, median rent $1,991. Poverty rate 13.6%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

2 hospitals in/around Salinas, 3.5/5 avg rating, 2 with an ER.

Poverty in Salinas, CA stands at 13.6%, 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 Salinas costs around 7.1 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.

Only 4.3% of Salinas workers report working from home, the lowest quarter of reporting cities -- an economy still built around showing up somewhere.

Among the CDC measures on this page, lack of health insurance departs furthest from its peer median: 22.4% in Salinas, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.

Salinas's median age is 32.4 years, in the youngest quarter of reporting cities.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Salinas 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)
157,380
Salinas · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$91,908
+3% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$654,100
+58% vs avg
Median Age (place)
32.4
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Monterey County): Salinas'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
438K+4%
Median Income
$97,230+64%
Median Home Value
$781,000+116%
Poverty Rate
12.7%-25%
Unemployment
5%-53%

Economics

Economics indicators for Salinas, CA
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$1,991/mo
Poverty Rate
13.6% +10% vs avg
Unemployment 4.7%
Bachelor's Degree+ 16.5%
Work From Home 4.3%
Public Transit 0.7%

Population

White 23.1%
African American 1.2%
Asian 5.7%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

Short Sleep Duration
35.6%
Obesity
32.8%
Physical Inactivity
31%
High Blood Pressure
29%
Lack of Health Insurance
22.4%
Frequent Mental Distress
18.2%
Binge Drinking
16.8%
Frequent Physical Distress
15.6%
Current Smoking
12.9%
Diabetes
12.4%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 52%
Annual Checkup 68.3%

Other Measures

Current Asthma
9.6%
Coronary Heart Disease
5.2%
Stroke
3%

Hospitals 2 total

Rating Distribution
★★★★★
0
★★★★
1
★★★
1
★★
0
★
0
Average Rating
3.5/5
Total Hospitals
2
With ER
2
SALINAS VALLEY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
SALINAS · Acute Care Hospitals · ER
★★★★☆
NATIVIDAD MEDICAL CENTER
SALINAS · Acute Care Hospitals · ER
★★★☆☆

What alerts and safety updates affect Salinas?

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

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet CA-SALINAS · Salinas

Salinas: 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 Salinas; 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 Salinas in the CAP feed
All safety guides →

Frequently Asked Questions 6

What is the population of Salinas, CA? ▼
Salinas, CA has a population of 157,380 people, located in Monterey County, California.
What is the median household income in Salinas? ▼
The median household income in Salinas, CA is $91,908 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 13.6%.
What is the median home value in Salinas? ▼
The median home value in Salinas, CA is $654,100. Median rent is $1,991/month.
What are the top health concerns in Salinas? ▼
The top health indicators in Salinas include Short Sleep Duration (35.6%), Obesity (32.8%), Physical Inactivity (31%). Data from CDC PLACES.
How many hospitals are in Salinas? ▼
Salinas has 2 hospitals with an average rating of 3.5/5 stars. 2 have emergency departments.
What is the median age in Salinas? ▼
The median age in Salinas, CA is 32.4 years. 16.5% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

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

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside CA (13.6% here).

Salt Lake City, UT 13.6% Miami Gardens, FL 13.6% Middletown, NY 13.6% Bristol, TN 13.6%

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside CA ($91,908 here).

Fairburn, GA $91,897 Hyattsville, MD $91,941 Anacortes, WA $91,951 Elmwood Park, IL $91,955

Compare Salinas 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

Prunedale, CA 18K Marina, CA 21K Seaside, CA 33K Monterey, CA 28K Watsonville, CA 54K Pacific Grove, CA 16K Hollister, CA 37K Gilroy, CA 53K
All cities in California → Compare Salinas vs Prunedale → All comparisons → Browse all cities

Using Salinas'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 Salinas 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 Salinas 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 (Monterey 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.