City safety & data profile

San DiegoCA

San Diego, CA is a 1.4M-resident city in San Diego County with a median household income of $108,077.

San Diego County, California. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for San Diego, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. San Diego has a population larger than 99% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $906,700, and 9 hospitals serving the surrounding area.

Data updated 2026-09-03

1.4M
Population (place)
Top 1%
By size
$108,077
Median income (place)
$906,700
Median home (place)
11%
Poverty rate (place)
My saved cities

The read on San Diego

San Diego posts a median household income higher than 75% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 9 hospitals serve the San Diego area.

Top 25%
by median income, US cities
9
hospitals in & near San Diego

Where San Diego income ranks nationally

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

$108,077 Top 25% higher than 75% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

San Diego $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 San Diego, CA beyond the headline numbers

San Diego sits inside San Diego County, California, at roughly 32.72°N, -117.16°W. Population 1,404,452, $108,077 median household income. Median home value $906,700, median rent $2,313. Poverty rate 11%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

9 hospitals in/around San Diego, 4.4/5 avg rating, 5 with an ER.

Poverty in San Diego, 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 San Diego costs around 8.4 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.

21.2% of San Diego 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: 24.2% in San Diego, the lowest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.

2.7% of San Diego workers commute by public transit, a larger share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for San Diego 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)
1,404,452
San Diego · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$108,077
+21% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$906,700
+119% vs avg
Median Age (place)
36.2
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (San Diego County): San Diego'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
3.3M+5%
Median Income
$106,268+69%
Median Home Value
$854,700+113%
Poverty Rate
10.3%-28%
Unemployment
5.8%-39%

Economics

Economics indicators for San Diego, CA
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$2,313/mo
Poverty Rate
11% -11% vs avg
Unemployment 5.7%
Bachelor's Degree+ 51%
Work From Home 21.2%
Public Transit 2.7%

Population

White 46.6%
African American 5.6%
Asian 17.6%
Two or More Ethnicities 0.4%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

Short Sleep Duration
34.5%
High Blood Pressure
26.8%
Obesity
24.2%
Physical Inactivity
19.8%
Binge Drinking
16.9%
Frequent Mental Distress
16.5%
Frequent Physical Distress
11.2%
Current Smoking
9.3%
Diabetes
9.2%
Current Asthma
8.9%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 64.6%
Annual Checkup 72%

Other Measures

Lack of Health Insurance
8.5%
Coronary Heart Disease
4.5%
Stroke
2.5%

Hospitals 9 total

Rating Distribution
★★★★★
2
★★★★
3
★★★
0
★★
0
0
Average Rating
4.4/5
Total Hospitals
9
With ER
5
UC SAN DIEGO HEALTH HILLCREST - HILLCREST MED CTR
SAN DIEGO · Acute Care Hospitals · ER
★★★★★
VA SAN DIEGO HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
SAN DIEGO · Acute Care - Veterans Administration · ER
★★★★★
SCRIPPS MERCY HOSPITAL
SAN DIEGO · Acute Care Hospitals · ER
★★★★☆
SHARP MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
SAN DIEGO · Acute Care Hospitals · ER
★★★★☆
KAISER FOUNDATION HOSPITAL - SAN DIEGO
SAN DIEGO · Acute Care Hospitals · ER
★★★★☆

What alerts and safety updates affect San Diego?

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

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet CA-SAN-DIEGO · San Diego

San Diego: 4 tagged alerts; lead category NWS weather alert.

  • VOL-LIGHT 4 on record
  • WX-LED 75% weather
  • DESK-MIX NOAA · EPA
  • PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Las Vegas

Tagged alert mix: San Diego

Published notices carrying this city slug or location tag

Value

What this shows 4 tagged notices on record for San Diego.

Source Areazine publication corpus As of Live tagged feed

Nearest tagged-volume peer: Las Vegas, NV (4 tagged · Δ0)

Counts reflect published articles tagged to San Diego; 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 (4 tagged here), a feed-density peer set, not an ACS demographic match.

Read with this city profile

Frequently Asked Questions 6

What is the population of San Diego, CA?
San Diego, CA has a population of 1,404,452 people, located in San Diego County, California.
What is the median household income in San Diego?
The median household income in San Diego, CA is $108,077 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 11%.
What is the median home value in San Diego?
The median home value in San Diego, CA is $906,700. Median rent is $2,313/month.
What are the top health concerns in San Diego?
The top health indicators in San Diego include Short Sleep Duration (34.5%), High Blood Pressure (26.8%), Obesity (24.2%). Data from CDC PLACES.
How many hospitals are in San Diego?
San Diego has 9 hospitals with an average rating of 4.4/5 stars. 5 have emergency departments.
What is the median age in San Diego?
The median age in San Diego, CA is 36.2 years. 51% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

Two ACS-derived peer sets for San Diego, 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).

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside CA ($108,077 here).

Compare San Diego 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

Using San Diego'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 San Diego 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 San Diego 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 (San Diego 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.