City safety & data profile

San MarcosCA

San Marcos, CA is a 93K-resident city in San Diego County with a median household income of $109,377.

San Diego County, California. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for San Marcos, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. San Marcos has a population larger than 91% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $868,000, and 1 hospital serving the surrounding area.

Data updated 2026-09-03

93K
Population (place)
Top 9%
By size
$109,377
Median income (place)
$868,000
Median home (place)
9.2%
Poverty rate (place)
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The read on San Marcos

San Marcos posts a median household income higher than 76% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 1 hospital serves the San Marcos area.

Top 24%
by median income, US cities
1
hospital in & near San Marcos

Where San Marcos income ranks nationally

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

$109,377 Top 24% higher than 76% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

San Marcos $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 Marcos, CA beyond the headline numbers

San Marcos sits inside San Diego County, California, at roughly 33.14°N, -117.17°W. Population 92,931, $109,377 median household income. Median home value $868,000, median rent $2,348. Poverty rate 9.2%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

1 hospital in/around San Marcos, 4/5 avg rating, 1 with an ER.

At 9.2%, poverty in San Marcos, CA runs below the midpoint of reporting cities -- enough to matter locally, not enough to dominate the city's profile.

The median home in San Marcos costs around 7.9 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.

20.5% of San Marcos 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: 25.3% in San Marcos, the lowest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for San Marcos 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)
92,931
San Marcos · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$109,377
+22% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$868,000
+110% vs avg
Median Age (place)
36.8
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (San Diego County): San Marcos'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 Marcos, CA
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$2,348/mo
Poverty Rate
9.2% -26% vs avg
Unemployment 4.6%
Bachelor's Degree+ 43.8%
Work From Home 20.5%
Public Transit 0.5%

Population

White 50.6%
African American 1.3%
Asian 11.8%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

Short Sleep Duration
34.2%
High Blood Pressure
27.3%
Obesity
25.3%
Physical Inactivity
20.5%
Binge Drinking
17.1%
Frequent Mental Distress
16.9%
Frequent Physical Distress
12.1%
Current Smoking
9.9%
Diabetes
9.5%
Lack of Health Insurance
9.4%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 65%
Annual Checkup 72.2%

Other Measures

Current Asthma
9.2%
Coronary Heart Disease
4.8%
Stroke
2.7%

Hospitals 1 total

Rating Distribution
★★★★★
0
★★★★
1
★★★
0
★★
0
★
0
Average Rating
4/5
Total Hospitals
1
With ER
1
KAISER FOUNDATION HOSPITAL - SAN MARCOS
SAN MARCOS · Acute Care Hospitals · ER
★★★★☆

What alerts and safety updates affect San Marcos?

No area-tagged alerts are on record for San Marcos 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-MARCOS-CA · San Marcos

San Marcos: 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 San Marcos; 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 San Marcos in the CAP feed
All safety guides →

Frequently Asked Questions 6

What is the population of San Marcos, CA? ▼
San Marcos, CA has a population of 92,931 people, located in San Diego County, California.
What is the median household income in San Marcos? ▼
The median household income in San Marcos, CA is $109,377 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 9.2%.
What is the median home value in San Marcos? ▼
The median home value in San Marcos, CA is $868,000. Median rent is $2,348/month.
What are the top health concerns in San Marcos? ▼
The top health indicators in San Marcos include Short Sleep Duration (34.2%), High Blood Pressure (27.3%), Obesity (25.3%). Data from CDC PLACES.
How many hospitals are in San Marcos? ▼
San Marcos has 1 hospital with an average rating of 4/5 stars. 1 have emergency departments.
What is the median age in San Marcos? ▼
The median age in San Marcos, CA is 36.8 years. 43.8% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

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

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside CA (9.2% here).

Lakewood, CO 9.2% Bloomington, MN 9.2% Bolingbrook, IL 9.2% Frederick, MD 9.2%

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside CA ($109,377 here).

Sunset, FL $109,401 Westerville, OH $109,404 Fairview, TX $109,347 Burlington, KY $109,308

Compare San Marcos 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

Escondido, CA 151K Vista, CA 101K Encinitas, CA 63K Solana Beach, CA 13K Carlsbad, CA 115K Rancho Penasquitos, CA 60K Oceanside, CA 176K Poway, CA 50K
All cities in California → Compare San Marcos vs Escondido → All comparisons → Browse all cities

Using San Marcos'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 Marcos 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 Marcos 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.