City safety & data profile

San RafaelCA

San Rafael, CA is a 59K-resident city in Marin County with a median household income of $119,435.

Marin County, California. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for San Rafael, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. San Rafael has a population larger than 83% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $1,355,600, and 1 hospital serving the surrounding area.

Data updated 2026-09-04

59K
Population (place)
Top 17%
By size
$119,435
Median income (place)
$1,355,600
Median home (place)
11.7%
Poverty rate (place)
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The read on San Rafael

San Rafael posts a median household income higher than 82% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 1 hospital serves the San Rafael area.

Top 18%
by median income, US cities
1
hospital in & near San Rafael

Where San Rafael income ranks nationally

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

$119,435 Top 18% higher than 82% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

San Rafael $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 Rafael, CA beyond the headline numbers

San Rafael sits inside Marin County, California, at roughly 37.97°N, -122.53°W. Population 59,162, $119,435 median household income. Median home value $1,355,600, median rent $2,377. Poverty rate 11.7%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

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

Poverty in San Rafael, CA stands at 11.7%, 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 Rafael costs around 11.4 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.

26.3% of San Rafael 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: 23% in San Rafael, the lowest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.

5.6% of San Rafael workers commute by public transit, a larger share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.

At 43.2 years, San Rafael'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 San Rafael 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)
59,162
San Rafael · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$119,435
+34% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$1,355,600
+228% vs avg
Median Age (place)
43.2
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Marin County): San Rafael'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
258K+1%
Median Income
$149,091+64%
Median Home Value
$1,507,300+93%
Poverty Rate
8.3%+8%
Unemployment
6.1%-20%

Economics

Economics indicators for San Rafael, CA
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$2,377/mo
Poverty Rate
11.7% -6% vs avg
Unemployment 5.4%
Bachelor's Degree+ 49.7%
Work From Home 26.3%
Public Transit 5.6%

Population

White 53.7%
African American 2.2%
Asian 5.1%
Two or More Ethnicities 3.5%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

Short Sleep Duration
31.3%
High Blood Pressure
30.5%
Obesity
23%
Physical Inactivity
22.4%
Frequent Mental Distress
15.9%
Binge Drinking
15.9%
Frequent Physical Distress
13.3%
Lack of Health Insurance
11.6%
Diabetes
10.3%
Current Smoking
10.3%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 67.9%
Annual Checkup 71%

Other Measures

Current Asthma
9.6%
Coronary Heart Disease
6%
Stroke
3.1%

Hospitals 1 total

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

What alerts and safety updates affect San Rafael?

No area-tagged alerts are on record for San Rafael 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-RAFAEL · San Rafael

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

Frequently Asked Questions 6

What is the population of San Rafael, CA? ▼
San Rafael, CA has a population of 59,162 people, located in Marin County, California.
What is the median household income in San Rafael? ▼
The median household income in San Rafael, CA is $119,435 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 11.7%.
What is the median home value in San Rafael? ▼
The median home value in San Rafael, CA is $1,355,600. Median rent is $2,377/month.
What are the top health concerns in San Rafael? ▼
The top health indicators in San Rafael include Short Sleep Duration (31.3%), High Blood Pressure (30.5%), Obesity (23%). Data from CDC PLACES.
How many hospitals are in San Rafael? ▼
San Rafael has 1 hospital with an average rating of 4/5 stars. 1 have emergency departments.
What is the median age in San Rafael? ▼
The median age in San Rafael, CA is 43.2 years. 49.7% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

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

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside CA (11.7% here).

Charlotte, NC 11.7% Durham, NC 11.7% Palm Bay, FL 11.7% Danbury, CT 11.7%

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside CA ($119,435 here).

Cottonwood Heights, UT $119,422 Channahon, IL $119,494 Minnetonka, MN $119,517 Wylie, TX $119,522

Compare San Rafael 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

San Anselmo, CA 13K Larkspur, CA 12K Mill Valley, CA 14K Tamalpais-Homestead Valley, CA 11K Novato, CA 56K San Pablo, CA 30K Richmond, CA 110K Chinatown, CA 101K
All cities in California → Compare San Rafael vs San Anselmo → All comparisons → Browse all cities

Using San Rafael'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 Rafael 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 Rafael 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 (Marin 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.