City safety & data profile

WascoCA

Wasco, CA is a 26K-resident city in Kern County with a median household income of $51,727.

Kern County, California. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Wasco, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Wasco has a population larger than 58% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, and a median home value of $273,600.

Data updated 2026-09-04

26K
Population (place)
Top 42%
By size
$51,727
Median income (place)
$273,600
Median home (place)
18.4%
Poverty rate (place)
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The read on Wasco

Wasco posts a median household income higher than 11% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks.

Bottom 12%
by median income, US cities

Where Wasco income ranks nationally

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

$51,727 Bottom 11% higher than 11% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Wasco $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 Wasco, CA beyond the headline numbers

Wasco sits inside Kern County, California, at roughly 35.59°N, -119.34°W. Population 26,279, $51,727 median household income. Median home value $273,600, median rent $1,089. Poverty rate 18.4%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

18.4% of Wasco, CA residents live below the poverty line, placing it in the hardest-hit quarter of reporting cities. Read every median on this page against that: half the households are above it, and a large minority are far below.

The median home in Wasco costs around 5.3 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 2.9% of Wasco 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: 26.1% in Wasco, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.

Wasco's median age is 30.6 years, in the youngest quarter of reporting cities.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Wasco 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)
26,279
Wasco · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$51,727
-42% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$273,600
-34% vs avg
Median Age (place)
30.6
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Kern County): Wasco'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
915K+8%
Median Income
$70,210+45%
Median Home Value
$338,300+109%
Poverty Rate
19.1%-17%
Unemployment
8.6%-37%

Economics

Economics indicators for Wasco, CA
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$1,089/mo
Poverty Rate
18.4% +48% vs avg
Unemployment 7%
Bachelor's Degree+ 6.2%
Work From Home 2.9%
Public Transit 0.2%

Population

White 18.5%
African American 4.4%
Asian 0.7%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

Short Sleep Duration
41.2%
Obesity
38.9%
Physical Inactivity
36.8%
High Blood Pressure
29.2%
Lack of Health Insurance
26.1%
Frequent Mental Distress
21.2%
Binge Drinking
18.3%
Frequent Physical Distress
17.1%
Current Smoking
15.7%
Diabetes
13.4%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 45.2%
Annual Checkup 65.7%

Other Measures

Current Asthma
9.7%
Coronary Heart Disease
5.4%
Stroke
3.1%

What alerts and safety updates affect Wasco?

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

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet CA-WASCO-CA · Wasco

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

Frequently Asked Questions 5

What is the population of Wasco, CA? ▼
Wasco, CA has a population of 26,279 people, located in Kern County, California.
What is the median household income in Wasco? ▼
The median household income in Wasco, CA is $51,727 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 18.4%.
What is the median home value in Wasco? ▼
The median home value in Wasco, CA is $273,600. Median rent is $1,089/month.
What are the top health concerns in Wasco? ▼
The top health indicators in Wasco include Short Sleep Duration (41.2%), Obesity (38.9%), Physical Inactivity (36.8%). Data from CDC PLACES.
What is the median age in Wasco? ▼
The median age in Wasco, CA is 30.6 years. 6.2% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

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

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside CA (18.4% here).

El Paso, TX 18.4% Mobile, AL 18.4% Springfield, MO 18.4% Evansville, IN 18.4%

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside CA ($51,727 here).

Freeport, IL $51,723 Memphis, TN $51,736 Terrytown, LA $51,718 Watertown, NY $51,753

Compare Wasco 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

Shafter, CA 18K McFarland, CA 14K Delano, CA 53K Rosedale, CA 14K Oildale, CA 33K Bakersfield, CA 374K Lamont, CA 15K Corcoran, CA 22K
All cities in California → Compare Wasco vs Shafter → All comparisons → Browse all cities

Using Wasco'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 Wasco 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 Wasco 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 (Kern 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.