QoL Rank
Loading map…

California

California has a quality of life score of 34/100 (F, poor) and ranks #46 of 51 states. Its strongest category is quality of life (50) and its weakest is cost of living (13). Its top-rated larger counties are Marin County, Placer County, Santa Clara County.

  • Safety: 42
  • Cost of living: 13
  • Education: 30
  • Quality of life: 50

Key figures: violent crime 454.0 per 100,000 people a year (US 345.2); median rent $2,036 a month; median home value $734,700; median household income $95,473; life expectancy 79.4 years.

Counties in California, best first

  1. Marin County 55
  2. Placer County 54
  3. Santa Clara County 53
  4. San Mateo County 52
  5. San Luis Obispo County 49
  6. Orange County 49
  7. El Dorado County 48
  8. Napa County 46
  9. Sonoma County 45
  10. San Diego County 45
  11. San Francisco County 45
  12. Inyo County 44
  13. Yolo County 44
  14. Alameda County 43
  15. Santa Barbara County 42
  16. Ventura County 42
  17. Contra Costa County 41
  18. Nevada County 41
  19. San Benito County 40
  20. Santa Cruz County 40
  21. Alpine County 38
  22. Sacramento County 38
  23. Mono County 36
  24. Plumas County 36
  25. Riverside County 35
  26. Los Angeles County 35
  27. Imperial County 35
  28. Humboldt County 35
  29. Tuolumne County 34
  30. Sutter County 34
  31. Monterey County 34
  32. Butte County 33
  33. Solano County 33
  34. Shasta County 33
  35. Stanislaus County 32
  36. Amador County 32
  37. Kings County 31
  38. Glenn County 30
  39. Colusa County 30
  40. Fresno County 29
  41. Mendocino County 29
  42. Tulare County 29
  43. Yuba County 29
  44. Calaveras County 29
  45. Lassen County 29
  46. Mariposa County 28
  47. San Bernardino County 28
  48. Modoc County 28
  49. Merced County 27
  50. Madera County 27
  51. San Joaquin County 27
  52. Tehama County 27
  53. Siskiyou County 27
  54. Trinity County 27
  55. Del Norte County 26
  56. Kern County 25
  57. Sierra County 22
  58. Lake County 19

Your priorities

Choose how much each category counts toward the overall score. The map, rankings and every place’s overall score update as you go.

About the data

Every county is compared with every other US county, and every state with the other states.

Each measure becomes a percentile from 0 to 100, where 100 is always best. For crime, deaths, disaster risk, costs and commutes, the lowest value is best. A category score averages its measures’ percentiles and is then scaled so all four categories have the same spread around 50, so each counts equally. The overall score is the average of the four. 50 is a typical place, and most land between 35 and 65. Your priorities lets you weight the categories differently.

Grades: A 65 and up, B 55–64, C 45–54, D 35–44, F under 35.

Each category lists a county’s own figures next to its state’s and the US figures. Under the state and US columns, Difference shows whether the county is higher or lower, as a share of that figure (hover for the exact gap). Rank shows where it ranks instead: “ranked 75%” means it does better than 75% of the counties in its state, or in the US. A green arrow or dot means the county does better, red means worse.

Compare puts any two places side by side, counties or states, in any state. The better value in each row is highlighted.

A county gets an overall score only if all four categories have data and at least 60% of the measures are present. Small counties often have suppressed data, and without this rule they rank at the top on just a few numbers. Top 10 lists only include counties with at least 10,000 people.

What’s measured

Limitations

Sources