California City vs Shafter

A side-by-side comparison of California City and Shafter: population, income, housing, and more.

California City and Shafter are places in California. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Shafter has the higher population (20,618 vs 14,821 in California City). Shafter has the higher median household income ($67,989 vs $55,271 in California City). Shafter has the higher median home value ($306,800 vs $239,600 in California City).

Population, income & housing

	California City	Shafter
Population	14,821	20,618
Median age	33.8 yrs	28.0 yrs
Median household income	$55,271	$67,989
Median home value	$239,600	$306,800
Median gross rent	$1,016	$1,140
Housing units	5,377	5,684
Homeownership rate	57.1%	65.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	11.1%	10.7%
Unemployment rate	18.5%	6.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	California City	Shafter
Population	13,826 → 14,821 (+7.2%)	19,447 → 20,618 (+6.0%)
Median household income	$49,022 → $55,271 (+12.7%)	$45,854 → $67,989 (+48.3%)
Median home value	$124,500 → $239,600 (+92.4%)	$175,300 → $306,800 (+75.0%)
Median gross rent	$966 → $1,016 (+5.2%)	$868 → $1,140 (+31.3%)

California City

Population

13,82614,821

Median household income

$49,022$55,271

Median home value

$124,500$239,600

Median gross rent

$966$1,016

Shafter

Population

19,44720,618

Median household income

$45,854$67,989

Median home value

$175,300$306,800

Median gross rent

$868$1,140

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	California City	Shafter
Under 5	6.4%	7.3%
5 to 17	17.6%	27.2%
18 to 24	9.2%	9.5%
25 to 34	19.5%	18.6%
35 to 44	16.3%	13.3%
45 to 54	9.1%	10.6%
55 to 64	9.9%	6.5%
65 to 74	8.4%	4.3%
75 and over	3.6%	2.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	California City	Shafter
White (non-Hispanic)	30.1%	16.3%
Black or African American	22.3%	1.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.8%	0.0%
Asian	1.5%	1.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.4%	0.0%
Two or more races	5.1%	0.7%
Hispanic or Latino	39.9%	80.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	California City	Shafter
No high school diploma	20.5%	27.7%
High school graduate	34.9%	30.6%
Some college or associate's	33.5%	31.0%
Bachelor's degree	7.6%	7.1%
Graduate or professional degree	3.5%	3.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	California City	Shafter
Drove alone	73.0%	84.3%
Carpooled	13.6%	11.5%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.4%	0.3%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	11.5%	3.3%
Other means	1.6%	0.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	California City	Shafter
1-unit, detached	74.0%	83.0%
1-unit, attached	1.5%	1.2%
2 to 4 units	12.5%	7.2%
5 to 19 units	3.8%	0.7%
20 or more units	3.8%	1.4%
Mobile home & other	4.4%	6.6%

Poverty & households

	California City	Shafter
Poverty rate	24.3%	21.3%
Average household size	2.83	3.67
Mean commute (minutes)	47	22
Median year structure built	1994	1995