Desert Center vs Ripley

A side-by-side comparison of Desert Center and Ripley: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Ripley has the higher population (600 vs 167 in Desert Center). Desert Center has the higher median household income ($72,857 vs $27,957 in Ripley). Since 2019, Ripley's population has grown faster (+35.1% vs -22.7%).

Population, income & housing

	Desert Center	Ripley
Population	167	600
Median age	49.2 yrs	28.1 yrs
Median household income	$72,857	$27,957
Median home value	$221,200	—
Median gross rent	$1,192	$581
Housing units	201	266
Homeownership rate	67.2%	57.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	15.0%	0.0%
Unemployment rate	15.0%	21.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Desert Center	Ripley
Population	216 → 167 (-22.7%)	444 → 600 (+35.1%)
Median household income	$32,292 → $72,857 (+125.6%)	$21,103 → $27,957 (+32.5%)
Median home value	$113,400 → $221,200 (+95.1%)	—
Median gross rent	—	$504 → $581 (+15.3%)

Desert Center

Population

216167

Median household income

$32,292$72,857

Median home value

$113,400$221,200

Ripley

Population

444600

Median household income

$21,103$27,957

Median gross rent

$504$581

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Desert Center	Ripley
Under 5	4.8%	9.3%
5 to 17	4.2%	30.7%
18 to 24	3.0%	6.0%
25 to 34	19.8%	13.5%
35 to 44	13.2%	1.2%
45 to 54	12.0%	7.2%
55 to 64	20.4%	10.7%
65 to 74	11.4%	13.8%
75 and over	11.4%	7.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Desert Center	Ripley
White (non-Hispanic)	50.3%	3.3%
Black or African American	7.2%	24.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	1.8%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	3.6%	0.0%
Hispanic or Latino	37.1%	72.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Desert Center	Ripley
No high school diploma	1.4%	70.1%
High school graduate	59.9%	11.4%
Some college or associate's	23.8%	18.5%
Bachelor's degree	9.5%	0.0%
Graduate or professional degree	5.4%	0.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Desert Center	Ripley
Drove alone	58.8%	98.5%
Carpooled	5.9%	1.5%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	29.4%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	5.9%	0.0%
Other means	0.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Desert Center	Ripley
1-unit, detached	39.8%	34.6%
1-unit, attached	0.0%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	0.0%	22.2%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	7.1%
20 or more units	0.0%	3.0%
Mobile home & other	60.2%	33.1%

Poverty & households

	Desert Center	Ripley
Poverty rate	29.9%	39.8%
Average household size	2.58	2.86
Mean commute (minutes)	12	14
Median year structure built	1987	1969