Happy Camp, CA population, income and ZIP codes

Happy Camp CDP is a very small community in California, with 580 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #1187 of 1,618 ranked by population — larger than 26% of them. The median age here is 57.8 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. At this population the ACS sample is small, so the margin of error around every dollar figure below is wide — treat the numbers as a band, not a point, and expect them to move between annual releases without the place itself changing.

Households in Happy Camp CDP earn a median of $32,353 a year, 58.8% below the national figure of $78,538 and 64% below the $91,111 median for the 1,050 California cities we cover. The median is the midpoint household, not an average, so a handful of very high earners cannot drag it upward the way they distort a mean. Poverty reaches 24.9% of residents here, well above the 12.4% national rate, which is the single clearest signal in this dataset that median income here is carried by a narrow band of households.

The typical owner-occupied home in Happy Camp CDP is valued at $153,900, 49.3% below the national figure and 74% below the $589,600 peer median, while median gross rent runs $683 a month, 51.4% below the national figure, or roughly $8,196 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 25.3% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 4.8×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 53.9% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

A median age of 57.8 puts Happy Camp CDP well into retirement-weighted territory, which pulls median household income down even where household wealth is high, because retirement draws are counted differently from wages. With 580 residents, a handful of survey responses moves every median on this page. Compare Happy Camp CDP against its county rather than against national figures.

Every value on this page is published directly by the Census for this area — nothing is modelled or interpolated. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.