Lafayette, CA population, income and ZIP codes

Lafayette city is a small city in California, with 25,277 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #299 of 1,618 ranked by population — larger than 81% of them. The median age here is 45 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly older profile than the country as a whole. Places under 65,000 residents only appear in the five-year release, never the one-year file, so these values pool sixty months of responses and lag the current year by design.

Households in Lafayette city earn a median of $222,393 a year, 183.2% above the national figure of $78,538 and 144% above the $91,111 median for the 1,050 California cities we cover. This figure covers the household, not the worker: two people on ordinary wages at one address outrank a single professional in the same table. Poverty reaches 3.9% of residents here, less than half the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Lafayette city is valued at $2,000,001, 559.2% above the national figure and 239% above the $589,600 peer median, while median gross rent runs $2,855 a month, 103.1% above the national figure, or roughly $34,260 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 15.4% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is cheap relative to what people here earn. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 9×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is out of reach on local earnings alone and the ownership market leans on outside income, equity or dual high earners. 77.3% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

Home values sit at 9× median household income, far past the 3.9× national mark, so ownership costs here are set by something other than local wages — second homes, retirees with equity, or commuters earning elsewhere.

No figure on this page is estimated by us; each one comes straight from the published ACS tables for this area. 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.