San Bernardino, CA population, income and ZIP codes

San Bernardino city is a mid-size city in California, with 221,774 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #18 of 1,618 ranked by population — larger than 98% of them. The median age here is 31.9 years against 39.1 nationally, a distinctly younger profile, typical of places with students, military posts or a fast-growing family population. At this size the Census also publishes one-year estimates; the five-year values used here are steadier and let you compare against smaller neighbours on the same basis.

Households in San Bernardino city earn a median of $63,988 a year, 18.5% below the national figure of $78,538 and 30% below the $91,111 median for the 1,050 California cities we cover. Household income here is measured before tax and pooled across everyone at the address, which is why it reads higher than typical individual earnings in the same area. Poverty reaches 19.5% 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 San Bernardino city is valued at $384,900, 26.9% above the national figure and 35% below the $589,600 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,433 a month, 1.9% above the national figure, or roughly $17,196 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 26.9% 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 6×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 48.5% 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.

All values below were released by the Census for this exact geography, with no gap-filling on our side. 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.