ZIP code 93203

ZIP 93203 is a mid-size town in Kern County, California, with 20,571 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #809 of 1,803 ranked by population — larger than 55% of them. The median age here is 25.2 years against 39.1 nationally, a distinctly younger profile, typical of places with students, military posts or a fast-growing family population. 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 ZIP 93203 earn a median of $49,918 a year, 36.4% below the national figure of $78,538. 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 30.7% 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 ZIP 93203 is valued at $247,800, 18.3% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,086 a month, 22.8% below the national figure, or roughly $13,032 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 26.1% 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 5×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 52.4% 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 25.2 means a large student or early-career population; income medians in places like this understate household resources, since many residents are supported from outside the address.

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.

ZIP 93203 is tabulated inside Kern County, California, one of 47 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 1,803 across California. This is a mid-sized suburban ZIP inside a county that is split across many delivery areas. County assignment on this page follows the largest share of the ZIP's land area, which matters where a delivery route crosses a county line: mail addressed to 93203 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 93203 reports a median household income of $49,918, 10% below the $55,473 county median, and 44% below the $89,916 typical CA ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $247,800, close to the county figure and 61% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,086 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

California charges 7.25% statewide, and local governments overlapping 93203 may add county, city or special-district levies on top. We publish the state floor for this ZIP rather than guessing a combined figure, because ZIP boundaries and taxing-district boundaries were drawn for different purposes and do not line up.

Everything above comes from the Census Bureau American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates for this ZIP Code Tabulation Area, with sales tax rates traced to the state revenue agency. Five-year estimates pool sixty months of responses, so they are stable enough to compare 93203 with its neighbours but always trail the current year, and any value the Census suppressed for sample size is shown as unpublished rather than filled in with a model.