City · Stanislaus County, California

Oakdale, California

Oakdale is a city in Stanislaus County, California, part of the Modesto, CA metro area. It has 23,194 residents. Oakdale, California has a quality-of-life score of 10 out of 100 (very low), ranking #14,125 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within California it ranks #869 of 1,062 cities and towns. It ranks best on drought exposure (low), comfortable days (high) and suicide rate (low). It ranks worst on fine particulate matter (PM2.5) (high), hospital quality rating (low) and students per teacher (high).

10Very low

Quality-of-life score: #14,125 of 15,651 cities and towns
California: #869 of 1,062 in CA
Population: 23,194 (2020-2024)
Land area: 6 mi²
Density: 3,726.2 /mi²
FIPS code: 0652694

Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 76 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.

Open in the map

Scores by category

Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.

Safety37#9,845/15,637
Economy35#10,137/15,631
Housing14#12,832/14,977
Health40#9,339/15,609
Healthcare48#8,164/15,650
Environment5#14,689/15,453
Education3#15,161/15,649
Infrastructure9#14,299/15,650
Community19#12,662/15,651
Leisure & amenities36#10,010/15,651

Strengths · Weaknesses

Indicators where Oakdale, California ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Stanislaus County value” are the county’s: the source publishes no figure for this city or town, and the county holding most of its residents stands in.

Strengths

Drought exposure · low0%
96/100California 9%United States 43%Oct 2025–Sep 2026National Drought Mitigation Center (University of Nebraska–Lincoln), USDA and NOAAStanislaus County value
Comfortable days · high33.7%
92/100California 34.8%United States 26.8%2016-2025NOAA National Centers for Environmental InformationStanislaus County value
Suicide rate · low8.3 /100k
92/100California 9.9 /100kUnited States 14.1 /100kMay 2025–Apr 2026Centers for Disease Control and PreventionProvisional dataStanislaus County value
Distance to an Amtrak station · low6 mi
90/100California 10 miUnited States 43 mi2026Federal Aviation Administration · Bureau of Transportation Statistics · U.S. Census BureauStanislaus County value
Firearm deaths · low5.3 /100k
88/100California 6.7 /100kUnited States 12.1 /100kMay 2025–Apr 2026Centers for Disease Control and PreventionProvisional dataStanislaus County value
Grocery stores · high2.4 /10k
86/100California 2.0 /10kUnited States 1.7 /10k2025U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsStanislaus County value

Weaknesses

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) · high11.0 µg/m³
1/100California 9.4 µg/m³United States 8.0 µg/m³2022Centers for Disease Control and Prevention · U.S. Environmental Protection AgencyStanislaus County value
Hospital quality rating · low1.8
3/100California 3.1United States 3.2Jul 2026Centers for Medicare & Medicaid ServicesStanislaus County value
Students per teacher · high21.9×
4/100California 21.7×United States 15.2×2024National Center for Education StatisticsStanislaus County value
Math scores · low2.52
5/100California 2.79United States 3.032019University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteStanislaus County value
High school diploma or higher · low85.5%
6/100California 84.7%United States 89.6%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B15003
Average commute time · high35.4 min
8/100California 28.7 minUnited States 26.4 min2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B08013

Trends

The largest changes over about five years, next to the country's over the same periods.

New homes permittedImproving
1.7 /1k (2021) → 4.1 /1k (Sep 2025–Aug 2026)
+138%5 yearsUS 5.2 /1k → 4.2 /1k
Rent-burdened householdsWorsening
51.7% (2015-2019) → 58.2% (2020-2024)
+6.6 pts5 yearsCensus table B25070US 49.6% → 51.1%
Child poverty rateWorsening
13.1% (2015-2019) → 19.0% (2020-2024)
+5.8 pts5 yearsCensus table B17001US 16.8% → 15.5%
Median household incomeImproving
$64,555 (2015-2019) → $83,091 (2020-2024)
+29%5 yearsCensus table B19013US $65,712 → $81,604
Rent as share of incomeWorsening
30.8% (2015-2019) → 36.0% (2020-2024)
+5.2 pts5 yearsCensus table B25071US 29.8% → 30.6%
Bachelor's degree or higherImproving
19.0% (2015-2019) → 22.2% (2020-2024)
+3.2 pts5 yearsCensus table B15003US 32.1% → 35.7%

What changed in five years

How each measure moved between two periods about five years apart, read against whether more or less is better, the published margin of error and the same change in other places.

Over about five years, Oakdale, California improved on 1 of 14 measures with a comparison and declined on 0. 13 moved within the margin of error and 0 barely changed.

Earlier (2015-2019)
Latest (2020-2024)
Lower standingHigher standing

Position is the place's standing among cities and towns: further right is better, whichever way the measure counts.

Improved1

Household income+29%$64,555 → $83,091

Declined0

No measure declined by more than its margin of error.

All 14 measures

Change of every measure of Oakdale, California between two periods about five years apart
Measure	Before	After	Change	Reading	Favourable vs peers
Average commute time	31.4 min2015-2019	35.4 min2020-2024	+3.9 min	Within the margin of error	14%
Bachelor's degree or higher	19.0%2015-2019	22.2%2020-2024	+3.2 points	Within the margin of error	53%
Broadband subscriptions	86.8%2015-2019	85.2%2020-2024	−1.6 points	Within the margin of error	5%
Child poverty rate	13.1%2015-2019	19.0%2020-2024	+5.8 points	Within the margin of error	18%
Effective property tax rate	0.85%2015-2019	0.80%2020-2024	−0.1 points	Within the margin of error	26%
High school diploma or higher	85.0%2015-2019	85.5%2020-2024	+0.4 points	Within the margin of error	38%
Home price to income ratio	4.8×2015-2019	5.5×2020-2024	+0.7×	Within the margin of error	35%
Income inequality (Gini index)	0.4342015-2019	0.4562020-2024	+0.022	Within the margin of error	33%
Median household income	$64,5552015-2019	$83,0912020-2024	+29%	Improved	53%
Poverty rate	12.2%2015-2019	14.8%2020-2024	+2.5 points	Within the margin of error	23%
Rent as share of income	30.8%2015-2019	36.0%2020-2024	+5.2 points	Within the margin of error	22%
Rent-burdened households	51.7%2015-2019	58.2%2020-2024	+6.6 points	Within the margin of error	33%
Unemployment rate	12.2%2015-2019	10.2%2020-2024	−2 points	Within the margin of error	82%
Uninsured residents (under 65)	4.3%2015-2019	6.0%2020-2024	+1.7 points	Within the margin of error	28%

“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 14640 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.

Sources: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Values are the latest and the one five years earlier of the same publisher dataset; datasets that changed publisher in between are never compared.

Survey estimates (American Community Survey) compare the two most recent 5-year windows that do not share years, so the margin of error of the difference holds. The 2015-2019 window predates the pandemic and 2020-2024 includes it.
A change counts only when it is larger than 1.645 times the square root of the two standard errors squared, summed (a 90% margin). Measures published without a margin must change by at least 5% to count.
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 15651 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Standing is a percentile among the same places: 0 is the lowest value on the measure (or the worst when lower is better), 100 the best.

Cities and towns like Oakdale, California five years ago that improved

The places whose measures looked most like those of Oakdale, California in the earlier period, ranked by how many measures improved beyond the margin of error, minus how many declined. A comparison of published data, not a forecast and not advice.

For comparison, Oakdale, California itself moved −11.1 points in standing on average over the same 10 measures (standings of all places average about zero).

How the ranking works

Similarity is the root-mean-square difference of standings in the earlier period over the measures most places have. Places are ranked by measures that improved beyond the margin of error minus those that declined (a count that estimation noise in small places cannot inflate), then by the mean change of standing over the measures a place has in both periods. Only places with more improvements than declines and a rise in standing are listed. Standings are relative, so a place can improve in absolute terms and still lose standing.

Who lives here

Age, race and education of residents, from the American Community Survey. Shares are of all residents (age), residents of every origin (race) or adults 25 and over (education).

Age and sex

23,194 residents (±43)

Men
Women

80 and over†
70–79†
60–69†

Income

How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.

Household income

8,272 households (±398)

Oakdale, California
California share

Under $25k19%1,598
$25k–50k15%†1,255
$50k–75k11%†946

Homes

Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.

Owners and renters

8,272 households (±398)

Oakdale, California
California share

Own63%5,177
Rent37%3,095

No change since 2015–2019 is larger than the margin of error.

Table view

Getting to work

How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.

How people get to work

10,119 workers (±690)

Oakdale, California
California share

Drive alone78%7,934
Carpool11%†1,133
Public transit0.1%†

Jobs and pay

What the largest occupations here pay, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes pay by metro area, not by county or city. The metro area page lists its largest occupations and lets you look up any job.

Pay in the Modesto, CA

Local businesses

Employer businesses and sole proprietors by industry, per resident and against the state and the nation. Counts of businesses next to counts of people, not a measure of demand.

The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Stanislaus County, the county holding most of Oakdale's residents.

Stanislaus County has 10,013 employer establishments, 181 for every 10,000 residents (0.73× the US rate of 248; 0.69× California's), with 152,942 paid employees at an average annual pay of $58,852. The Census Bureau also counts 35,345 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.

Establishments: 10,013; 35,345 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents: 181; US 248 · California 263
Paid employees: 152,942
Average annual pay: $58,852; US $68,342

Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Stanislaus County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation

Ambulatory health care services	916	16.5	0.79×Fewer than typical	14,212	$94,313	1,175
Restaurants and other eating places	888	16	0.87×About typical	17,016	$23,878	270
Specialty trade contractors	723	13	0.84×About typical	6,862	$67,370	1,854
Truck transportation	494	8.9	1.76×More than typical	2,934	$62,713	2,489
Lessors of real estate	438	7.9	0.64×Fewer than typical	1,326	$51,741	2,931
Limited-service restaurants	432	7.8	0.97×About typical	8,393	$22,509	147
Automotive repair and maintenance	335	6	1.20×About typical	2,103	$45,924	723
Full-service restaurants	315	5.7	0.74×Fewer than typical	6,131	$26,306	59
Construction of buildings	288	5.2	0.69×Fewer than typical	1,542	$70,319	1,039
Offices of physicians	287	5.2	0.80×Fewer than typical	3,625	$137,549	177
Building equipment contractors	278	5	0.83×About typical	3,134	$72,092	455
Services to buildings and dwellings	264	4.8	0.71×Fewer than typical	1,875	$43,814	2,542

Rank places for an industry Open Stanislaus County

County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)

Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 554,459 residents here, 336,755,052 in the United States. County Business Patterns counts establishments in 2023; the Nonemployer Statistics count businesses in 2024.
“More than typical” is a density at least 1.25 times the nation's per resident, “fewer” at most 0.8 times, with at least 10 establishments. It compares counts of businesses with counts of people: it says nothing about demand, incomes, size, quality or profit, and visitors and commuters are not residents.
The Census Bureau adds noise to employment and payroll to protect confidentiality, and withholds some figures: an industry with few establishments can show employees or pay as unavailable.
Industries overlap: a narrower industry (full-service restaurants) is part of a broader one (restaurants), so the rows do not add up.
Industries follow the North American Industry Classification System; the two surveys use different editions (NAICS 2017 and 2022), which this page matches industry by industry.

Federal contracts performed here

In FY2026, an estimated $9,710 of federal contract obligations were for work performed in Oakdale, California: $0.42 per resident (US $1,994).

Obligations: $9,710; −39% vs FY2025
Per resident: $0.42; US $1,994
Sole-source: 24%; US 30%
Single offer: 0.0%; US 8.8%

A signal is a reason to look closer, not evidence of wrongdoing: most sole-source awards are lawful and justified.

Top buying agencies

Federal Prison System / Bureau of Prisons$7,42776%
Department of the Army$2,31124%

Top recipients

Spending by fiscal year

39.5KFY2017
41KFY2018
15.2KFY2019
43.2KFY2020
57KFY2021
75.4KFY2022
51.8KFY2023
54.2KFY2024

Top industries (NAICS)

Nonscheduled air transportation · 4812$5,94361%
Investigation and security services · 5616$2,31124%
Other ambulatory health care services · 6219$1,48415%

Source: Federal contract transactions (Federal Procurement Data System) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov), data current to Oct 3, 2026, loaded Oct 3, 2026.

How this is estimated

Agencies report each contract action's place of performance as a county and a ZIP code. A ZIP code's money is split among the cities it covers by the share of its land inside each (Census 2020 ZIP code tabulation areas); the part outside city limits stays with the county.

The place of performance is what the contracting agency reports, often the contractor's office rather than where the work happens.
Shares are of land, not of people or businesses: a ZIP code that is mostly rural land but has its offices in town gives the town less than it should.
ZIP codes that are not mapped areas (post office boxes, the unique ZIP codes of large federal sites and companies) stay with their county, unless one city covers nearly all of it.
Counts of actions and awards include those only partly in Oakdale, California, so they do not add up across cities.

Oakdale, California's figures are part of those of Stanislaus County, CA ($153.5M in FY2026), never added to them: 0.0% of that total.

Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: Oakdale is mostly in Stanislaus County.

See federal money in Stanislaus County

Representation in Congress

Members serving today, with their record in the current Congress (party-unity votes cast with their caucus, roll calls missed). Not a grade.

Oakdale, California is split between congressional districts: each representative is shown with the share of its residents in their district (current boundaries).

House

Senate

Adam B. SchiffD-

County

A city can lie in several counties. Some indicators are published for counties only: the page marks them.

Stanislaus County28100% of residents

Metro area

The metro or micro area the city belongs to.

Modesto, CA27

Other cities and towns in Stanislaus County

Largest first.

Similar cities and towns

Closest indicator profiles across the country (no model: score distances).

Data and sources

Latest published value of each indicator; periods differ by source. Values flagged by their publisher are marked.

PLACES: Local Data for Better HealthCenters for Disease Control and Prevention · release 2025
Local Area Unemployment StatisticsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · release 2025
American Community Survey 5-Year EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2017-2024
Building Permits SurveyU.S. Census Bureau · release 2026-08
Population Estimates ProgramU.S. Census Bureau · release 2025
Small Area Health Insurance EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
Small Area Income and Poverty EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
County Health Rankings & RoadmapsUniversity of Wisconsin Population Health Institute · release 2022-2025+2026-03-supplement

JSON · /api/v1/places/0652694

Scores by category

Strengths · Weaknesses

Strengths

Weaknesses

Trends