The 10 Gayest Places In California For 2026


The gayest cities in California are Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage for 2026 based on Saturday Night Science.

By: Chris Kolmar | About HomeSnacks
Last Updated: May 26, 2026

Gayest places in California research summary. We used Saturday Night Science to research the cities in California with the highest percent of same-sex households for 2026. The data comes from the American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year vintage, which counts same-sex married spouses and same-sex unmarried partners at the city level.

  • The city with the highest rate of same-sex houesholds in California is Palm Springs. 16.71% of households in Palm Springs are gay.

  • The city in California with the most same-sex houesholds is Los Angeles with 22,148 gay households.

  • California is the 9th most gay in the United States.

Gayest Cities In California Map

Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table

An estimated 1.22% of California residents are gay.

That means there are a total of 164,869 gay households in The Golden State.

Our goal with this post is to use Saturday Night Science and data to determine the gayest cities in California.

After analyzing 450 cities with over 1,000 households, we’ve determined these are The Gayest Cities in California for 2026.

The 10 Gayest Places In California For 2026

  1. Palm Springs
  2. Rancho Mirage
  3. Cathedral City
  4. West Hollywood
  5. Avalon
  6. Crescent City
  7. Desert Hot Springs
  8. Signal Hill
  9. South San Francisco
  10. Laguna Beach

What’s the gayest place in California? According to the facts, Palm Springs is the gayest place in California for 2026.

For more on how we calculated the top ten, and for more information about these places, read on.

For more California reading, check out:

The 10 Gayest Cities In California For 2026

1. Palm Springs

Palm Springs Location In California

Palm Springs, CA

Source: Wikipedia User Patrick Pelster | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Households: 24,567
Gay Households: 4,105 (6th highest)
% Gay Households: 16.71% (1st highest)
More on Palm Springs: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Movers

2. Rancho Mirage

Rancho Mirage Location In California

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Households: 9,003
Gay Households: 1,122 (15th highest)
% Gay Households: 12.46% (2nd highest)
More on Rancho Mirage: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Movers

3. Cathedral City

Source: Public Domain
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Households: 18,979
Gay Households: 1,484 (10th highest)
% Gay Households: 7.82% (3rd highest)
More on Cathedral City: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Movers

4. West Hollywood

West Hollywood Location In California

West Hollywood, CA

Source: Wikipedia User No machine-readable author provided. Greenmnm69 assumed (based on copyright claims). | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Households: 22,920
Gay Households: 1,717 (9th highest)
% Gay Households: 7.49% (4th highest)
More on West Hollywood: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Movers

5. Avalon

Avalon, CA

Source: Wikipedia User By Aaron Logan | CC BY 1.0
Overall SnackAbility

7.5
/10

Households: 1,374
Gay Households: 101 (216th highest)
% Gay Households: 7.35% (5th highest)
More on Avalon: Crime | Movers

6. Crescent City

Crescent City, CA

Source: Wikipedia User Robert Campbell | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

4
/10

Households: 1,693
Gay Households: 64 (281st highest)
% Gay Households: 3.78% (6th highest)
More on Crescent City: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Movers

7. Desert Hot Springs

Desert Hot Springs Location In California

Desert Hot Springs, CA

Source: Flickr User orangetruck1 | CC BY-SA 2.0
Overall SnackAbility

3
/10

Households: 11,379
Gay Households: 406 (70th highest)
% Gay Households: 3.57% (7th highest)
More on Desert Hot Springs: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Movers

8. Signal Hill

Signal Hill Location In California

Signal Hill, CA

Source: Wikipedia User Konrad Summers | CC BY-SA 2.0
Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Households: 4,545
Gay Households: 153 (169th highest)
% Gay Households: 3.37% (8th highest)
More on Signal Hill: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Movers

9. South San Francisco

South San Francisco Location In California

South San Francisco, CA

Source: Wikipedia User Coolcaesar at English Wikipedia | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Households: 21,838
Gay Households: 650 (29th highest)
% Gay Households: 2.98% (9th highest)
More on South San Francisco: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Movers

10. Laguna Beach

Laguna Beach Location In California

Laguna Beach, CA

Source: Wikipedia User | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Households: 10,839
Gay Households: 317 (94th highest)
% Gay Households: 2.92% (10th highest)
More on Laguna Beach: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Movers

How do you determine the best cities for same-sex households in California for 2026

In order to rank the gayest cities in California, we used Saturday Night Science and the 2020-2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the U.S. Census. We looked at:

  • Percentage of all households that are unmarried, same sex partners

We limited the analysis to non-CDPs that have over 1,000 households.

We ranked each place from 1 to 450 with the city containing the highest percentage of unmarried, same sex partners households being the most gay.

In the end, ended up being the the most gay place with 16.71% gay households.

Skip to the end to see the list of all the places in the state from gayest to straighest.

We updated this report for 2026. This report is our eleventh time ranking the gayest places in California.

Most Dangerous Cities In California

There You Have It – The Most LGBT Friendly Cities In California For 2026

If you’re looking at the number of gay households in California, this is an accurate list.

The gayest cities in California are .

If you’re curious enough, here are the least gay places in California:

  • Alturas
  • San Anselmo
  • Newman

For more California reading, check out:

Table: Gayest Places To Live In California

RankCityHouseholds% Gay Households
1Palm Springs24,56716.71%
2Rancho Mirage9,00312.46%
3Cathedral City18,9797.82%
4West Hollywood22,9207.49%
5Avalon1,3747.35%
6Crescent City1,6933.78%
7Desert Hot Springs11,3793.57%
8Signal Hill4,5453.37%
9South San Francisco21,8382.98%
10Laguna Beach10,8392.92%
11Palm Desert24,6902.92%
12Del Mar1,8552.91%
13Sonoma5,2852.88%
14San Francisco363,9702.87%
15Orinda7,2772.83%
16Healdsburg4,6512.77%
17Berkeley47,1352.54%
18Oakland176,5842.53%
19Mammoth Lakes3,3182.5%
20Twentynine Palms9,2912.5%
21Hillsborough3,6102.44%
22Long Beach170,9272.41%
23Fairfax3,2652.39%
24Nevada City1,3232.34%
25Santa Cruz21,7132.22%
26Cloverdale3,4622.2%
27Emeryville7,8382.19%
28Dos Palos2,0992.19%
29Claremont11,9502.18%
30Grand Terrace4,7362.13%
31Willits2,1622.13%
32Indian Wells2,4682.11%
33Brentwood21,2952.1%
34San Pablo9,7432.07%
35La Quinta15,9622.07%
36Loma Linda9,3862.07%
37El Cerrito10,8312.05%
38Yountville1,4892.01%
39Alameda29,9882.01%
40Albany7,6311.95%
41Redwood City29,9511.92%
42Santa Rosa68,3211.92%
43Corte Madera4,0361.88%
44Sacramento200,3211.87%
45La Mesa25,0381.86%
46San Diego530,4121.84%
47Scotts Valley5,0361.83%
48Corcoran4,2261.82%
49Azusa14,8701.81%
50Woodside1,7841.79%
51Pasadena57,4251.78%
52Sebastopol3,3191.78%
53San Rafael22,9101.78%
54Richmond40,8061.75%
55Beverly Hills14,4491.74%
56Auburn6,0551.73%
57Larkspur6,0181.73%
58Escalon2,8541.72%
59Fortuna4,9251.71%
60Palo Alto26,0211.7%
61Shafter5,6771.67%
62Orange Cove2,4031.66%
63Piedmont3,8641.66%
64Rio Dell1,4801.62%
65Yucaipa18,5061.61%
66Sierra Madre4,6201.6%
67Calexico10,0691.59%
68Waterford2,5811.59%
69West Sacramento19,3671.57%
70Marysville4,9011.57%
71Culver City17,5291.56%
72Merced27,9501.56%
73Los Angeles1,439,0971.54%
74Petaluma24,2391.53%
75Chico42,9431.52%
76Westlake Village2,9671.52%
77Arcata7,8841.48%
78Burbank42,9951.47%
79Davis25,3581.47%
80Atascadero11,5791.47%
81Jackson2,3851.47%
82San Marcos31,3501.46%
83Mcfarland3,5701.46%
84Apple Valley25,1841.45%
85Tiburon3,5101.45%
86Duarte7,5151.45%
87South Pasadena10,2201.45%
88Mountain View35,7671.44%
89Oakley13,6851.43%
90Monterey Park20,6461.4%
91East Palo Alto8,2671.4%
92La Habra20,5381.4%
93Bell Gardens9,7131.39%
94Grass Valley6,7691.39%
95Santa Fe Springs5,7161.38%
96Novato20,0561.37%
97Barstow9,1451.37%
98Martinez14,7231.37%
99Pleasant Hill13,2581.36%
100Glendora16,7341.36%
About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.

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