The 10 Richest Cities In California For 2023


We analyzed 427 places in California to determine where the 1% live.

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You have to be either a trust fund baby, married to a Kardashian, super good at a sport, or a popular movie producer to live in our top ten richest cities in California for 2023.

If you’re looking for safe cities and neighborhoods, amazing schools, large green spaces, grand swimming pools, good food, and high-end shopping with paycheck to match, you can stop your search. There are cities in the Sunshine State that have all of these 5-star amenities, and more, because they cater to the California ‘one percenters’. Is it like lifestyles of the rich and famous in California’s richest cities? Probably. And if you move to cities on our list like, Orinda, you might find yourself living next to notables like Matt Cain or Ken Dorsey.

How does one get their hand on one of these super wealthy cities? Well, a couple of things have to fall in place for you. First off, you need to find a job that pays close to $200,000/year. Might we suggest a job as a contractor in or a tech entrepreneur in our number one richest city, Los Altos Hills? Whether it’s building $4.5 millions dollar homes or creating the next robot, we’re sure you’ll stay busy and wealthy. Secondly, you have to be a hard worker to live in one of our top ten richest cities. Unemployment rates and poverty rates in these California cities, barely reach 4%.

Monetary wealth does make a city rich, but there are cities on our list that are both rich in the dollar as well as rich in amenities. Cities like Palos Verdes Estates and Pleasanton grace the Pacific Coast. And cities like San Ramon and MIll Valley are the playground to San Francisco. These cities have staycation written all over them. This means that you can keep money in your wallet so that you can afford to live in the fancy cities.

To take a closer look at the wealthiest cities in California for 2023, warm up your yacht, head to the sunny side of Half Moon Beach, and read on.

To narrow down the richest cities in California, we looked at several factors: poverty rate, median household income, unemployment rate; and obviously, where the richest of the rich live. The cities also had to have a population of at least 5,000.

This left us with 428 cities in the largest state, most populous state, in the country.

What is the richest city in California? Drum roll — the wealthiest city in California for 2023 is Los Altos Hills.

So, if you care about living where there are great jobs and wealthy people, take a look the list below. The Golden State is calling.

Rich people not your cup of tea? Feel free to check out some more reading about California:

The 10 Richest Cities In California For 2023

1. Los Altos Hills

Los Altos Hills, CA

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

10
/10

Population: 8,520
Rank Last Year: 1 (No Change)
Median Income: $250,001
Unemployment Rate: 2.7%
Poverty Rate: 2.6%
More on Los Altos Hills: Real Estate | Photos

2. Orinda

Orinda, CA

Overall SnackAbility

10
/10

Population: 19,497
Rank Last Year: 3 (Up 1)
Median Income: $248,984
Unemployment Rate: 3.2%
Poverty Rate: 2.1%
More on Orinda: Real Estate | Photos

3. La Habra Heights

La Habra Heights, CA

Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 5,651
Rank Last Year: 2 (Down 1)
Median Income: $181,591
Unemployment Rate: 2.8%
Poverty Rate: 2.4%
More on La Habra Heights: Real Estate | Photos

4. Atherton

Atherton, CA

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 7,181
Rank Last Year: 23 (Up 19)
Median Income: $250,001
Unemployment Rate: 3.2%
Poverty Rate: 3.4%
More on Atherton: Real Estate | Photos

5. Saratoga

Saratoga, CA

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

10
/10

Population: 31,194
Rank Last Year: 19 (Up 14)
Median Income: $224,179
Unemployment Rate: 3.5%
Poverty Rate: 2.9%
More on Saratoga: Real Estate | Photos

6. Palos Verdes Estates

Palos Verdes Estates, CA

Overall SnackAbility

10
/10

Population: 13,403
Rank Last Year: 8 (Up 2)
Median Income: $202,569
Unemployment Rate: 3.3%
Poverty Rate: 4.3%
More on Palos Verdes Estates: Real Estate | Photos

7. Los Altos

Los Altos, CA

Overall SnackAbility

10
/10

Population: 31,562
Rank Last Year: 7 (No Change)
Median Income: $250,001
Unemployment Rate: 3.9%
Poverty Rate: 2.7%
More on Los Altos: Real Estate | Photos

8. Westlake Village

Westlake Village, CA

Overall SnackAbility

10
/10

Population: 8,081
Rank Last Year: 4 (Down 4)
Median Income: $166,316
Unemployment Rate: 2.2%
Poverty Rate: 4.7%
More on Westlake Village: Real Estate | Photos

9. Cupertino

Cupertino, CA

Overall SnackAbility

10
/10

Population: 60,681
Rank Last Year: 10 (Up 1)
Median Income: $199,778
Unemployment Rate: 2.5%
Poverty Rate: 5.1%
More on Cupertino: Real Estate | Photos

10. Dublin

Dublin, CA

Overall SnackAbility

9.5
/10

Population: 69,818
Rank Last Year: 16 (Up 6)
Median Income: $171,168
Unemployment Rate: 3.7%
Poverty Rate: 3.7%
More on Dublin: Real Estate | Photos

Methodology: How We Determined The Richest Places In California For 2023

Map Of The Richest Places To Live In California
The first thing that comes to most people’s minds when they think about determining the richest places is to simply identify personal incomes. After all, rich people have really high salaries.

However, we don’t believe that one statistic wholly encompasses what it means to be one of the “richest places”. So we looked at this set of criteria from the newly released 2017-2021 American Community Survey:

  • Poverty Level
  • Median Household Income
  • Unemployment Rate

Median household income is the most digestible way to understand how rich a place really is. The unemployment rate tries to capture the prospects for more people to become rich. If more people are employed, the richer the future looks.

After we collected the data for all 428 places with more than 5,000 people in California, we ranked each place from 1 to 428 for each of the criteria, with 1 being the richest.

We then averaged all the rankings for a place into a “Rich Score” with the place having the lowest overall Rich Score, Los Altos Hills, crowned the “Richest City In California For 2023”. You can download the data here.

You can learn more about the top ten below or skip to the end to see the rankings for all 428 places.

Summary: The Wealthiest Places In California For 2023

Like we said earlier, when we set out to identify the richest places in California, we weren’t sure what we’d encounter, but it ended up being some of the best places to live in California.

When you look at the data, the cities and places mentioned above meet the criteria for being at the very top of the income ladder for everyone that lives there.

If you’re curious enough, here are the poorest cities in California, according to data:

Poorest: Huron
2nd Poorest: Firebaugh
3rd Poorest: Orange Cove

For more California reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Richest Cities In California

Rank City RichScore Median Income
1 Los Altos Hills 8.83 $250,001
2 Orinda 13.0 $248,984
3 La Habra Heights 13.33 $181,591
4 Atherton 14.5 $250,001
5 Saratoga 20.33 $224,179
6 Palos Verdes Estates 22.67 $202,569
7 Los Altos 22.83 $250,001
8 Westlake Village 25.33 $166,316
9 Cupertino 25.33 $199,778
10 Dublin 30.33 $171,168
11 Woodside 32.5 $250,001
12 Palo Alto 33.67 $194,782
13 Livermore 34.0 $139,904
14 Hillsborough 34.83 $250,001
15 Rancho Santa Margarita 37.0 $135,350
16 Manhattan Beach 39.67 $169,586
17 Clayton 41.33 $150,948
18 Pleasanton 42.33 $167,932
19 Mill Valley 43.0 $179,529
20 Danville 43.67 $181,453
21 Mountain View 45.0 $158,104
22 Foster City 46.0 $173,721
23 Buellton 46.33 $107,614
24 Menlo Park 47.67 $179,913
25 San Marino 47.67 $174,722
26 Fremont 48.0 $153,475
27 Hermosa Beach 48.33 $144,388
28 Campbell 49.33 $130,171
29 Windsor 50.0 $123,277
30 San Ramon 50.67 $173,519
31 Scotts Valley 50.67 $114,504
32 Eastvale 51.0 $141,827
33 Sunnyvale 51.33 $161,670
34 Villa Park 52.0 $172,375
35 San Carlos 52.33 $204,570
36 Half Moon Bay 54.67 $137,346
37 Pacifica 55.0 $138,548
38 San Anselmo 57.67 $153,381
39 Solana Beach 58.0 $113,903
40 Burlingame 59.33 $150,182
41 Piedmont 59.5 $250,001
42 Aliso Viejo 60.33 $122,320
43 Agoura Hills 61.67 $141,099
44 Yorba Linda 62.67 $137,011
45 Union City 62.67 $127,828
46 Norco 63.0 $115,619
47 Hercules 65.0 $114,124
48 Benicia 66.0 $118,433
49 St. Helena 66.33 $122,348
50 Morgan Hill 66.67 $139,161
51 Los Gatos 66.67 $166,642
52 Rancho Palos Verdes 66.67 $158,996
53 South San Francisco 67.67 $112,818
54 Santa Clara 68.0 $150,244
55 Larkspur 68.67 $135,260
56 Newport Beach 68.67 $142,463
57 Folsom 68.67 $128,421
58 Newark 71.33 $144,011
59 Milpitas 72.67 $149,312
60 Coronado 74.33 $114,559
61 Moraga 75.33 $167,784
62 San Bruno 75.33 $117,747
63 Walnut Creek 76.33 $121,205
64 Ripon 77.33 $102,633
65 Redwood City 78.33 $134,287
66 San Clemente 78.67 $123,090
67 Pinole 79.0 $104,275
68 Canyon Lake 79.33 $120,118
69 Mission Viejo 81.0 $126,320
70 Dana Point 81.33 $111,132
71 La Palma 83.0 $106,473
72 Rocklin 83.0 $106,164
73 Redondo Beach 85.67 $123,874
74 Millbrae 86.0 $141,399
75 Arroyo Grande 86.0 $90,405
76 Pleasant Hill 87.0 $131,012
77 Encinitas 88.67 $132,276
78 Albany 90.0 $113,602
79 Sierra Madre 90.33 $116,884
80 Thousand Oaks 93.33 $113,942
81 Pismo Beach 93.33 $94,268
82 Moorpark 93.33 $125,915
83 San Juan Capistrano 95.0 $111,875
84 Martinez 95.67 $114,390
85 Lafayette 96.33 $192,546
86 Alameda 102.33 $113,339
87 Walnut 102.33 $121,882
88 El Segundo 102.33 $126,683
89 Malibu 102.67 $178,594
90 South Pasadena 104.33 $115,088
91 Corte Madera 105.33 $183,661
92 Rolling Hills Estates 107.33 $160,724
93 Lincoln 107.33 $93,232
94 American Canyon 108.33 $117,846
95 Belmont 108.67 $178,125
96 San Mateo 111.0 $133,612
97 Petaluma 111.33 $100,379
98 Mammoth Lakes 111.67 $77,545
99 San Jose 112.67 $125,075
100 Cerritos 113.33 $115,600

How Is The Area In ?

Editor’s Note: Data has been updated for 2023. This is our tenth time ranking the richest cities in California.

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.