More and more people would prefer to live in the cities and towns that surround Oakland to avoid all the hustle and bustle.
So the question arises: what suburbs of Oakland are the worst?
Today, we’ll use Saturday Night Science to determine which Oakland ‘burbs need a little tender loving care – the sore thumbs of the Oakland area if you will. Realistically, you can only expect some of the suburbs to live up to Oakland proper, although Piedmont certainly tries.
We examined the 67 biggest suburbs of Oakland to find out the worst places to live. And while you won’t necessarily find them on the worst places to live in California lists, these places are a little too far downwind of Oakland in terms of quality of life.
$95,391 median income · $606,427 median home price
Located in
Contra Costa County, California
We’ll get the ball rolling with Richmond, the absolute worst place to live around Oakland according to the data.
And in the world of worst rankings, Richmond beat the competition pretty handily thanks to scoring in the bottom 15% in three major categories. Income is the 3rd worst in the Oakland area, and to make matters worse, the city ranks 6th worst when it comes to home values.
But hey, at least it’s cheap to live there. But there’s a reason for that… it’s Richmond.
You won’t feel bad about not having a great income for the area. There aren’t a bunch of places to spend your money anyway.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$99,861 median income · $569,428 median home price
Located in
Contra Costa County, California
Welcome to Pittsburg. Home to KMart, Big Lots, and a lot of gas stations.
This city is 24.5 miles to Oakland. Income levels here are the 5th lowest in the metro area, where families bring in about $99,861 a year, which only goes so far even on a shoestring budget.
But on the bright side, there are a lot of fast food joints in the area.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$90,171 median income · $520,970 median home price
Located in
Solano County, California
Back up the highway we go for the third worst Oakland suburb you can live in. You might have expected to see Vallejo on here. While the cost of living is low, your entertainment and work options are limited. And that’s an understatement.
In terms of numbers, it’s in the worst 15% for insurance, and the adult high school dropout rate is poor compared to other Oakland suburbs.
But at least there are lovely parks to bring the kids during the day.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$97,465 median income · $598,211 median home price
Located in
Contra Costa County, California
If you live in Antioch, most likely you struggle to make ends meet every month. It ranks as the 4th lowest Oakland suburb for median household incomes.
Not only that, but this is the 9th worst unemployed suburb you can live in if you choose to live near Oakland. Remember, we looked at 67 cities for this study.
Antioch is about 27.4 miles to downtown.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$79,478 median income · $569,732 median home price
Located in
Contra Costa County, California
San Pablo has the distinction of being a Oakland suburb. Which means that’s about all it has going for it.
All snarkiness aside, San Pablo has the 4th lowest home values in the metro Oakland area, where the median price is $569,732. The median income is $250,001.
San Pablo has an unemployment rate of 8.5% which ranks 5th worst.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$113,318 median income · $848,427 median home price
Located in
Alameda County, California
Hayward has 158,801 residents that probably know it’s a pretty crummy place to live when you look at the data. (Or, if you’ve ever been there, you don’t need to look at the data.)
Incomes are towards the bottom, and the poverty rate sits at 9.6%.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$115,736 median income · $1,078,524 median home price
Located in
Marin County, California
Ah, Novato. You rank as the 7th worst place to live around Oakland.
It’s the place with the 20th most out of work residents in the Oakland metro area (5.9%).
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$108,709 median income · $742,769 median home price
Located in
Contra Costa County, California
Concord is a city about 18.6 miles from Oakland, but Oakland probably wishes it was further away. It ranks as the 8th worst burb.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a worse place to live. Concord has the 9th most uninsured people, 8th worst incomes, and has the 3highest unemployment rate (5.4%) in the entire Oakland metro area.
Homes only cost $742,769 for a reason. That’s cheap for Oakland standards.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$119,435 median income · $1,319,431 median home price
Located in
Marin County, California
If you absolutely have to live near Oakland, then San Rafael might be a place for you to consider as it’s only the 9th worst Oakland suburb.
About 5.4% of residents are out of work.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$121,700 median income · $743,650 median home price
Located in
Napa County, California
Rounding out the ten worst Oakland suburbs to call home is American Canyon.
Located 28.1 miles outside the city, American Canyon is a real pit when you look at the data. Its residents have the 29th highest unemployment rate (5.6%), and poverty is far above the area average.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is California’s statewide median.
California statewide median: $99,122
California statewide median: $774,582
California statewide median: 6.6%
California statewide median: 12.0%
On the map
Where the worst Oakland suburbs are
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: Determining The Worst Suburbs Around Oakland for 2026
To figure out how bad a Oakland suburb is to live in, we used Saturday Night Science to identify the kinds of things people like and then decide what suburbs have the least amount of those things.
Using the most recent American Community Survey data from 2020-2024, this is the criteria we used:
- High unemployment rate
- Low median household incomes
- Low population density (no things to do)
- Low home values
- A lot of high school dropouts
- High poverty
- High rate of uninsured families
We defined a suburb as any town within 30 miles of Oakland.
We also limited the analysis to places with over 2,000 people. This left us with a grand total of 67 suburbs to evaluate around Oakland.
We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 67 in each category, where 1 was the worst.
Next, we averaged the rankings for each place to create a quality-of-life index.
And finally, we crowned the city with the worst quality of life index, the “Worst Suburb near Oakland.” We’re looking at you, Richmond.
We updated this article for 2026, which reflects our eleventh time ranking the worst suburbs around Oakland.
The full plate
Detailed List Of The Worst Oakland Suburbs
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Worst Score | Population | Median Income | Median Home Values |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richmond | 7.86 | 115,505 | $95,391 | $606,427 |
| 2 | Pittsburg | 10.14 | 76,257 | $99,861 | $569,428 |
| 3 | Vallejo | 10.43 | 124,268 | $90,171 | $520,970 |
| 4 | Antioch | 10.93 | 116,477 | $97,465 | $598,211 |
| 5 | San Pablo | 11.71 | 31,720 | $79,478 | $569,732 |
| 6 | Hayward | 13.43 | 158,801 | $113,318 | $848,427 |
| 7 | Novato | 15.07 | 52,546 | $115,736 | $1,078,524 |
| 8 | Concord | 18.00 | 124,035 | $108,709 | $742,769 |
| 9 | San Rafael | 18.43 | 60,433 | $119,435 | $1,319,431 |
| 10 | American Canyon | 18.64 | 21,691 | $121,700 | $743,650 |
| 11 | San Leandro | 19.71 | 87,826 | $101,420 | $817,480 |
| 12 | East Palo Alto | 20.29 | 29,069 | $113,493 | $1,034,441 |
| 13 | Pinole | 21.93 | 18,761 | $127,717 | $731,006 |
| 14 | Emeryville | 22.21 | 13,081 | $117,092 | $448,554 |
| 15 | Fairfax | 22.50 | 7,516 | $141,653 | $1,213,199 |
| 16 | Benicia | 24.21 | 26,749 | $121,204 | $781,134 |
| 17 | Brentwood | 24.71 | 65,208 | $142,494 | $805,888 |
| 18 | Brisbane | 24.79 | 4,692 | $156,169 | $1,159,533 |
| 19 | Hercules | 26.14 | 26,302 | $129,397 | $754,023 |
| 20 | Martinez | 26.79 | 36,903 | $127,355 | $773,745 |
| 21 | El Cerrito | 28.71 | 25,994 | $127,876 | $1,142,479 |
| 22 | Walnut Creek | 29.14 | 70,088 | $130,432 | $1,045,017 |
| 23 | Pleasant Hill | 29.57 | 34,235 | $145,029 | $1,000,859 |
| 24 | Berkeley | 30.07 | 120,257 | $108,092 | $1,443,684 |
| 25 | San Bruno | 31.57 | 42,307 | $141,272 | $1,327,402 |
| 26 | Alameda | 31.86 | 77,238 | $137,697 | $1,155,484 |
| 27 | Half Moon Bay | 31.93 | 11,391 | $157,884 | $1,573,307 |
| 28 | Newark | 32.43 | 46,903 | $169,064 | $1,260,998 |
| 29 | San Mateo | 32.71 | 103,105 | $153,504 | $1,686,905 |
| 30 | South San Francisco | 33.43 | 64,305 | $136,578 | $1,242,214 |
| 31 | Mill Valley | 33.43 | 14,012 | $206,212 | $2,073,166 |
| 32 | Fremont | 34.29 | 228,295 | $181,506 | $1,543,132 |
| 33 | Clayton | 35.57 | 10,937 | $175,707 | $1,057,924 |
| 34 | Millbrae | 35.71 | 22,689 | $163,476 | $2,082,465 |
| 35 | Pacifica | 35.86 | 37,261 | $160,523 | $1,284,847 |
| 36 | Burlingame | 36.00 | 30,525 | $174,000 | $2,761,630 |
| 37 | Livermore | 36.29 | 85,522 | $160,775 | $1,122,823 |
| 38 | Larkspur | 36.43 | 12,854 | $140,417 | $2,129,545 |
| 39 | Milpitas | 36.57 | 78,578 | $178,798 | $1,502,891 |
| 40 | Moraga | 36.64 | 16,769 | $216,193 | $1,666,830 |
| 41 | Sausalito | 37.00 | 7,141 | $182,357 | $1,505,307 |
| 42 | Belmont | 37.36 | 27,337 | $205,297 | $2,332,686 |
| 43 | Pleasanton | 37.93 | 76,960 | $190,124 | $1,601,646 |
| 44 | Menlo Park | 38.14 | 32,727 | $210,025 | $2,865,159 |
| 45 | San Anselmo | 38.29 | 12,679 | $173,641 | $1,647,302 |
| 46 | Albany | 40.64 | 19,414 | $144,107 | $1,261,177 |
| 47 | Sunnyvale | 41.93 | 154,236 | $186,170 | $2,168,909 |
| 48 | Palo Alto | 42.86 | 67,237 | $231,101 | $3,722,200 |
| 49 | Dublin | 43.21 | 70,803 | $214,385 | $1,305,295 |
| 50 | Tiburon | 43.21 | 9,012 | $232,969 | $3,020,895 |
| 51 | Mountain View | 43.50 | 83,732 | $189,917 | $2,037,086 |
| 52 | Mountain View | 43.50 | 83,732 | $189,917 | $2,037,086 |
| 53 | San Ramon | 43.79 | 85,993 | $196,161 | $1,543,534 |
| 54 | Danville | 44.29 | 43,401 | $232,216 | $1,908,521 |
| 55 | Hillsborough | 46.43 | 11,099 | $250,001 | $5,279,135 |
| 56 | Corte Madera | 47.00 | 10,077 | $232,763 | $1,838,958 |
| 57 | Lafayette | 47.57 | 25,285 | $228,250 | $1,934,581 |
| 58 | Portola Valley | 48.07 | 4,305 | $250,001 | $4,275,093 |
| 59 | Los Altos Hills | 48.50 | 8,377 | $250,001 | $6,102,345 |
| 60 | Atherton | 49.64 | 6,993 | $250,001 | $7,890,841 |
| 61 | Orinda | 50.64 | 19,514 | $250,001 | $1,985,117 |
| 62 | Woodside | 51.50 | 5,126 | $250,001 | $3,891,384 |
| 63 | San Carlos | 51.93 | 29,614 | $237,470 | $2,459,877 |
| 64 | Los Altos | 53.36 | 30,698 | $250,001 | $4,713,315 |
| 65 | Ross | 53.43 | 2,606 | $250,001 | $3,904,003 |
| 66 | Belvedere | 57.43 | 2,345 | $250,001 | $4,692,541 |
| 67 | Piedmont | 60.71 | 10,945 | $250,001 | $2,459,056 |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. 67 suburbs within 30 miles of Oakland.
Summary
Summary: The areas around Oakland where the dream is more of a nightmare for 2026
Well there you have it — the worst of the ‘burbs surrounding Oakland with Richmond casting itself ahead of the pack.
The worst suburbs of Oakland are Richmond, Pittsburg, Vallejo, Antioch, San Pablo, Hayward, Novato, Concord, San Rafael, and American Canyon.
As we mentioned earlier, the suburbs around Oakland aren’t all bad. Piedmont takes the cake as the best place to live around Oakland. Not sold on California? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
Questions and answers
Worst Suburbs Of Oakland FAQs
What is the worst suburb of Oakland?
Richmond ranks as the worst suburb around Oakland for 2026, according to Saturday Night Science. Pittsburg and Vallejo are next on the list.
What are the worst suburbs of Oakland?
The worst-ranked suburbs around Oakland are Richmond, Pittsburg, Vallejo, Antioch, San Pablo, Hayward, Novato, Concord, San Rafael, and American Canyon. We scored all 67 places within 30 miles.
Why does Richmond rank as the worst suburb?
Richmond posts the roughest combined numbers of the 67 suburbs we scored: a median household income of $95,391, a median home value of $606,427, and a poverty rate of 13.5%.
What is the best-ranked suburb near Oakland?
Piedmont lands at the opposite end of this ranking, making it the best-ranked suburb near Oakland by these measures. Our separate best suburbs of Oakland list covers that side properly.
How do you rank the worst suburbs?
Suburbs are scored on unemployment, income, density, home values, dropouts, poverty, and insurance coverage, using Census American Community Survey data. Real numbers, light heart — every one of these towns has people making it work.
