California · Sacramento County
Sacramento Authority
Also known as: Sacramento Metro Authority
Sacramento is a upper-middle-income mid-sized city of 528,706 with home prices 1.5× below the California median.
Sacramento is, among other things, the place where California keeps its government, which gives the city a particular quality: it is simultaneously a state capital, a regional hub, and a working-class river town that has been quietly growing into something considerably larger than most people outside California realize. The population recorded by Census ACS 5-Year 2024 data stands at 528,706, a figure that places Sacramento comfortably among the larger cities in the American West.
Population and Demographics
According to Census ACS 5-Year 2023 data, Sacramento's 528,706 residents are distributed across 199,401 households, of which 116,992 are family households. The city's median age is 36.0 years, and 21.5 percent of the population is under 18, a share that the derived Census demographics characterize as family-oriented. The 18-to-34 cohort numbers 140,224 people, which reflects the presence of a substantial university population alongside the city's broader workforce.
The racial and ethnic composition, per Census ACS 5-Year 2023, includes 192,894 white residents, 103,436 Asian residents, 65,230 Black residents, and 154,839 Hispanic or Latino residents. That distribution is not incidental — Sacramento has been described by demographers as one of the more genuinely diverse large cities in the United States, a claim the numbers support without requiring embellishment.
Housing and Affordability
The affordability picture in Sacramento is, as in much of California, a study in contrasts. Derived from Census income, housing, and poverty data, the home-price-to-income ratio stands at 5.8, a figure that places the city in the "expensive" category for homeownership. Renters fare somewhat better: rent as a percentage of median income sits at 23.3 percent, which the same source characterizes as "affordable" by the conventional threshold of 30 percent. The gap between those two numbers tells a familiar California story — renting is manageable, buying is not, and the distance between the two conditions shapes a great deal of how people live and plan.
Climate and Air Quality
Sacramento's climate is, by the standards of most American cities, genuinely pleasant for a significant portion of the year. NOAA ACIS data from the nearest station, SACRAMENTO 5 ESE, records an average temperature of 64.7 degrees Fahrenheit and annual precipitation of 18.4 inches. The station sits 1.5 miles from the city center, which is close enough to be representative.
Air quality in 2024, per EPA AQI Annual Summary data, showed 182 good days and 169 moderate days out of 366 days measured. There were 15 days classified as unhealthy for sensitive groups, and zero days in the unhealthy, very unhealthy, or hazardous categories. The maximum AQI recorded was 140. Sacramento sits in the Central Valley, which has historically struggled with particulate matter and ozone, so the absence of any truly hazardous days in 2024 is a meaningful data point, though the 15 sensitive-group days are a reminder that the valley's geography does not entirely cooperate with clean-air ambitions.
Broadband Access
According to FCC Broadband Data Collection figures as of June 2025, Sacramento has 226,679 total units with broadband availability. Coverage at the 25/3 Mbps threshold reaches 100 percent of units, as does coverage at 100/20 Mbps and 250/25 Mbps. At the 1,000/100 Mbps tier, coverage reaches 92.6 percent of units. That last figure is the only one that falls short of universal, which is a relatively strong position for a city of this size.
Education
Sacramento is home to 21 colleges and universities, per NCES IPEDS 2022 data. Among them, California State University–Sacramento is the most prominent public institution, with an enrollment of 28,350 students, an in-state tuition of $8,018, an out-of-state tuition of $20,618, and an admission rate of 93.99 percent, according to College Scorecard data. The completion rate at CSU Sacramento is recorded in the same source. The breadth of the collegiate landscape — 21 institutions in a single city — reflects both the city's size and its role as a regional educational center for the broader Sacramento Valley.
Civic and Community Infrastructure
The city supports a notable density of civic organizations. According to IRS Exempt Organizations data, Sacramento has 533 religious congregations, 40 arts organizations, and 27 civic service organizations. The civic service roster includes entities such as the Association of California Goodwills, Boy Scouts of America, and a range of other organizations whose addresses place them throughout the city.
Five animal shelters operate within the city, per the same IRS and organizational data, including Front Street Animal Shelter Fundraising Foundation and Sierra Overlook Animal Rescue Inc. There are 199 childcare centers, per state licensing data, ranging from center-based facilities to other licensed arrangements. The Slavic-American Chamber of Commerce is identified by IRS Exempt Organizations BMF as the canonical chamber of commerce entity for the city, which is a detail that reflects Sacramento's substantial Slavic immigrant community, one of the larger such communities in the United States.
Banking
FDIC Institutions and Branches data identifies multiple bank branches operating in Sacramento, including a JPMorgan Chase Bank branch at 3501 Del Paso Road and a SoFi Bank branch among others. The presence of both a major national bank and a digitally-oriented institution in the same city is, in its quiet way, a small portrait of how retail banking has been reorganizing itself.
Regulatory Context
California Business and Professions Code Section 7031.5 requires that any county or city issuing building permits must also require permit applicants to certify their contractor's license status — or state the basis for any claimed exemption. A violation of this requirement carries a civil penalty of up to $500, per the statute as amended by Stats. 1977, Ch. 1052. This provision applies to construction, alteration, improvement, demolition, and repair of buildings and structures, and is relevant to the considerable volume of development activity that a city of Sacramento's size generates.
Further Reading
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates — data.census.gov
- Federal Communications Commission, Broadband Data Collection — fcc.gov/BDC
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, AQI Annual Summary 2024 — epa.gov/outdoor-air-quality-data
- National Center for Education Statistics, IPEDS Institutional Data — nces.ed.gov/ipeds
- FDIC, Summary of Deposits / Branch Office Data — fdic.gov/bank/statistical