What is Vallejo's Life Score?

Vallejo scores 40.5/100 (grade C-), rank #338 of 387. Signature wages at the 97th percentile; stamps LOWER · SCHOOL-STRONG · cost CEILING · wages PEAK.

What pulls Vallejo up or down?

Strongest: schools (99/100). Weakest: childcare (3/100). Profile mark SCHOOL-STRONG; dimension gap 97.

How current is this data?

Federal releases current as of August 2026 (BEA, BLS, HUD, FBI, NCES, DOL, EPA). Cadence varies by series; see methodology.

Metro Life Score

Vallejo, CA

Bottom-quartile composite Life Score — grade C-, 13th percentile of the national corpus.

Compiled by PlainCompare

40.5
Life Score / 100: C-
Grade (curved): #338
of 387 metros: 13%
composite percentile

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Data updated August 2026

Verify: BEA · BLS · HUD · FBI · NCES · EPA · Census · Report a data issue · Data changelog

The verdict

Vallejo is bottom-quartile composite Life Score — #338 of 387 (40.5/100, grade C-, 13th percentile). Carried by schools at 99/100; held back most by childcare at 3/100.

13th
composite percentile: #338
of 387 peers: 4th
cost dimension percentile: 97th
wages dimension percentile

Life Score shape · LOWER · SCHOOL-STRONG · signature wages

Vallejo: pay power is the signature

Vallejo stamps LOWER · SCHOOL-STRONG with wages at the 97th percentile of the metro corpus (PEAK) — ahead of its cost mark (CEILING, 4th) and composite #338. Schools (99/100) amplifies the lead; Childcare (3/100) is the residual gap. According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, Vallejo, CA ranks #338 of 387 metros by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #370 of 387 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.

BEA RPP 108.5 (rent-RPP 142.0). BLS median salary $81,560, 134,880 jobs (Home Health and Personal Care Aides, Fast Food and Counter Workers, Registered Nurses). HUD 2BR FMR $2,178/mo (studio $1,567).

FBI UCR (CA): 477 violent, 1986 property/100K. NCES: 20.8:1 ratio, 12.8% charter. DOL infant childcare $17,920/yr. EPA: 116 Superfund sites (CA).

Where Vallejo sits among all US metros

Composite Life Score vs the national field

41 13th percentile higher than 13% of 387 US metros

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US metros. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source PlainCompare composite of BEA, BLS, HUD, FBI, NCES, DOL, EPA data · August 2026

How the 40.5 is built

Vallejo's Life Score, decomposed

Cost of Living 0.9 (2%) Wages 19.4 (48%) Rent 0.9 (2%) Safety 1.2 (3%) Schools 9.9 (25%) Childcare 0.3 (1%) Environment 8.0 (20%)

Dimension detail

How Vallejo scores, dimension by dimension

Score Breakdown

Dimension Scores

Cost of Living 4/100 (20%) Bottom 10%

Wages 97/100 (20%) Top 10%

Rent 6/100 (15%) Bottom 10%

Safety 8/100 (15%) Bottom 10%

Schools 99/100 (10%) Top 10%

Childcare 3/100 (10%) Bottom 10%

Environment 80/100 (10%) Above average

Key Data Points

108.5

Cost Index (RPP)

$81,560

Avg Median Salary

$2,178

2BR Fair Market Rent

477

Violent Crime/100K (CA)

20.8:1

Student-Teacher Ratio

$17,920

Infant Childcare/yr (CA)

116

Superfund Sites (CA)

134,880

Total Employment

Geography used: crime, schools, childcare, and environment cards above are CA state-level when metro-specific feeds are unavailable, see the scope key at the top of this page.

Compare Vallejo With...

Vallejo vs El Centro Compare → Vallejo vs Bakersfield Compare → Vallejo vs Merced Compare → Vallejo vs Paducah Compare → Vallejo vs Pocatello Compare → Vallejo vs Wildwood Compare →

Ranking Context

Vallejo outranks 13% of U.S. metros.

Rank	Metro	Score	Grade
#335	Helena, MT	40.7	C-
#336	Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV	40.7	C-
#337	Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury, CT Metropolitan Statistical Area	40.7	C-
#338	Vallejo, CA	40.5	C-
#339	Modesto, CA	40.5	C-
#340	Anchorage, AK	40.4	C-
#341	Flagstaff, AZ	40.3	C-

Quality vs. Affordability

Vallejo, CA's quality rank (bottom 13% lowest-quality) and affordability rank (bottom 5% least affordable) sit close together -- an unusually proportionate metro where overall quality and cost-of-living move together.

Vallejo, CA (highlighted) among its 12 nearest composite-Life-Score peers, out of 387 tracked metros nationally. Crosshairs mark this peer neighborhood's own median composite score and cost-of-living score. Cost-of-living score is already inverted so higher = more affordable.

CA Metro Scores

El Centro, CA B- 50.3 Bakersfield-Delano, CA C+ 45.7 Merced, CA C 44.0 Fresno, CA C 43.2 Visalia, CA C 43.2 Redding, CA C- 42.5

Read with Vallejo

Nearest composite peers and cost poles for Vallejo (LOWER · SCHOOL-STRONG · CEILING/PEAK), replacing the fixed Explore/Guides strip.

Modesto, CA

ABS(composite) peer at 40.5 (Δ 0.0 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C- vs this page's LOWER · SCHOOL-STRONG · CEILING/PEAK.

Anchorage, AK

ABS(composite) peer at 40.4 (Δ 0.1 vs this metro); lower Life Score · grade C- vs this page's LOWER · SCHOOL-STRONG · CEILING/PEAK.

Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury, CT Metropolitan Statistical Area

ABS(composite) peer at 40.7 (Δ 0.2 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C- vs this page's LOWER · SCHOOL-STRONG · CEILING/PEAK.

Flagstaff, AZ

ABS(composite) peer at 40.3 (Δ 0.2 vs this metro); lower Life Score · grade C- vs this page's LOWER · SCHOOL-STRONG · CEILING/PEAK.

Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 5/100 (Δ 0); cost stamp CEILING vs this metro's CEILING.

San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 4/100 (Δ 0); cost stamp CEILING vs this metro's CEILING.

Vallejo, CA relocation guide

Stamp-branched guide for LOWER · SCHOOL-STRONG · CEILING/PEAK - how to read federal Life Score inputs before a move.

Using Vallejo's bottom-third Life Score

Vallejo scores 40.5/100 overall, but Schools (99.5) and Childcare (2.6) sit 96.8 points apart, so decide which of the two matters more to you before leaning on the total.

Schools is the strongest of Vallejo's seven dimensions (weighted 10% in the composite); if it is your priority, this is where the metro earns its rank. See all seven dimensions
Childcare is the weakest (weighted 10% in the composite); if it is a dealbreaker, weigh it before the ranking does. Rank metros on the composite
El Centro is the nearest comparison this page can offer; put the two side by side on the same seven dimensions. Compare with El Centro

A low composite is a weighted blend; individual dimensions can still be strong.

Data from BEA, HUD, FBI UCR, BLS OES, NCES, DOL, and EPA. Not affiliated with the U.S. Government.

Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Vallejo Life Score 40.5/100 · signature wages · retrieved and formatted by PlainCompare

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

All federal data sources used on this page

U.S. Census Bureau ACS - multi-dimension demographic + housing + income aggregates for cross-area comparison. census.gov/programs-surveys/acs
BEA Regional Economic Accounts - GDP, personal income, employment by state and metro. bea.gov/data/regional
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) - wage estimates for comparable-area indexing. bls.gov/oes
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) - crime statistics for safety-score component. fbi.gov/ucr
NCES Common Core of Data - public-school quality indicators by area. nces.ed.gov/ccd
EPA AirNow + Air Quality System (AQS) - air-quality measurements by area. epa.gov/outdoor-air-quality-data
HUD Fair Market Rents (FMR) - county and metro housing-cost indicators. huduser.gov/datasets/fmr