Best PlacesBakersfield, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Bakersfield metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Bobak Ha'Eri, CC BY 3.0, via commons
Bakersfield ranks 347th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on air quality and education levels. It does better on the weather, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Bakersfield metro
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
The best areas in Bakersfield
The towns and districts of the Bakersfield metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Ridgecrest
Prices have run up less, health care is easier to reach, and more adults hold degrees.
Delano, Wasco & Shafter
Transit reaches fewer jobs and schools score lower.
Oildale
Fewer households have young kids and heat risk is higher.
Rosamond, California City & Mojave
It is quieter, though commutes are longer.
Arvin, Tehachapi & Golden Hills
Disaster risk is higher and more homes sit empty.
Downtown Bakersfield
Local pay stretches less far and fewer residents vote.
Taft
Incomes run lower and biking is worse.
Bakersfield shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 2% of the country and others in the top 3%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Bakersfield's strengths and weaknesses
Bakersfield ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. The weather, cell coverage, and big-city access carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: air quality, education levels, and civic engagement all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Bakersfield ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 171 pleasant days a year, better than 93% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than 88% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than 84% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than 84% of metro areas
- WalkabilityBetter than 72% of metro areas
Where Bakersfield ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 3% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 5% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Bakersfield
A household needs to earn about $86,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bakersfield home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $77,801; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Bakersfield's effective rate of 0.88%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Bakersfield
Bakersfield runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Bakersfield.
Who works in Bakersfield, and how
Work in Bakersfield centers on health care & social and agriculture & forestry. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Bakersfield
Bakersfield has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Bakersfield and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Bakersfield growing, and who is moving in?
Bakersfield has grown about 6% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Los Angeles, CA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Bakersfield go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Bakersfield, month by month
Bakersfield sees roughly 171 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 102 degrees. January highs sit near 63, with lows near 40. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, October, and November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 63° | 51° | 40° |
| April | 80° | 65° | 51° |
| July | 102° | 88° | 73° |
| October | 84° | 69° | 55° |
Flying in and out of Bakersfield
The nearest airport, Meadows Field, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bob Hope, about 88 miles away.
The best schools in and around Bakersfield
Schools across Bakersfield average a C+, better than 51% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Mckittrick ElementaryB · 47% proficient
- Rio Bravo ElementaryB · 45% proficient
- Cummings Valley ElementaryC+ · 37% proficient
Top middle schools
- Lincoln Junior HighA+ · 75% proficient
- Rio Bravo-greeley ElementaryC+ · 38% proficient
- Jacobsen MiddleC− · 29% proficient
Top high schools
- Ridgeview HighA+ · 95% proficient
- Centennial HighA+ · 95% proficient
- Frontier HighA+ · 95% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bakersfield school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bakersfield measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Bakersfield against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Bakersfield suits
Common questions about living in Bakersfield
Is Bakersfield a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bakersfield ranks 347th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on the weather, cell coverage, and big-city access, and lowest on air quality and education levels. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bakersfield expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $326,157. The overall cost of living runs about 4% above the national average. Set against a $77,801 median income, cost of living beats 5% of metro areas.
Is Bakersfield safe?
Bakersfield is safer than 20% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $455 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Bakersfield?
July highs average about 102 degrees, and January highs near 63 with lows near 40. That works out to about 171 pleasant days a year, more than 93% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Bakersfield?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Ridgecrest, Delano, Wasco & Shafter, and Oildale. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Bakersfield good for families?
Schools beat 51% of metro areas, crime safety beats 20%, and childcare runs $1,172 a month.
Is Bakersfield good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 5% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 24% of metro areas. About 8% of workers already work from home.
Compare Bakersfield with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bakersfield. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bakersfield represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Bakersfield detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bakersfield: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bakersfield: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bakersfield: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bakersfield: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bakersfield detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.