Best PlacesRocklin, CA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Rocklin, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Rocklin ranks 354th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores best on biking, and childcare costs are the weak spot.

#354
of 2,098 cities
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 2,098 cities
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Rocklin

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Rocklin area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Rocklin's strengths and weaknesses

Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Rocklin with other cities.

Where Rocklin ranks high

  • BikingBetter than 89% of cities
  • Disaster safetyBetter than 88% of cities
  • Household income$138,160 median, better than 86% of cities
  • Health outlookBetter than 84% of cities
  • Crime safetyBetter than 84% of cities

Where Rocklin ranks low

  • Cheap childcare$1,572 a month, better than only 11% of cities
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 14% of cities
  • Tree shadeBetter than only 19% of cities
  • State infrastructureBetter than only 24% of cities
  • State fiscal healthBetter than only 27% of cities

What it costs to buy a home in Rocklin

A household needs to earn about $186,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Rocklin home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $138,160, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$186,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$4,329
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $702,073 home
Median rent
$2,355
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$3,580
Property tax$515
Homeowners insurance$234

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 Rocklin'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 and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Rocklin

Rocklin's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run larger than average.

Median age
40
about the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
15%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.8
above the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1824%
18 to 3422%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6420%
65 and older15%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Rocklin.


Who works in Rocklin, and how

Work in Rocklin centers on health care & social and professional & technical. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
24%
above the national average
Unemployment
3.7%
below the national average
Job growth
+1.3%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social16%
Professional & technical12%
Retail trade10%
Public administration8%
Education8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 73%
  • Work from home 24%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 3%

Life in Rocklin

Rocklin has more restaurants and bars per resident than 73% of cities and more parkland per resident than 92% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Rocklin and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
314
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 42.7 per 10,000 residents, more than 73% of cities
Coffee shops
52
about 7.1 per 10,000 residents, more than 85% of cities
Parkland
683 acres
about 9.3 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 92% of cities

What the weather is like in Rocklin, month by month

Rocklin sees roughly 135 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 98 degrees. January highs sit near 57, with lows near 38. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January57°46°38°
April73°58°45°
July98°79°61°
October80°62°47°

Flying in and out of Rocklin

Sacramento International sits about 20 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 6.8 million passengers in 2025, with 85 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
SMF
Sacramento International, about 20 miles
Airport size
Medium hub
36th-busiest in the US, 85 nonstop destinations
Average drive
28 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Rocklin

Schools across Rocklin average a B−, better than 50% of cities.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Rocklin school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Rocklin 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 Rocklin against the other 2,097 cities.


Who Rocklin suits

Families

Schools land around the 50th percentile and crime safety beats 84%.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

Cost of living against local pay beats 76% of cities and 24% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

The weather beats 78% of cities and health care access beats 66%.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Rocklin

Is Rocklin a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Rocklin ranks 354th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on biking, low disaster risk, and high incomes, and lowest on childcare costs and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Rocklin expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $702,073. The overall cost of living runs about 18% above the national average. Set against a $138,160 median income, cost of living beats 76% of cities.

Is Rocklin safe?

Yes, Rocklin is safer than 84% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $229 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Rocklin?

July highs average about 98 degrees, and January highs near 57 with lows near 38. That works out to about 135 pleasant days a year, more than 78% of cities.

Is Rocklin good for families?

Schools beat 50% of cities, crime safety beats 84%, and childcare runs $1,572 a month.


Compare Rocklin with other cities


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Rocklin. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Rocklin 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.

Rocklin detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Rocklin: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Rocklin: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Rocklin: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Rocklin: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Rocklin detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.