Best PlacesYuba County, CA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in Yuba County, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Yuba County ranks 2,027th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on big-city access by a wide margin, and civic engagement ranks lowest.

#2,027
of 3,144 counties
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 3,144 counties
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Yuba County

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Yuba County 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.

The best areas in Yuba County

The parts of Yuba County, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the county.

#1

Beale AFB

More adults hold degrees, it is quieter, and heat risk is lower.

WorseBetter
42nd nationally
#2

Olivehurst, Plumas Lake & Wheatland

Incomes run higher and local pay stretches further.

WorseBetter
38th nationally
#3

Linda

More households have young kids and fewer homes sit empty.

WorseBetter
37th nationally
#4

Marysville

Streets are more walkable and biking is better.

WorseBetter
17th nationally

Scores across Yuba County run from about the 3rd to the 71st percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.


Yuba County's strengths and weaknesses

Top 10%Big-city access
Top 10%Transit
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Yuba County with other counties.

Where Yuba County ranks high

  • Big-city accessBetter than 92% of counties
  • TransitBetter than 90% of counties
  • BikingBetter than 89% of counties
  • Low vacancyBetter than 88% of counties
  • Nice weatherabout 132 pleasant days a year, better than 84% of counties

Where Yuba County ranks low

  • Voter turnoutBetter than only 4% of counties
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 6% of counties
  • Heat safetyBetter than only 8% of counties
  • Short commute32.4 minutes each way, better than only 8% of counties
  • Cheap childcare$1,226 a month, better than only 9% of counties

What it costs to buy a home in Yuba County

A household needs to earn about $102,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Yuba County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $79,423, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$102,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$2,388
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $395,879 home
Median rent
$1,407
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$2,018
Property tax$237
Homeowners insurance$132

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 Yuba County's effective rate of 0.72%, 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 Yuba County

Yuba County runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.

Median age
37
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
15%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.9
above the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1826%
18 to 3424%
35 to 4918%
50 to 6417%
65 and older15%

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


Who works in Yuba County, and how

Work in Yuba County centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
9%
below the national average
Unemployment
6.9%
above the national average
Job growth
+1.2%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social15%
Retail trade12%
Education9%
Construction9%
Public administration8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 87%
  • Work from home 9%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 4%

Life in Yuba County

Yuba County has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties. That concentrates in some parts of Yuba County and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
198
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 24.3 per 10,000 residents, more than 6% of counties
Coffee shops
25
about 3.1 per 10,000 residents, more than 19% of counties
Parkland
260 acres
about 3.2 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 38% of counties

Is Yuba County growing, and who is moving in?

Yuba County has grown about 19% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Sacramento, CA.

Population growth
+19%
over the decade, vs about 6% nationally
Population
87,469
up from 73,533
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

Sacramento, CA1,523 / yr
The rest of the Yuba City, CA metro1,374 / yr
Chico, CA296 / yr
Vallejo, CA277 / yr
Nevada County, CA218 / yr

Where people leaving Yuba County go

The rest of the Yuba City, CA metro1,371 / yr
Sacramento, CA1,022 / yr
Chico, CA392 / yr
Redding, CA254 / yr
Seattle, WA182 / yr

Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.


What the weather is like in Yuba County, month by month

Yuba County sees roughly 132 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 99 degrees. January highs sit near 59, with lows near 39. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, 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
January59°49°39°
April76°61°46°
July99°80°61°
October83°64°48°

Flying in and out of Yuba County

Sacramento International sits about 30 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 30 miles
Airport size
Medium hub
36th-busiest in the US, 85 nonstop destinations
Average drive
44 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Yuba County

Schools across Yuba County average a D+, better than 11% of counties.

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 Yuba County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Yuba County 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 Yuba County against the other 3,143 counties.


Who Yuba County suits

Families

Schools land around the 11th percentile.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

Internet is fast and widely advertised and 9% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

The weather beats 84% of counties.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Yuba County

Is Yuba County a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Yuba County ranks 2,027th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on big-city access, transit, and biking, and lowest on civic engagement and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Yuba County expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $395,879. The overall cost of living runs about 2% above the national average. Set against a $79,423 median income, cost of living beats 39% of counties.

Is Yuba County safe?

Yuba County is safer than 54% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $378 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Yuba County?

July highs average about 99 degrees, and January highs near 59 with lows near 39. That works out to about 132 pleasant days a year, more than 84% of counties.

What are the best neighborhoods in Yuba County?

Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Beale AFB, Olivehurst, Plumas Lake & Wheatland, and Linda. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.


Compare Yuba County with other counties


Sources and methodology

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

Yuba County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

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