Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 29,464, settled in 1914. 31% more nonprofits per person than the typical California town.
Trash & recyclingThe typical home is worth about $783K, 8 years of the San Luis Obispo metro’s $97K median household income. Overall it grades C+, 278th among California's 841 graded towns. Its weakest subject is hazard risk: FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 84% of U.S. communities, with inland flooding at the top. 21% of working residents work locally in Atascadero, where California’s towns sit at 6.6% and U.S. towns at 8%. Atascadero has 2 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Atascadero Printery. Atascadero's civic life (library use, community groups, volunteering) is stronger than in 86% of U.S. towns.
Where Atascadero beats most towns, and one thing worth knowing.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within California), ordered by how far Atascadero is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 3,443 in 1950, 29,773 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1908 and 5 maps from 1897 on.
2 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Atascadero. Close and well known come first.
Big draw30 mi State parkHearst Castle13 mi LandmarkLanding of the first Filipinos
14 mi MuseumMission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa
18 mi MuseumMission San Miguel Arcángel
18 mi State parkMontaña de Oro State Parkin town Zoo & aquariumCharles Paddock ZooHearst Castle: No machine-readable author provided. Urban~commonswiki assumed (based on copyrig, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa: Stephen Lea, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Mission San Miguel Arcángel: Jsweida, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Montaña de Oro State Park: BorisFromStockdale, CC BY-SA 3.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in Atascadero, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
Ordered by what stands out in Atascadero.
Since 1982, 26 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Atascadero.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Its public schools are run by the Atascadero Unified school district. Two of its 11 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atascadero MiddleLargest public middle schoolGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 845 | – |
| Atascadero HighLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 1,157 | – |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within CA on state tests and graduation
About one in 5 of Atascadero’s working residents works in town. Atascadero’s average trip to work is 23 minutes. Since 2013, Atascadero has added 866 jobs, to 8,449 in 2023.
| Atascadero | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 23 minutes | 28 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 11% | 10% | 9.6% |
| Median household income | $91,000 | $95,000 | $80,000 |
| Work from home | 14% | 14% | 11% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
21 miles of trail in 7 parks and preserves. The biggest park or preserve is Stadium Park, at 85 acres.
| Atascadero | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.8 miles per square mile | 1.0 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 3.5% | 4.3% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Heilmann Regional Park | 0.5 mi | 30 |
| 2. Stadium Park | — | 85 |
| 3. Paloma Creek Park | — | 14 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Atascadero beats the California average on 11 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 4. 32% of Atascadero adults sleep under 7 hours.
| Atascadero | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 32% | 35% | 36% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 28% | 29% | 35% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 72% | 72% | 79% |
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 10% | 12% | 12% |
| What stands out | Atascadero | CA |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer uninsured adults | 7.2% | 10.6% |
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 13.1% | 17.9% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 9.1% | 6.4% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Atascadero has mild winters and warm summers, with very little rain. July afternoons reach 86°, January nights drop to 38° and snow is almost unheard of.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
At 16.2 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports less crime than 85% of California’s graded towns. Reported crimes fell from 368 to 255 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
The property crime rate in Atascadero is 7.2 per 1,000 residents.
| Atascadero | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 7.2 per 1,000 residents | 13.4 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 1.4 per 1,000 residents | 2.9 | 1.6 |
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
No broad age group is more than 4 points off the California average. 32% of adults 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or more, vs 37% across California.
| Atascadero | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aged 65 or older | 19% | 16% | 18% |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 32% | 29% | 29% |
48% women, 52% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±2.3 points. Across California, 50.1% of residents are women. Median age: women 44.2, men 37.4.
| Atascadero | CA | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 11.7% | 11.4% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 9.3% | 10.5% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 10.3% | 9.1% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 11.6% | 14.8% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 13.6% | 13.9% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 12.3% | 12.5% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 12.8% | 12.1% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 12% | 9.2% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 6.5% | 6.5% | 7% |
| No diploma | 6.6% | 15.3% | 10.4% |
| High school | 20.1% | 20.5% | 26% |
| Some college | 28.5% | 19.3% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 13.2% | 7.9% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 21% | 22.7% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 10.6% | 14.4% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
The typical Atascadero home is worth about $783,000, up 2.2% in a year, close to the California typical home.
| Atascadero | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,854 a month | $1,898 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 65% | 64% | 73% |
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
2 within 15 miles of the center of Atascadero
About 6 of every 100 Atascadero residents are enrolled in college, against 8 across California.
2 places in Atascadero on the National Register of Historic Places.
9 notable people were born in Atascadero.
City in California, United States
Atascadero is a city in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. It lies in the inland part of the Central Coast, between the Salinas River and the Santa Lucia Range, at the junction of U.S. Route 101 and State Route 41. Its population was 29,773 at the 2020 census. The area has historical connections to the Salinan and Northern Chumash peoples. Publisher Edward Gardner Lewis founded the Atascadero Colony in 1913 as a planned agricultural community. Its development included orchards, a water system, a printing plant and a civic center. The colony also imposed racially restrictive property covenants. Atascadero incorporated as a city in 1979. The former colony administration buildi…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
One town shares a border with Atascadero.
| Town | CA rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atascadero | #278 | C+ | D− | B | B+ | B+ |
| Templeton | #190 | B− | D− | — | A− | A |
Templeton reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare Atascadero with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Atascadero grades C+ overall, better than 40% of U.S. towns and #278 of 841 in California. It grades B+ for health, B for safety and B+ for schools. Cost of living is its weak spot, with a D−.
Yes. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades D−.
9 notable people were born here, including Chelsea Johnson and Brenda Holloway.
