Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 5,912.
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 97% of U.S. communities, with wildfire at the top. Overall it grades C−, 489th among California's 841 graded towns. CDC estimates put its residents' health ahead of 84% of the country. Its weakest subject is cost of living: the typical home is worth about $496K, 7.1 years of the Bakersfield metro’s $70K median household income. 32% of residents are 65 or older in Bear Valley Springs, above both the California town median (16%) and the median of U.S. towns (18%). On walkability, just 85 of California’s 1,063 towns do worse. The biggest park or preserve is Bear Valley Park, at 26 acres.
Where Bear Valley Springs beats most towns, and one thing worth knowing.
Where Bear Valley Springs’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within California), ordered by how far Bear Valley Springs is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 1,593 in 1990, 5,592 in 2020. The archive holds 2 old photos and papers going back to 2016 and 3 maps from 1943 on.
Explore the history →Bear Valley Springs is unincorporated, so Kern County and regional agencies provide most services.
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 Bear Valley Springs.
Bear Valley Springs sends most of its workers to Bakersfield and beyond, owes part of its health edge to its incomes and has milder winter nights than most of the country, though not than most of California.
FEMA puts 53% of Bear Valley Springs’s expected hazard losses down to wildfires, and 37% to inland flooding.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Against the 5,682 U.S. towns with household incomes like Bear Valley Springs’s, it is healthier than 64%, a smaller edge than it has nationally: part of it comes with its incomes.
Among adults in Bear Valley Springs, 7.7% worry about having enough food. Against the California average, Bear Valley Springs comes out ahead on 15 CDC measures out of 32, and behind on 6.
| Bear Valley Springs | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 30% | 36% | 33% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 31% | 35% | 36% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 79% | 72% | 79% |
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 17% | 17% |
| What stands out | Bear Valley Springs | CA |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 7.7% | 17.9% |
| Fewer uninsured adults | 4.7% | 10.6% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 12.2% | 6.4% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Two fifths of Bear Valley Springs adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more. The age of the median resident for Bear Valley Springs comes to 53.1 years.
| Bear Valley Springs | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median age | 53.1 years | 39 years | 40.5 years |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 40% | 29% | 29% |
| Under 18 | 21% | 22% | 22% |
51% women, 49% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±2.6 points. Across California, 50.1% of residents are women.
| Bear Valley Springs | CA | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 12.3% | 11.4% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 8.4% | 10.5% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 2.1% | 9.1% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 7.9% | 14.8% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 12.8% | 13.9% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 8.3% | 12.5% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 16.6% | 12.1% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 17.1% | 9.2% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 14.6% | 6.5% | 7% |
| No diploma | 5.3% | 15.3% | 10.4% |
| High school | 22.7% | 20.5% | 26% |
| Some college | 22.4% | 19.3% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 9.7% | 7.9% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 25.9% | 22.7% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 14.1% | 14.4% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
Bear Valley Springs has 390 jobs for its 1,618 working residents: even if every job went to a resident, most would still commute out. The average commute takes 41.8 minutes, against 28.7 across California.
The top destinations are Bakersfield (16%), Tehachapi (14%) and Lancaster (5%). Most people who work leave Bear Valley Springs to do it: just 7% work in town. Since 2013, Bear Valley Springs has added 148 jobs, to 390 in 2023. Bear Valley Springs’ mean commuting time stands at 42 minutes.
| Bear Valley Springs | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 42 minutes | 28 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $120,000 | $95,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 4.6% | 10% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
January nights average 34.7°: milder than most of the country, but colder than 82% of California places with climate records; July afternoons average 88°.
In Bear Valley Springs, the January low is 35°F.
| Bear Valley Springs | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| January low | 35°F | 41°F | 22°F |
| July high | 88°F | 89°F | 85°F |
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Across 2 parks and preserves: 17 miles of trail. Bear Valley Springs’ trail density comes in at 0.5 miles per square mile.
| Bear Valley Springs | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.5 miles per square mile | 1.0 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 3.5% | 4.3% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Bear Valley Park | — | 26 |
| 2. Beaubien Athletic Field | — | 9 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Homes sold in Bear Valley Springs spent a median 74 days on the market. The median sale price was $470,000 in May 2026. Bear Valley Springs’ going rate for rent is $1,439 a month.
| Bear Valley Springs | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 94% | 64% | 73% |
| Median rent | $1,439 a month | $1,898 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
None within 15 miles of Bear Valley Springs; the nearest are
About 2 of every 100 Bear Valley Springs residents are enrolled in college, against 8 across California.
Place in California, United States
Bear Valley Springs is a guarded-gate community in Kern County, California, United States. The unincorporated community is in the Tehachapi Mountains and is part of the greater Tehachapi area. The elevation ranges from 4,121 feet (1,256 m) to 6,934 feet (2,113 m) (Bear Mountain). The population fluctuates between a low during the winter months when snow is common, to a high in the summer months when its elevation keeps it much cooler than surrounding areas and major cities. The population was 5,592 at the 2020 census, up from 5,172 at the 2010 census. For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defined Bear Valley Springs as a census-designated place (CDP). The census defi…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
2 towns share a border with Bear Valley Springs.
| Town | CA rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bear Valley Springs | #489 | C− | D | — | B− | A− |
| Keene | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Tehachapi | #782 | D− | D | C− | B− | C+ |
Bear Valley Springs reports no FBI crime data of its own. Keene isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Bear Valley Springs with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Bear Valley Springs grades C− overall, better than 21% of U.S. towns and #489 of 841 in California. It grades A− for health and B− for schools. Hazard risk is its weak spot, with a D−.
Yes. The typical home is worth about $496,000, 35% below the California typical home. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades D.