Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Colfax’s best subject grades are an A− for schools and health; its weakest is a D for hazard risk. 45% of households own their home in Colfax, where California’s towns sit at 64% and U.S. towns at 73%. Only 93 of California’s 1,064 towns score lower on the outdoors. Colfax has 2 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Colfax Passenger Depot and Colfax Freight Depot. Colfax has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade.
Where Colfax beats most towns.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within California), ordered by how far Colfax is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 591 in 1880, 1,995 in 2020. The archive holds 16 old photos and papers going back to 1864 and 3 maps from 1949 on.
2 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Who provides power, water and the rest in Colfax, 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 Colfax.
The typical Colfax home is worth about $497,000, up 2.5% in a year, 35% below the California typical home. At $1,553 a month, Colfax’s median rent is below California’s towns ($1,896 a month) but above U.S. towns ($1,185 a month).
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Colfax beats the California average on 11 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 4. 18% of adults binge drink in Colfax.
| Colfax | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 16% | 16% |
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 9.2% | 12% | 12% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 24% | 25% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 72% | 72% | 79% |
| What stands out | Colfax | CA |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer uninsured adults | 5.6% | 10.6% |
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 11% | 17.9% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 8.7% | 6.4% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 79% of U.S. communities.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Colfax has mild winters and warm summers, with plenty of rain. The July high in Colfax is 91°F.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Most working residents leave Colfax for work: only 5% work in town. 13% of Colfax residents live below the poverty line. Jobs based in Colfax grew to 542 in 2023, 29 more than in 2013.
| Colfax | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 13% | 10% | 9.6% |
| Median household income | $73,000 | $95,000 | $80,000 |
| Average trip to work | 26 minutes | 28 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Working residents who work in town | 5% | 6.6% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Colfax. Close and well known come first.
9 mi State parkEmpire Mine State Historic Park
39 mi Ski areaPalisades Tahoe Olympic Valley122 runs · 2,542 ft vertical36 mi Ski areaSugar Bowl Resort94 runs · 1,452 ft vertical39 mi Ski areaPalisades Tahoe Alpine Meadows95 runs · 2,270 ft vertical
37 mi MuseumAerospace Museum of California37 mi Ski areaDonner Ski Ranch47 runs · 720 ft verticalEmpire Mine State Historic Park: Beej71, CC BY 2.5 · Palisades Tahoe Olympic Valley: Jonnyboyca at English Wikipedia, Public domain · Aerospace Museum of California: J.smith, CC BY-SA 3.0
None within 15 miles of Colfax; the nearest are
About 4 of every 100 Colfax residents are enrolled in college, against 8 across California.
2 places in Colfax on the National Register of Historic Places.
City in California, United States
Colfax is a city in Placer County, California, at the crossroads of Interstate 80 and State Route 174. The population was 1,995 at the 2020 census. The town is named in honor of U.S. Vice President Schuyler Colfax (1869–73), a bronze statue of whom stands at Railroad Street and Grass Valley Street. (This is one of two known statues of Schuyler Colfax in the United States, the other located in Indianapolis, Indiana.) Some of the town's notable features include the newly restored Southern Pacific Railroad colonnade-style depot (which houses the Colfax Museum and Chamber of Commerce) built in 1905, the downtown shops on Main Street, and Colfax High School, which serves a large surrounding area.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Yes. That is 5.1 years of the area's median household income ($97,188 across the Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA metro area). Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C−.
