DelhiCA
A town of 11,009, settled in 1912.
Is Delhi a good place to live?
Delhi grades D overall, 608th among California's 841 graded towns. One bright spot: it is more walkable than 82% of U.S. towns. Delhi’s July high is 95°F, above both California’s towns (89°F) and U.S. towns (85°F). Only 85 of California’s 1,064 towns score higher on hazard risk. Homes are expensive, about $412K for a typical one and 6.3 times the Merced metro’s $66K median household income.
What makes Delhi stand out
Where Delhi beats most towns.
93% of working residents leave Delhi for work
Where Delhi’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
How Delhi grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within California), ordered by how far Delhi is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Moving to Delhi: who provides what
Delhi is unincorporated, so Merced 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.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in Delhi.
Delhi carries less natural-hazard risk than nearly all of California (mostly inland flooding), has hotter summers than nearly all U.S. towns and sends most of its workers to Turlock and beyond.
Delhi earns a D for cost of living
The median property tax bill is $2,514, against $5,124 across California, another input to its cost-of-living grade.
A home in Delhi typically sold within 63 days of listing. Homes locally are typically worth about $412,000, up 1.5% in a year, 46% below the California typical home. The typical rent locally is $1,274 a month.
| Delhi | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,274 a month | $1,898 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Renters paying 30%+ of income on rent | 47% | 55% | 48% |
| Households that own their home | 72% | 64% | 73% |
Typical home value
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Delhi’s public schools trail 51% of California districts
The largest public high school is Delhi High, with 710 students. Public schools: the Delhi Unified school district. Two of the 5 schools are below, and why each made the list.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Schendel ElementaryLargest public elementary schoolGrades K–6 | Grades K–6 | 458 | D |
| Delhi HighLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 710 | C+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within CA on state tests and graduation
Delhi sends most of its workers out of town
Delhi has 1,063 jobs for its 4,358 working residents: even if every job went to a resident, most would still commute out.
Delhi had 1,063 jobs in 2023, up 140 from 2013. Only 7% of working residents stay in Delhi for work; the rest commute out. 16% of Delhi residents live below the poverty line. The top destinations are Turlock (13%), Modesto (9%) and Livingston (5%).
| Delhi | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 16% | 10% | 9.6% |
| Median household income | $68,000 | $95,000 | $80,000 |
| Average trip to work | 26 minutes | 28 minutes | 25 minutes |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Residents of Delhi are less healthy than 73% of U.S. towns
For adults 18 to 64 in Delhi, the share who have no health insurance is 22%. CDC measures, 32 in all: Delhi beats California on 1 and trails on 16. 67% of adults locally had a checkup this year; 31% say their health is fair or poor.
| Delhi | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 31% | 16% | 14% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 67% | 72% | 79% |
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 22% | 9% | 8.1% |
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 31% | 22% | 19% |
| What stands out | Delhi | CA |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 4.3% | 6.4% |
| More uninsured adults | 21.5% | 10.6% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
In Delhi, expect mild winters and hot summers
July afternoons average 95.2°, hotter than in 96% of U.S. towns; January nights average 38.9°.
For Delhi, the January low is 39°F. Snow is a rarity.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Delhi has set aside 0.3% of its land for conservation
There are 1.8 miles of trail across 3 parks and preserves. Delhi’s concentration of trails is 0.5 miles per square mile.
| Delhi | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 0.3% | 4.3% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.5 miles per square mile | 1.0 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Shattuck Park | — | 8 |
| 2. Harmony Ranch Park | 0.1 mi | 2 |
| 3. Taylor Park | — | 2 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Delhi faces a moderate natural-hazard risk, led by inland flooding
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk lower than 91% of California towns, with expected losses of about $145 per resident a year; that rating is what its C+ for hazard risk is built on.
One declared disaster, in 2022, has brought federal aid to Delhi households. The natural-hazard score from FEMA for Delhi comes to 53 of 100. FEMA puts 46% of the town’s expected hazard losses down to inland flooding, and 38% to earthquakes.
FEMA disaster declarations and aid · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Castle Air Museum and 3 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Delhi. Close and well known come first.
19 mi MuseumMcHenry Mansion
19 mi TheatreGallo Center for the Arts
19 mi TheatreMerced TheatrePhoto credits
McHenry Mansion: Rayana fazli at en.wikipedia, Public domain · Gallo Center for the Arts: OsotedeMonte, CC BY 3.0 · Merced Theatre: Mark Miller, CC BY-SA 3.0
Everything we know about Delhi
Colleges nearby
1 within 15 miles of the center of Delhi
About 7 of every 100 Delhi residents are enrolled in college, about the same as California.
About Delhi
Census designated place in California, United States
Delhi ( DEL-hy) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Merced County in the U.S. state of California. Delhi is 18 miles (29 km) west-northwest of Merced, at an elevation of 118 feet (36 m). According to the 2020 census, the population was 10,656.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 3.5 sq mi
- Elevation
- 118 ft
- ZIP code
- 95315
- Area code
- 209
Questions about Delhi
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Delhi, CA a good place to live?
Delhi grades D overall, better than 10% of U.S. towns and #608 of 841 in California. It grades C for health and B− for schools. Cost of living is its weak spot, with a D.
Is Delhi, CA expensive?
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.