El RioCA
A town of 6,368, founded in 1875.
Is El Rio a good place to live?
El Rio earns a D−, 765th among California's 841 graded towns. El Rio’s July high is 78°F, where California’s towns sit at 89°F and U.S. towns at 85°F. Only 47 of California’s 1,064 towns score lower on the outdoors. FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 97% of U.S. communities, with earthquakes at the top.
How El Rio grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within California), ordered by how far El Rio is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Six Flags Magic Mountain and 39 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around El Rio. Close and well known come first.
Big draw34 mi Theme parkSix Flags Magic Mountain3.3M visitors a year
6 mi National ParkChannel Islands National Park227K visitors a year
19 mi MuseumRonald Reagan Presidential Library
37 mi MuseumGetty Villa454K visitors a year
28 mi LakeLake Piru
26 mi MountainPoint DumePhoto credits
Six Flags Magic Mountain: Alton, CC BY 3.0 · Channel Islands National Park: Copernicus Sentinel-2, ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 igo · Ronald Reagan Presidential Library: Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain · Getty Villa: Bobak Ha'Eri, CC BY 3.0 · Lake Piru: tomsaint11, CC BY 2.0 · Point Dume: OMCV, Public domain
Moving to El Rio: who provides what
El Rio is unincorporated, so Ventura 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 El Rio.
El Rio has milder winter nights than nearly all U.S. towns, but it has little public open land and has many renters stretched by housing costs.
El Rio faces a very high natural-hazard risk, led by earthquakes
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
El Rio’s public schools trail 65% of California districts
Its public schools are run by the Oxnard Union High school district. Two of its 4 schools are below, each with why it’s listed. The largest public high school is Rio Mesa High, with 1,951 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rio Real ElementaryLargest public elementary schoolGrades K–8 | Grades K–8 | 794 | C− |
| Rio Mesa HighLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 1,951 | B |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within CA on state tests and graduation
Residents of El Rio are less healthy than 68% of U.S. towns
El Rio beats the California average on 2 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 13. 22% of adults 18 to 64 have no health insurance in El Rio.
| El Rio | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 32% | 22% | 19% |
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 22% | 9% | 8.1% |
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 30% | 16% | 14% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 69% | 72% | 79% |
| What stands out | El Rio | CA |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 4.6% | 6.4% |
| Fewer adults with arthritis | 17.6% | 20.8% |
| More uninsured adults | 22.4% | 10.6% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Mild winters and pleasant summers in El Rio
January nights average 44.7°, milder than in 97% of U.S. towns; July afternoons average 77.7°.
El Rio has warm winters and pleasant summers, with very little rain. El Rio’s January low is 45°F. Snow is almost unheard of.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
El Rio has 0.8 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Most working residents leave El Rio for work: only 3% work in town. 20% of El Rio residents live below the poverty line. Jobs based in El Rio grew to 2,908 in 2023, 594 more than in 2013.
| El Rio | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 20% | 10% | 9.6% |
| Work from home | 5.9% | 14% | 11% |
| Average trip to work | 23 minutes | 28 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $73,000 | $95,000 | $80,000 |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
El Rio has set aside 0.1% of its land for conservation
Just 1 of its 1,285 acres are conserved, so there is little public open land in El Rio itself; its outdoors grade is D.
0.0 miles of trail in 1 park or preserve.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Rodger Jones Community Park | — | 3 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Homes in El Rio sell for about $991K
71.3% of renter households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, against 55.3% across California.
The median rent in El Rio is $2,089 a month.
| El Rio | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $2,089 a month | $1,895 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 56% | 64% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Everything we know about El Rio
Colleges nearby
5 within 15 miles of the center of El Rio
About 8 of every 100 El Rio residents are enrolled in college, about the same as California.
About El Rio
Place in California, United States
El Rio ( ; Spanish: El Río, meaning "The River") is a small, rural unincorporated town in Ventura County, California, United States, on the northeast side of the 101 Freeway and Oxnard, and south of the Santa Clara River. The town was founded in 1875 and named New Jerusalem by the owner of general store who became the first postmaster in 1882. In 1885, a school and Santa Clara Catholic Church were built. Located near where the coastal railroad line crosses the Santa Clara River, the town's name was changed to El Rio around 1900. The former wagon river crossing route became the Ventura Freeway which separates the community from the commercial developments that grew up on the southwest side o…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 2.0 sq mi
- Elevation
- 92 ft
- Area code
- 805
El Rio’s neighbors
One town shares a border with El Rio.
El Rio reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare El Rio with a neighbor →
Questions about El Rio
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is El Rio, CA a good place to live?
El Rio grades D− overall, better than 3% of U.S. towns and #765 of 841 in California. It grades C for health and C+ for schools. Hazard risk is its weak spot, with a D−.
Is El Rio, CA expensive?
Yes. The typical home is worth about $638,000, 16% 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.