Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 2,736, settled in 1937.
Kings Beach grades C overall, 386th of 841 graded towns in California, with clear strengths and some subjects that lag. Its schools outperform 82% of the state's and it has 20 miles of trail and 60% conserved land. On the other side, the typical home is worth about $848K, 8.7 years of the Sacramento metro’s $97K median household income. Kings Beach’s July high is 73°F, against 89°F in California’s towns and 85°F across U.S. towns. Kings Beach is easier to get around on foot or by transit than 90% of U.S. towns. On history, just 25 of California’s 1,063 towns do worse.
Where Kings Beach beats most towns.
| School | Grades | Students |
|---|---|---|
| Kings Beach Elementary | K–5 | 362 |
Where Kings Beach’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 Kings Beach is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 1,942 in 1980, 3,563 in 2020. The archive holds 6 old photos and papers going back to 1972 and 3 maps from 1955 on.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Kings Beach. Close and well known come first.
Big draw11 mi LakeLake Tahoe
14 mi LakeDonner Lake
13 mi Ski areaPalisades Tahoe Olympic Valley122 runs · 2,542 ft vertical
9 mi Ski areaMount Rose Ski Tahoe57 runs · 1,625 ft vertical
13 mi State parkDonner Memorial State Park6 mi Ski areaNorthstar at Tahoe Resort125 runs · 2,311 ft verticalLake Tahoe: Lara Farhadi, CC BY 2.0 · Donner Lake: J.smith, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Palisades Tahoe Olympic Valley: Jonnyboyca at English Wikipedia, Public domain · Mount Rose Ski Tahoe: Beesmill, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Donner Memorial State Park: Joe Parks from Berkeley, CA, CC BY 2.0
Kings Beach is unincorporated, so Placer 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 Kings Beach.
Kings Beach carries less natural-hazard risk than most of California (mostly avalanches), is a second-home town and keeps more of its land conserved than most of California.
Its 1,146 conserved acres are a larger share of the town than in 99% of California towns.
The trail density in Kings Beach is 6.8 miles per square mile.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Kings Beach State Recreational Area | — | 10 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its A− for schools comes with a C− for cost of living: the typical home is worth about $848K.
Its public schools are run by the Tahoe-Truckee Unified school district. Its one school is below.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kings Beach ElementaryLargest public elementary schoolGrades K–5 | Grades K–5 | 362 | B |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within CA on state tests and graduation
43.6% of homes are seasonal or vacation homes, against 2.4% statewide, which helps explain the older median age.
Adults 35 to 64 are 57% of residents (39% statewide); adults 18 to 34 are 11% of residents (24% statewide). 12% of Kings Beach residents are 65 or older. 31% of adults 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or more, vs 37% across California.
| Kings Beach | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aged 65 or older | 12% | 16% | 18% |
| Median age | 44 years | 39 years | 40.5 years |
53% women, 47% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±6 points. Across California, 50.1% of residents are women.
| Kings Beach | CA | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 7.8% | 11.4% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 12% | 10.5% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 6.7% | 9.1% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 4.3% | 14.8% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 24.4% | 13.9% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 22.4% | 12.5% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 10.3% | 12.1% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 8.7% | 9.2% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 3.3% | 6.5% | 7% |
| No diploma | 27.8% | 15.3% | 10.4% |
| High school | 16.5% | 20.5% | 26% |
| Some college | 18.8% | 19.3% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 6% | 7.9% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 23.6% | 22.7% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 7.2% | 14.4% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates · in a town of 2,700, single groups can be off by several points
The average commute for its 1,012 working residents takes 21.3 minutes, against 28.7 across California.
Most working residents leave Kings Beach for work: only 10% work in town. Kings Beach’s average trip to work is 21 minutes. Jobs based in Kings Beach grew to 565 in 2023, 92 more than in 2013.
| Kings Beach | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 21 minutes | 28 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $68,000 | $95,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 6.8% | 10% | 9.6% |
| Working residents who work in town | 10% | 6.6% | 8% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Kings Beach beats the California average on 0 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 16. 69% of adults had a checkup this year in Kings Beach.
| Kings Beach | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 69% | 72% | 79% |
| Food insecurity (CDC PLACES) | 24% | 16% | 14% |
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 22% | 19% |
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 9% | 8.1% |
| What stands out | Kings Beach | CA |
|---|---|---|
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 17.6% | 10.6% |
| More adults facing a utility shut-off | 10.8% | 7.3% |
| More smokers | 15.6% | 10.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
The Tahoe City weather station, 9 miles away, records that 179 inches of snow fall in a normal winter, more than in 100% of U.S. towns. July afternoons average 73.1°, cooler than in 99% of U.S. towns; January nights average 21.4°.
Kings Beach has chilly, snowy winters and cool summers. Among 846 California towns, just 3 have a lower January low than Kings Beach.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
The typical value, about $848K, is 8% below its July 2022 peak.
Typical home values rose 5.9% in the year to September 2026.
| Kings Beach | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,271 a month | $1,898 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 63% | 64% | 73% |
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk lower than 89% of California towns, with expected losses of about $2,838 per resident a year; that rating is what its C+ for hazard risk is built on.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
1 within 15 miles of the center of Kings Beach
About 3 of every 100 Kings Beach residents are enrolled in college, against 8 across California.
Census-designated place in California, United States
Kings Beach is a census-designated place (CDP) in Placer County, California, United States, on the north shore of Lake Tahoe. The population was 3,563 at the 2020 census. The town's post office was erected in 1937. The area is named after its first postmaster, Joe King.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
2 towns share a border with Kings Beach.
| Town | CA rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kings Beach | #386 | C | C− | — | A− | C |
| Tahoe Vista | — | — | C+ | — | A− | A |
Tahoe Vista has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Kings Beach and Tahoe Vista report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Kings Beach with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Kings Beach grades C overall, better than 30% of U.S. towns and #386 of 841 in California. It grades C for health and A− for schools. Cost of living is its weak spot, with a C−.
Yes. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C−.
