Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 7,720, settled in 1939.
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 96% of U.S. communities, with earthquakes at the top. Overall it grades C−, 536th of 841 graded towns in California. It has 30 miles of trail and 44% conserved land. Its weakest subject is health: CDC estimates put its residents' health behind 80% of the country. Thousand Palms’ July high is 107°F, above both the California town median (89°F) and the median of U.S. towns (85°F). Only 92 of California’s 1,058 towns score higher on cost of living. The biggest park or preserve is Coachella Valley National Wildlife Refuge, at 2,829 acres.
Where Thousand Palms beats most towns, and one thing worth knowing.
Where Thousand Palms’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 Thousand Palms is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 1,718 in 1980, 7,967 in 2020. The archive holds 8 old photos and papers going back to 2009 and 4 maps from 1941 on.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Thousand Palms. Close and well known come first.
Big draw7 mi National ParkJoshua Tree National Park2.9M visitors a year
in town Stadium & arenaAcrisure Arena5 mi LandmarkForest Lawn Cemetery
19 mi MountainSan Jacinto Peak
33 mi MountainSan Gorgonio Mountain
39 mi State parkAnza-Borrego Desert State ParkJoshua Tree National Park: Sergiy Galyonkin, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Acrisure Arena: TheAHL, CC BY 2.0 · San Jacinto Peak: Wattewyl, CC BY 3.0 · San Gorgonio Mountain: Doc Searls, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Anza-Borrego Desert State Park: No machine-readable author provided. Miskatonic assumed (based on copyright clai, CC BY 2.5
Thousand Palms is unincorporated, so Riverside 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 Thousand Palms.
Thousand Palms draws workers from Indio and beyond, keeps more of its land conserved than most of California and has milder winter nights than nearly all U.S. towns.
Its 6,605 conserved acres are a larger share of the town than in 97% of California towns.
The trail density in Thousand Palms is 1.3 miles per square mile.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Coachella Valley National Wildlife Refuge | 0.6 mi | 2,829 |
| 2. Thousand Palms Community Park | — | 8 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its public schools are run by the Palm Springs Unified school district. Its two schools are below.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Della S. Lindley ElementaryLargest public elementary schoolGrades K–5 | Grades K–5 | 552 | – |
| Xavier College Preparatory High School PrivateLargest high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 538 | – |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within CA on state tests and graduation
5,772 jobs are based in Thousand Palms, 2 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in. The average commute takes 21.9 minutes, against 28.7 across California.
Most working residents leave Thousand Palms for work: only 7% work in town. Thousand Palms’ average trip to work is 22 minutes. Since 2013, Thousand Palms has added 2,128 jobs, to 5,772 in 2023.
| Thousand Palms | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 22 minutes | 28 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $77,000 | $95,000 | $80,000 |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Since 1999, 45 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Thousand Palms.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
72.3% of renter households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, against 55.3% across California. The median property tax bill is $1,924, against $5,124 across California, another input to its cost-of-living grade.
The typical Thousand Palms home is worth about $378,000, about the same as a year ago, 50% below the California typical home.
| Thousand Palms | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,495 a month | $1,898 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 73% | 64% | 73% |
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
31% of Thousand Palms adults say their health is fair or poor. Thousand Palms beats the California average on 3 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 20. 18% of Thousand Palms adults report frequent physical distress.
| Thousand Palms | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 31% | 22% | 19% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 14% | 14% |
| Diabetes (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 12% | 12% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 12% | 16% | 16% |
| What stands out | Thousand Palms | CA |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer binge drinkers | 12.2% | 15.3% |
| More adults screened for colon cancer | 62.8% | 57.5% |
| More adults with COPD | 8.4% | 5.1% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
January nights average 44.5°, milder than in 97% of U.S. towns; July afternoons average 106.7°.
Thousand Palms has warm winters and scorching summers, with very little rain. Snow is almost unheard of.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
2 within 15 miles of the center of Thousand Palms
About 5 of every 100 Thousand Palms residents are enrolled in college, against 8 across California.
Census-designated place in California, United States
Thousand Palms is a census-designated place (CDP) in the Coachella Valley of Riverside County, California, United States. The population was 7,967 at the 2020 census, up from 7,715 at the 2010 census.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
4 towns share a border with Thousand Palms.
It grades higher overall than all 3 graded towns on its borders; Palm Desert (D) comes closest.
| Town | CA rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thousand Palms | #536 | C− | C+ | — | C+ | C− |
| Desert Palms | #667 | D | D− | — | B | B− |
| Sky Valley | — | — | A− | — | C+ | C− |
| Palm Desert | #584 | D | D− | C− | B | B |
| Cathedral City | #611 | D | D | C+ | C+ | C |
Sky Valley has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Thousand Palms, Desert Palms and Sky Valley report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Thousand Palms with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Thousand Palms grades C− overall, better than 16% of U.S. towns and #536 of 841 in California. It grades C− for health and C+ for schools. Hazard risk is its weak spot, with a D−.
That is 4.2 years of the area's median household income ($89,662 across the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, 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+.
