California cities ranked by assisted living safety
This is the hub for our California city safety reports. The full data essay is at The California Assisted Living Safety Report.
This is the cross-city comparison. Average FYI Safety Score, total facility count, count of Excellent-rated facilities, and count of Severe-rated facilities for each of the 19 California cities we've analyzed in depth. Click into any city for the full ranking, score distribution, and concerning-facility list for that specific market.
| Rank | City | Facilities | Avg score | Excellent | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Modesto | 67 | 8.34 | 35 (52%) | 3 |
| 2 | Irvine | 19 | 8.18 | 12 (63%) | 2 |
| 3 | Fresno | 170 | 8.03 | 79 (46%) | 11 |
| 4 | Los Angeles | 139 | 7.96 | 59 (42%) | 7 |
| 5 | Santa Ana | 35 | 7.94 | 19 (54%) | 3 |
| 6 | San Diego | 172 | 7.94 | 65 (38%) | 8 |
| 7 | Riverside | 87 | 7.80 | 24 (28%) | 0 |
| 8 | Oakland | 31 | 7.76 | 13 (42%) | 3 |
| 9 | Long Beach | 47 | 7.76 | 18 (38%) | 5 |
| 10 | Stockton | 60 | 7.67 | 20 (33%) | 5 |
| 11 | Glendale | 30 | 7.60 | 11 (37%) | 2 |
| 12 | San Francisco | 51 | 7.59 | 16 (31%) | 3 |
| 13 | Chula Vista | 27 | 7.54 | 10 (37%) | 2 |
| 14 | Anaheim | 95 | 7.54 | 34 (36%) | 7 |
| 15 | San Jose | 139 | 7.52 | 33 (24%) | 6 |
| 16 | Sacramento | 200 | 7.39 | 67 (34%) | 24 |
| 17 | Bakersfield | 124 | 7.09 | 34 (27%) | 15 |
| 18 | Pasadena | 32 | 6.92 | 4 (13%) | 3 |
| 19 | Fremont | 28 | 5.80 | 0 (0%) | 4 |
Average score is a rough mid-band estimate. Click a city name for the full city ranking.
A few patterns worth noting
The Central Valley over-indexes on safety. Modesto, Fresno, and Stockton all sit above the California state average. The bottom three Central Valley cities we've analyzed (Sacramento at 7.41, Bakersfield at 7.09) sit below, which means the Central Valley itself is split: smaller markets with strong distributions, larger markets with more variation.
The Bay Area is more uneven than its reputation suggests. San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland sit roughly average. Fremont is the worst-scoring city in our 19-city analysis. If you're searching in the Bay Area, the city you're in matters a lot.
LA County splits in two. The City of LA itself sits comfortably above average at 8.07. Long Beach is similarly solid. But Pasadena and Glendale both run below the state average, with Pasadena particularly low at 6.85. Pasadena has only 4 Excellent-rated facilities across the entire city.
Riverside is the standout outlier. It's the only city in our analysis with zero Severely-rated facilities. The market has fewer extreme outliers than anywhere else we've looked, which doesn't mean every Riverside facility is great, but it does mean the bottom of the local market is less concerning than in other Inland Empire or LA County markets.
How to use this ranking
Click into a city to see the top 15 strongest facilities, the full score distribution, and the facilities with the most concerning records. The per-city pages have the linked detail-page references that let you click through to the full inspection record for any facility.
If you're comparing two markets, the city pages show enough side-by-side data to make the comparison meaningfully. The city with the higher average score has more high-quality options to choose from, but the city with the lower average might still be the right choice if a specific facility there is the right fit.
The FYI Safety Score is a starting point, not a final verdict. For families researching what to actually do with this information once they have it, the companion guides are Why Yelp reviews don't predict quality of care and How to do a safety vibe check without trusting marketing.
Browse all California assisted living facilities by safety score on the AssistedLiving.fyi map.
Data: Computed from California Department of Social Services Community Care Licensing Division (CCLD) inspection records, ingested into AssistedLiving.fyi as of May 2026. Average score is a rough mid-band estimate computed from each city's score distribution. The FYI Safety Score is provided for informational purposes only and is not a guarantee or prediction of the safety, quality, or suitability of any facility.
Frequently asked questions
Which California city has the safest assisted living?
Among the 19 California cities we've analyzed in detail, Modesto has the highest average FYI Safety Score at 8.34, followed by Irvine (8.15), Santa Ana (8.08), San Diego (8.02), and Fresno (8.02). These cities have above-average concentrations of strong-rated facilities.
Which California city has the worst assisted living safety record?
Fremont has the lowest average FYI Safety Score (5.97) among the 19 California cities we've analyzed. Notably, zero Fremont facilities currently score in the Excellent range, which is unusual among California cities of similar size. Pasadena is the second-lowest at 6.85.
Are there any California cities with no concerning assisted living facilities?
Riverside is the only major California city in our analysis with zero facilities in the Severe band (below 4.0). Every other major California city we've ranked has at least 2 to 24 facilities in that bottom tier.
How is the FYI Safety Score calculated?
The FYI Safety Score is a 1.0 to 10.0 rating computed from California Community Care Licensing Division (CCLD) inspection records. It weighs three components: Type A citations (immediate-risk violations), Type B citations (less severe violations), and substantiated complaints. Recent findings count more than older ones. No facility can pay to improve their score.
About the author
Steve Selzer is the founder of AssistedLiving.fyi. He started this work while searching for assisted living for his mom, who has dementia, after running into the same opaque pricing, sales calls, and impossible-to-read inspection records that every family in the same situation runs into. The site exists to make the information families actually need easier to find.