?WhereToHQ

Ranked · Pick an HQ · California

Best cities to put your HQ in California

Cities of 25,000+ residents, scored with the “Pick an HQ” weighting the live tool uses, heaviest on bachelor's degree or higher, avg. weekly wage, corporate income tax, state & local income tax. Scores are relative to this set; open the tool to change the weights and re-rank.

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Top 10 · computed ranking

  1. 1.San Diego, CA1.4M residents

    64/100

    bachelor's degree or higher: 51% · avg. weekly wage: $1,645/wk · corporate income tax: 8.84%

  2. 2.Irvine, CA312k residents

    64/100

    bachelor's degree or higher: 70.6% · avg. weekly wage: $1,631/wk · corporate income tax: 8.84%

  3. 3.Clovis, CA125k residents

    63/100

    bachelor's degree or higher: 36.6% · avg. weekly wage: $1,163/wk · corporate income tax: 8.84%

  4. 4.Berkeley, CA120k residents

    63/100

    bachelor's degree or higher: 74.9% · avg. weekly wage: $1,961/wk · corporate income tax: 8.84%

  5. 5.Fresno, CA546k residents

    62/100

    bachelor's degree or higher: 25.5% · avg. weekly wage: $1,163/wk · corporate income tax: 8.84%

  6. 6.Sacramento, CA529k residents

    62/100

    bachelor's degree or higher: 37.1% · avg. weekly wage: $1,577/wk · corporate income tax: 8.84%

  7. 7.Los Angeles, CA3.9M residents

    61/100

    bachelor's degree or higher: 38.5% · avg. weekly wage: $1,656/wk · corporate income tax: 8.84%

  8. 8.Oakland, CA439k residents

    60/100

    bachelor's degree or higher: 48.7% · avg. weekly wage: $1,961/wk · corporate income tax: 8.84%

  9. 9.Rancho Cucamonga, CA175k residents

    60/100

    bachelor's degree or higher: 37.5% · avg. weekly wage: $1,226/wk · corporate income tax: 8.84%

  10. 10.Torrance, CA142k residents

    60/100

    bachelor's degree or higher: 54% · avg. weekly wage: $1,656/wk · corporate income tax: 8.84%

Methodology: each city is scored 0–100 by min–max normalizing every weighted facet across this candidate set (direction-aware), identical math to the tool's “Best fit” tab. A different weighting produces a different order, which is the point: this is a starting shortlist, not a verdict.

Questions & answers
Which city is best to put your HQ in California?
San Diego, CA ranks first with a fit score of 64/100, followed by Irvine (64) and Clovis (63), using the "Pick an HQ" weighting.
How is this ranking calculated?
Each of the 10 candidate cities (25,000+ residents) is scored 0 to 100 by min-max normalizing the weighted facets, heaviest on bachelor's degree or higher, avg. weekly wage, corporate income tax, state & local income tax, across this set. Change the weights in the live tool and the order changes with them.