In terms of sheer size and importance, the state of California looms large in the United States of America.

With a population of 38.8 million, California is the most populous state in the Union; the second most populated state, Texas, has 12 million fewer people than California.

The Golden State accounts for 55 of the 538 available electoral votes, 21 more than the next closest state. On the topic of politics, California has produced three U.S. Presidents.

California is the first ever state to become a trillion dollar economy in gross state product. In 2015, California surpassed France to become the sixth largest economy in the world! The state is home to the world’s largest movie industry, Hollywood, and economic giants like Apple and McDonalds were founded in California.

Additionally, The Golden State is the fifth largest supplier of food in the world, the biggest milk producing state in the Union, and is the largest producer of grapes, strawberries, peaches, nectarines, avocados, garlic, and onions.

Alright, you get the point.

As a whole, the strength and importance of California’s economy is undeniable; without The Golden State, U.S. economic power would be significantly diminished.

Recognizing the unbelievable strength of California’s economy, LendEDU wanted to do a study that examined California’s financial might on a more local level. Using Experian’s Premier Aggregated Credit StatisticsSM dataset, we evaluated every town and city in California based on its average credit score.

After eliminating any place in California that had a population below 2,000, we were able to rank 735 California towns and cities based on their VantageScore 3.0®1 credit score. The aim of this study was to evaluate how each California town’s financial health contributes to the economic might of the entire state.

An average credit score is a good indicator to evaluate the economic stability of a town or city. With this statistic, we can get an idea of how much money a town’s residents are making on average, and how successful these people are in repaying loans and bills.

>> Read More: What is a good credit score?

LendEDU’s report, entitled “California Cities & Their Credit Scores,” has ranked each town and city in California based on its average credit score. With this ranking, you can get a good sense of which California cities are contributing the most to make The Golden State an economic powerhouse.

Interactive Map of California’s Credit Scores

Scroll over each location point to see its credit score. You can zoom in and zoom out with this map, and you can click and drag to different locations. If you happen to lose your bearings, click the home button in the top right of the screen to recenter the view.

Complete Rankings of California Cities by Credit Score

Methodology

All data used for this study was under license from Onboard Informatics and Experian. Onboard Informatics was used for the 2010 Census population figures and location. Experian’s Premier Aggregated Credit Statistics dataset was used to find the average VantageScore 3.0 credit score for each town and city in California.

Any town or city that had a population below 2,000 was immediately eliminated from further analysis. Some of the larger cities in California, like Los Angeles and San Diego, had multiple ZIPTM2 codes. In order to consolidate multiple ZIP codes into one listing, credit scores for each ZIP Code in a given city were weighted based on the respective population of that ZIP Code. A ZIP Code with a larger population was given more weight when averaging a city’s multiple credit scores.

Once this was done, towns and cities could be ranked on their respective average credit score. Towns or cities with a higher average credit score were ranked higher on the list, and vice versa.

See more of LendEDU’s Research

1. VantageScore® is a registered trademark of VantageScore Solutions, LLC.

2. Experian is a nonexclusive full-service provider licensee of the United States Postal Service®. The following trademarks are owned by the United States Postal Service®: ZIP and ZIP Code. The price for Experian’s services is not established, controlled or approved by the United States Postal Service®.