How to cite SF Census
Every figure on SF Census is free to quote, chart or republish with credit and a link to the page it came from. You don't need to ask first. Below are the credit line, the formal citation formats, and the Census Bureau tables you can check any number against.
The credit line
For a news story, a chart caption or a slide, one line is enough. Click a box to select it.
Link the words SF Census to the page the number came from rather than the home page, so a reader who clicks lands on the figure you quoted.
Current home values, asking rents and the asking rent premium come from Zillow, and Zillow asks for credit wherever its data appears. For those figures use this line instead.
Sale price per square foot comes from Redfin's sales records and carries its own line.
APA, Chicago and MLA citations
These examples cite the Mission housing page. Every data page on the site has its own version under "How to cite this page" at the bottom.
APA
Chicago
MLA
Academic work should name the original source too: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, 2020-2024. The methodology page lists every table the site uses.
What the numbers are
- Neighborhoods and districts
- SF Census estimates built from Census Bureau tract data. The Bureau publishes no neighborhood figures, so counts are summed across each neighborhood's census tracts and medians are re-estimated from the summed distributions. Describe these as "SF Census estimates from Census Bureau data."
- ZIP codes and the citywide figure
- The Census Bureau's own published numbers for each ZIP code tabulation area and for San Francisco County, reproduced unchanged.
- Survey period
- Five years of responses, 2020-2024. Write "in 2020-2024" and not "in 2024". The citywide trend charts are the exception: they use single-year estimates.
- Home values and asking rents
- Zillow's Home Value Index and Observed Rent Index for August 2026, refreshed monthly.
- Sale price per square foot
- Redfin's median for homes sold from March to May 2026. It is reported by ZIP code, and neighborhood figures are rolled up from ZIPs.
- Margin of error
- All Census figures here are survey estimates. Small neighborhoods carry wider margins than large ones, and two neighborhoods a few dollars apart in a ranking are a statistical tie.
How to check a figure against the Census Bureau
The Bureau's table viewer, data.census.gov, shows the same tables this site is built from.
The site shows two sets of citywide figures, and each has its own table. The home page and the housing overview use the 2024 1-year estimates, the newest single year. Check those against the San Francisco County 1-year tables: median gross rent (B25064), median home value (B25077), median household income (B19013), owners and renters (B25003), occupied and vacant homes (B25002) or housing units (B25001).
The San Francisco comparison figure on neighborhood, ZIP code, district and ranking pages uses the 2020-2024 5-year estimates, so it lines up with the neighborhood numbers beside it. Check that one against the 5-year tables: median gross rent (B25064), median home value (B25077), median household income (B19013), owners and renters (B25003), occupied and vacant homes (B25002) or housing units (B25001). The two sets differ by a few percent. That is expected, because one covers a single year and the other averages five.
For a ZIP code, use the same tables with the ZIP in the address. Here is median gross rent for 94110. Change the last five digits for any other ZIP.
For a neighborhood, the census tracts are listed at the bottom of its page. Counts such as housing units or renter households add up exactly from those tracts. A neighborhood median can't be looked up, because the Bureau doesn't publish one. The methodology page explains how each median is estimated.
Zillow's files are public at Zillow Research, and Redfin's at the Redfin Data Center.
What you can do with the data
Quote it, chart it, map it or put it in a report, commercial or not. There is no fee and nothing to sign. Census Bureau data is in the public domain. The neighborhood estimates, rankings and text are this site's work, and the one condition for reusing them is credit with a link.
Zillow's and Redfin's figures stay under each company's own terms for its data. Credit the company when you use one of its numbers, and read those terms before building the numbers into a product.
SF Census is independent and is not affiliated with the Census Bureau, the City and County of San Francisco, Zillow or Redfin. More on the about page.