Median Household Income by BART Station Across the Bay
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Median household income near BART stations ranges from $50,129 around Downtown Berkeley to $250,001 in Orinda, a more than fourfold spread across one transit system.
- Two adjacent stations can differ enormously. Rockridge shows $201,780 while MacArthur, one stop away on the same Yellow Line, shows $107,834.
- BART carried about 186,000 weekday riders in the fourth quarter of 2025, less than half the 423,000 daily average it recorded in fiscal year 2017
- The system now covers 50 stations and 131 miles (211 km) across six routes, five of them added since 2017, including the first two stations to reach Santa Clara County in 2020.
Bay Area voters created the Bay Area Rapid Transit District in 1957, fifteen years before a single paying passenger boarded a train. Construction ate up most of that gap. Service finally began on September 11, 1972, running between Fremont and MacArthur station on what is now the Orange Line, and the network grew in stages from there. The Transbay Tube, still the only rail crossing of San Francisco Bay, opened on September 16, 1974, linking the East Bay to downtown San Francisco through 3.6 miles (5.8 km) of tube resting on the bay floor. Extensions kept coming after that. Dublin/Pleasanton joined the map in 1997. The San Mateo County extension reached Millbrae and SFO in 2003. Warm Springs opened in 2017, the diesel-powered eBART line reached Antioch in 2018, and Berryessa/North San José brought BART into Santa Clara County for the first time in 2020.
BART now operates 50 stations across 131 miles (211 km) of track on six routes, making it the seventh busiest rapid transit system in the country by weekday ridership.
Ridership has fallen hard since the system’s peak. BART carried an average of 423,000 riders a day in fiscal year 2017. By the fourth quarter of 2025 that figure had dropped to roughly 186,000, still well under half of what it once was, as remote work reshaped the commute patterns the system was built around.
Fifty stations now spread across four counties and parts of a fifth, threading through neighborhoods with very different price tags. The map below plots median household income near every stop, using the American Community Survey’s most recent five-year estimates.
Income for stations inside San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley comes from the ZIP Code Tabulation Area surrounding each stop, since those three cities each hold enough stations for neighborhood-level differences to matter here. Everywhere else, one BART stop generally serves one town, so the figure reflects that city or census-designated place as a whole. Montgomery Street occupies a ZIP code so thick with office towers and so thin on residents that the Census Bureau suppresses a median income figure for it entirely. San Francisco International Airport has no resident population to measure. Both are marked as unavailable rather than guessed at.
The spread between stations is not subtle. Orinda tops the list at $250,001, the ceiling the Census Bureau uses when a tract’s true median climbs higher still. Warm Springs/South Fremont follows close behind at $243,552, reflecting newer housing built for South Bay tech commuters. On the Yellow Line, Rockridge comes in at $201,780, a jump of nearly $94,000 over MacArthur, the very next stop toward downtown Oakland. At the other end, Downtown Berkeley shows a median of just $50,129, a figure pulled down by the dense student housing near the station, and the ZIP code around the Coliseum posts $52,049. Two of BART’s original 1972 stations, Downtown Berkeley and West Oakland, now report some of the lowest incomes on the entire system. Stations added decades later in Contra Costa and southern Alameda County post some of the highest.
Median household income by BART station
| Station | City | Line(s) | Distance from SF City Hall | Median household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12th St. Oakland City Center | Oakland | Orange, Red, Yellow | 8.2 mi (13.3 km) | $74,037 |
| 16th Street Mission | San Francisco | Blue, Green, Red, Yellow | 1.0 mi (1.6 km) | $158,351 |
| 19th Street Oakland | Oakland | Orange, Red, Yellow | 8.4 mi (13.6 km) | $74,037 |
| 24th Street Mission | San Francisco | Blue, Green, Red, Yellow | 1.9 mi (3.0 km) | $158,351 |
| Antioch | Antioch | Yellow | 37.8 mi (60.8 km) | $94,256 |
| Ashby | Berkeley | Orange, Red | 9.6 mi (15.5 km) | $109,881 |
| Balboa Park | San Francisco | Blue, Green, Red, Yellow | 4.2 mi (6.8 km) | $135,119 |
| Bay Fair | San Leandro | Blue, Green, Orange | 17.0 mi (27.3 km) | $101,420 |
| Berryessa/North San Jose | San Jose | Green, Orange | 41.2 mi (66.3 km) | $141,565 |
| Castro Valley | Castro Valley | Blue | 19.7 mi (31.8 km) | $142,779 |
| Civic Center/UN Plaza | San Francisco | Blue, Green, Red, Yellow | 0.3 mi (0.5 km) | $60,431 |
| Coliseum | Oakland | Airport Connector, Blue, Green, Orange | 12.3 mi (19.8 km) | $52,049 |
| Colma | Colma | Red, Yellow | 7.0 mi (11.3 km) | $121,488 |
| Concord | Concord | Yellow | 25.2 mi (40.5 km) | $109,195 |
| Daly City | Daly City | Blue, Green, Red, Yellow | 5.7 mi (9.2 km) | $119,570 |
| Downtown Berkeley | Berkeley | Orange, Red | 10.3 mi (16.7 km) | $50,129 |
| Dublin/Pleasanton | Dublin/Pleasanton | Blue | 28.9 mi (46.4 km) | $214,385 |
| El Cerrito Plaza | El Cerrito | Orange, Red | 10.8 mi (17.3 km) | $128,529 |
| El Cerrito del Norte | El Cerrito | Orange, Red | 11.5 mi (18.5 km) | $128,529 |
| Embarcadero | San Francisco | Blue, Green, Red, Yellow | 1.6 mi (2.5 km) | $152,697 |
| Fremont | Fremont | Green, Orange | 28.7 mi (46.1 km) | $181,506 |
| Fruitvale | Oakland | Blue, Green, Orange | 10.7 mi (17.1 km) | $72,359 |
| Glen Park | San Francisco | Blue, Green, Red, Yellow | 3.3 mi (5.3 km) | $199,211 |
| Hayward | Hayward | Green, Orange | 19.6 mi (31.6 km) | $113,318 |
| Lafayette | Lafayette | Yellow | 17.9 mi (28.8 km) | $222,393 |
| Lake Merritt | Oakland | Blue, Green, Orange | 8.5 mi (13.7 km) | $94,863 |
| MacArthur | Oakland | Orange, Red, Yellow | 9.0 mi (14.5 km) | $107,834 |
| Millbrae | Millbrae | Red, Yellow | 12.5 mi (20.1 km) | $157,567 |
| Milpitas | Milpitas | Green, Orange | 38.6 mi (62.0 km) | $176,822 |
| Montgomery Street | San Francisco | Blue, Green, Red, Yellow | 1.2 mi (1.9 km) | N/A |
| North Berkeley | Berkeley | Orange, Red | 9.9 mi (15.9 km) | $99,775 |
| North Concord/Martinez | Concord | Yellow | 26.5 mi (42.6 km) | $125,436 |
| Oakland International Airport | Oakland | Airport Connector | 12.2 mi (19.6 km) | $52,049 |
| Orinda | Orinda | Yellow | 14.6 mi (23.4 km) | $250,001 |
| Pittsburg Center | Pittsburg | Yellow | 33.2 mi (53.5 km) | $101,099 |
| Pittsburg/Bay Point | Pittsburg | Yellow | 30.7 mi (49.5 km) | $101,099 |
| Pleasant Hill/Contra Costa Centre | Walnut Creek | Yellow | 22.3 mi (35.9 km) | $144,513 |
| Powell Street | San Francisco | Blue, Green, Red, Yellow | 0.7 mi (1.1 km) | $60,431 |
| Richmond | Richmond | Orange, Red | 11.5 mi (18.5 km) | $90,038 |
| Rockridge | Oakland | Yellow | 10.2 mi (16.4 km) | $201,780 |
| San Bruno | San Bruno | Red, Yellow | 9.7 mi (15.7 km) | $135,976 |
| San Francisco International Airport | San Mateo County | Red, Yellow | 11.4 mi (18.3 km) | N/A |
| San Leandro | San Leandro | Blue, Green, Orange | 14.7 mi (23.6 km) | $101,420 |
| South Hayward | Hayward | Green, Orange | 22.2 mi (35.6 km) | $113,318 |
| South San Francisco | South San Francisco | Red, Yellow | 8.1 mi (13.0 km) | $135,909 |
| Union City | Union City | Green, Orange | 25.5 mi (41.1 km) | $133,715 |
| Walnut Creek | Walnut Creek | Yellow | 21.1 mi (34.0 km) | $135,665 |
| Warm Springs/South Fremont | Fremont | Green, Orange | 32.5 mi (52.3 km) | $243,552 |
| West Dublin/Pleasanton | Dublin/Pleasanton | Blue | 27.4 mi (44.1 km) | $214,385 |
| West Oakland | Oakland | Blue, Green, Red, Yellow | 7.0 mi (11.3 km) | $94,863 |
Getting the most out of a BART trip
A Clipper card or a contactless bank card covers fare at every station. BART retired paper tickets years ago, and cash only works at station vending machines to load a Clipper card, which carries a one-time $3 fee. Apple Pay, Google Pay, and any tap-to-pay debit or credit card now work directly at the fare gates through BART’s Tap and Ride system, no card purchase required. Fares scale with distance rather than a flat rate, and BART does not sell day, week, or month passes system-wide, though a Muni Fast Pass covers unlimited rides between the eight stations inside San Francisco for a full calendar month.
Trains run weekdays from 5 a.m. to midnight, Saturdays from 6 a.m. to midnight, and Sundays from 8 a.m. to midnight (see the BART Guide). Riders connecting to another Bay Area transit agency within a two hour window get a discount of up to $2.85 through Clipper or Tap and Ride, which helps on trips that continue by Muni Metro from the four shared downtown San Francisco stations, by Caltrain from Millbrae, by VTA light rail from Milpitas, or by the Oakland Airport Connector from Coliseum station. Parking that used to fill up before 8 a.m. in the years before the pandemic now stays open at most stations for most of the day, a rare upside of lower ridership for anyone driving in from the suburbs.
