San Diego, CA vs New York, NY
Side-by-side fiscal comparison · U.S. Census Bureau data (2023)
Summary
New York spends 66.5% more per capita than San Diego ($85,813/person difference). New York, NY has the stronger Fiscal Health Score (C, 64/100).
Fiscal Health Score
Key Metrics
Per Capita Spending by Department
Revenue Breakdown (Per Capita)
| Property Tax | $124 | $5 |
| Sales Tax | $63 | $399 |
| Income Tax | $194 | $19 |
| Intergovernmental | $57 | $20,520 |
| Charges & Fees | $14 | $1,835 |
| Other | $3,801 | $3,593 |
Spending Breakdown (Per Capita)
| Police | $3,335 | $1,512 |
| Fire Protection | $1,278 | $11,050 |
| Highways & Roads | $1,408 | $221 |
| Education | $2,005 | $37,892 |
| Public Welfare | $700 | $1,116 |
| Health | $411 | $417 |
| Hospitals | $0 | $6,467 |
| Parks & Recreation | $436 | $868 |
| Housing | $4,476 | $7,137 |
| Sewerage | $43 | $315 |
| Utilities | $11,704 | $13,371 |
| Interest on Debt | $0 | $11,706 |
| General Admin | $0 | $11,668 |
| Other | $17,509 | $25,380 |
Compare More Cities
The side-by-side above pulls the the Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances data for both entity A and entity B. What follows is the interpretation — which specific axes carry the most weight for entity A versus entity B, and which differences are large enough to influence a real decision.
Practical use of the comparison: read the data above, then drill into the individual entity A and entity B detail pages for the underlying breakdown. A pairwise comparison answers the relative question; the per-entity pages answer the absolute question.
Source: Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances, 2026.