I think Kings county in Central Valley between Fresno and Tulare city-counties is the poorest, then Imperial and Modoc counties, and Inyo or Mono counties straddle the Nevada state lines are not too far behind. The farther away from an urban center like L.A. (today is the 20th anniversary of the L.A. riots) and San Francisco bay area, the poorer the locality and community it will be: the Imperial valley is in the desert, but used to be known for an once-thriving prosperous year-round agricultural economy. Much of the Sierra Nevada, Cascades and coastal range areas are rural, with lower incomes and annual working salaries than in major cities. But the number of persons and percentage rates of those receiving county, state and federal public assistance is L.A. county, Riverside-San Bernardino area, San Diego and the san Joaquin valley (i.e. Bakersfield); then again we hear how affluent Ventura and Orange counties are, the number of millionaires in the state's coastal areas or "beach cities" due to higher real estate values not much affected by the real estate price collapse.