The seven California towns that sit below sea level
Seven California towns sit below sea level — six of them in Imperial County. The lowest, Calipatria, sits more than 160 feet below.
These are the seven incorporated towns in California whose elevation sits below sea level, listed from lowest to highest. The elevations are approximate — measured inside each town's limits — and are compiled from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Geological Survey.
Lowest towns in California
7 of 7| # | Town | County | Elevation (approx., ft) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Calipatria Below sea level | Imperial County | −165 ft |
| 2 | Westmorland Below sea level | Imperial County | −164 ft |
| 3 | Brawley Below sea level | Imperial County | −113 ft |
| 4 | Coachella Below sea level | Riverside County | −67 ft |
| 5 | Imperial Below sea level | Imperial County | −59 ft |
| 6 | El Centro Below sea level | Imperial County | −39 ft |
| 7 | Holtville Below sea level | Imperial County | −11 ft |
These seven sit in the Salton Sink and Coachella Valley, an ancient lake bed that forms a genuine below-sea-level desert basin.
This ranking is one slice of the full List. The City List with Coordinates carries every U.S. city, town, and township — all 48,490 — each with its elevation, coordinates, and county in one CSV.
- The City List with Coordinates page has a free 100-row sample — download it to see the columns first.
- Need one town's elevation and coordinates? The city geocoder tool returns a single place, free.
- Get the City List with Coordinates ($29) for the complete file.
- Working from ZIP codes instead? The ZIP code lookup tool covers those.
Lowest towns in other states
Same franchise, state by state — ranked where the spread allows it.
Methodology & sources
About this ranking. Incorporated towns are municipalities recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau; census-designated places, townships, and unincorporated communities are not included. Each elevation is approximate: it is measured at the Census interior point, a point inside the town's boundary rather than the town center or city hall, using U.S. Geological Survey elevation data. Towns whose boundary is mostly water are excluded from this list: at these elevations, the interior point can land on open water rather than land, which would make the figure meaningless rather than merely approximate. Elevations round to the nearest foot; where a figure sits exactly at the half-foot mark, it rounds away from zero, so a below-sea-level elevation is never understated.