Hat Creek is a census designated place (CDP) in Shasta County, California. Hat Creek is situated at an elevation of . Its population is 266 as of the 2020 census, down from 309 from the 2010 census.
Hat Creek is located north of Lassen Park, southeast of Burney ( south of the junction of hwy 89 and 299), and south of Burney Falls. Its zip code is 96040. Wired telephone numbers are from the Burney central office and follow the pattern 530-335-xxxx. Hat Creek is home to the Hat Creek Radio Observatory, run by SETI Institute.
The town's main economies are tourism, fishing, camping, and lodging. It's a travel hot spot in Shasta County, about east of Redding, California and about the same distance to Susanville, California.
In 2021 the town was threatened by the Dixie Fire.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP covers an area of , 99.66% of it land and 0.34% of it water.
Hat Creek has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Csb) according to the Köppen climate classification system.
The 2020 United States census reported that Hat Creek had a population of 266. The population density was . The racial makeup of Hat Creek was 183 (68.8%) White, 0 (0.0%) African American, 37 (13.9%) Native American, 2 (0.8%) Asian, 5 (1.9%) Pacific Islander, 21 (7.9%) from other races, and 18 (6.8%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 30 persons (11.3%).
The census reported that 95.5% of the population lived in households, 12 people (4.5%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and no one was institutionalized.
There were 106 households, out of which 27 (25.5%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 38 (35.8%) were married-couple households, 8 (7.5%) were cohabiting couple households, 29 (27.4%) had a female householder with no partner present, and 31 (29.2%) had a male householder with no partner present. 36 households (34.0%) were one person, and 19 (17.9%) were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.4. There were 66 families (62.3% of all households).
The age distribution was 48 people (18.0%) under the age of 18, 24 people (9.0%) aged 18 to 24, 38 people (14.3%) aged 25 to 44, 66 people (24.8%) aged 45 to 64, and 90 people (33.8%) who were 65years of age or older. The median age was 53.7years. For every 100 females, there were 123.5 males.
There were 166 housing units at an average density of , of which 106 (63.9%) were occupied. Of these, 66 (62.3%) were owner-occupied, and 40 (37.7%) were occupied by renters.
In the state legislature Hat Creek is in , and .
Federally, Hat Creek is in .