Oildale is a census-designated place in Kern County, California, United States. Oildale is located 3.5 miles north-northwest of downtown Bakersfield, at an elevation of 469 feet. The population was 32,684 at the 2010 census, up from 27,885 at the 2000 census. In the 2020 census, Oildale's population was 35,520. It is an unincorporated suburban town just north of Bakersfield across the Kern River, west of the Kern River Oil Field, and east of Highway 99.