Mesa vs Scottsdale

A side-by-side comparison of Mesa and Scottsdale: population, income, housing, and more.

Mesa and Scottsdale are places in Arizona. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Mesa has the higher population (507,478 vs 242,169 in Scottsdale). Scottsdale has the higher median household income ($107,372 vs $78,779 in Mesa). Scottsdale has the higher median home value ($709,900 vs $364,300 in Mesa).

Population, income & housing

	Mesa	Scottsdale
Population	507,478	242,169
Median age	37.2 yrs	49.2 yrs
Median household income	$78,779	$107,372
Median home value	$364,300	$709,900
Median gross rent	$1,478	$1,910
Housing units	221,129	138,422
Homeownership rate	64.4%	67.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	31.5%	61.5%
Unemployment rate	4.6%	3.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Mesa	Scottsdale
Population	499,720 → 507,478 (+1.6%)	250,602 → 242,169 (-3.4%)
Median household income	$58,181 → $78,779 (+35.4%)	$88,213 → $107,372 (+21.7%)
Median home value	$226,500 → $364,300 (+60.8%)	$475,300 → $709,900 (+49.4%)
Median gross rent	$1,044 → $1,478 (+41.6%)	$1,365 → $1,910 (+39.9%)

Mesa

Population

499,720507,478

Median household income

$58,181$78,779

Median home value

$226,500$364,300

Median gross rent

$1,044$1,478

Scottsdale

Population

250,602242,169

Median household income

$88,213$107,372

Median home value

$475,300$709,900

Median gross rent

$1,365$1,910

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Mesa	Scottsdale
Under 5	6.2%	3.4%
5 to 17	16.8%	10.6%
18 to 24	8.8%	6.6%
25 to 34	15.3%	13.7%
35 to 44	12.5%	10.8%
45 to 54	11.6%	12.8%
55 to 64	11.5%	15.9%
65 to 74	9.7%	13.8%
75 and over	7.5%	12.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Mesa	Scottsdale
White (non-Hispanic)	60.7%	78.7%
Black or African American	4.1%	1.9%
American Indian & Alaska Native	1.5%	0.7%
Asian	2.3%	5.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.2%	0.1%
Some other race	0.3%	0.6%
Two or more races	4.2%	3.6%
Hispanic or Latino	26.6%	9.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Mesa	Scottsdale
No high school diploma	9.0%	2.5%
High school graduate	23.9%	11.2%
Some college or associate's	35.6%	24.8%
Bachelor's degree	20.9%	37.1%
Graduate or professional degree	10.5%	24.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Mesa	Scottsdale
Drove alone	67.7%	62.1%
Carpooled	11.0%	4.5%
Public transit	0.9%	0.4%
Walked	1.4%	1.7%
Bicycle	0.4%	0.7%
Worked from home	16.9%	29.0%
Other means	1.7%	1.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Mesa	Scottsdale
1-unit, detached	55.1%	53.0%
1-unit, attached	6.0%	11.5%
2 to 4 units	6.1%	5.6%
5 to 19 units	11.2%	10.9%
20 or more units	8.3%	18.1%
Mobile home & other	13.3%	1.0%

Poverty & households

	Mesa	Scottsdale
Poverty rate	10.5%	7.1%
Average household size	2.56	2.04
Mean commute (minutes)	25	22
Median year structure built	1988	1990