New River vs Sun City

A side-by-side comparison of New River and Sun City: population, income, housing, and more.

New River and Sun City are places in Arizona. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Sun City has the higher population (38,018 vs 18,365 in New River). New River has the higher median household income ($120,279 vs $52,111 in Sun City). New River has the higher median home value ($603,700 vs $259,800 in Sun City).

Population, income & housing

	New River	Sun City
Population	18,365	38,018
Median age	50.6 yrs	72.5 yrs
Median household income	$120,279	$52,111
Median home value	$603,700	$259,800
Median gross rent	$1,837	$1,457
Housing units	7,381	27,085
Homeownership rate	94.4%	82.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	31.6%	25.6%
Unemployment rate	2.9%	5.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	New River	Sun City
Population	15,910 → 18,365 (+15.4%)	38,877 → 38,018 (-2.2%)
Median household income	$85,294 → $120,279 (+41.0%)	$40,586 → $52,111 (+28.4%)
Median home value	$376,700 → $603,700 (+60.3%)	$159,900 → $259,800 (+62.5%)
Median gross rent	$1,968 → $1,837 (-6.7%)	$1,088 → $1,457 (+33.9%)

New River

Population

15,91018,365

Median household income

$85,294$120,279

Median home value

$376,700$603,700

Median gross rent

$1,968$1,837

Sun City

Population

38,87738,018

Median household income

$40,586$52,111

Median home value

$159,900$259,800

Median gross rent

$1,088$1,457

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	New River	Sun City
Under 5	5.0%	0.1%
5 to 17	14.8%	1.1%
18 to 24	4.5%	0.7%
25 to 34	7.7%	1.1%
35 to 44	9.3%	2.1%
45 to 54	19.5%	3.7%
55 to 64	18.1%	16.2%
65 to 74	15.0%	35.2%
75 and over	6.0%	39.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	New River	Sun City
White (non-Hispanic)	86.3%	89.0%
Black or African American	1.0%	1.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.3%
Asian	1.9%	0.8%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.2%
Some other race	0.4%	0.2%
Two or more races	2.3%	2.0%
Hispanic or Latino	7.9%	6.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	New River	Sun City
No high school diploma	4.6%	6.6%
High school graduate	28.1%	30.4%
Some college or associate's	35.8%	37.4%
Bachelor's degree	21.0%	14.8%
Graduate or professional degree	10.6%	10.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	New River	Sun City
Drove alone	66.6%	67.2%
Carpooled	8.6%	7.1%
Public transit	0.2%	0.0%
Walked	1.2%	0.5%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.4%
Worked from home	22.4%	19.6%
Other means	0.9%	5.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	New River	Sun City
1-unit, detached	90.8%	61.1%
1-unit, attached	0.4%	26.9%
2 to 4 units	0.0%	2.6%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	3.1%
20 or more units	0.0%	5.5%
Mobile home & other	8.8%	0.8%

Poverty & households

	New River	Sun City
Poverty rate	5.4%	11.7%
Average household size	2.59	1.61
Mean commute (minutes)	34	23
Median year structure built	2002	1973