New River vs Sun Lakes

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

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

New River has the higher population (18,365 vs 14,079 in Sun Lakes). New River has the higher median household income ($120,279 vs $63,545 in Sun Lakes). New River has the higher median home value ($603,700 vs $425,500 in Sun Lakes).

Population, income & housing

	New River	Sun Lakes
Population	18,365	14,079
Median age	50.6 yrs	73.4 yrs
Median household income	$120,279	$63,545
Median home value	$603,700	$425,500
Median gross rent	$1,837	$1,875
Housing units	7,381	10,244
Homeownership rate	94.4%	87.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	31.6%	39.8%
Unemployment rate	2.9%	4.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	New River	Sun Lakes
Population	15,910 → 18,365 (+15.4%)	14,473 → 14,079 (-2.7%)
Median household income	$85,294 → $120,279 (+41.0%)	$56,779 → $63,545 (+11.9%)
Median home value	$376,700 → $603,700 (+60.3%)	$272,400 → $425,500 (+56.2%)
Median gross rent	$1,968 → $1,837 (-6.7%)	$1,450 → $1,875 (+29.3%)

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 Lakes

Population

14,47314,079

Median household income

$56,779$63,545

Median home value

$272,400$425,500

Median gross rent

$1,450$1,875

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	New River	Sun Lakes
Under 5	5.0%	0.0%
5 to 17	14.8%	0.2%
18 to 24	4.5%	0.6%
25 to 34	7.7%	0.8%
35 to 44	9.3%	0.8%
45 to 54	19.5%	3.2%
55 to 64	18.1%	15.8%
65 to 74	15.0%	35.0%
75 and over	6.0%	43.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	New River	Sun Lakes
White (non-Hispanic)	86.3%	95.4%
Black or African American	1.0%	0.9%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.2%
Asian	1.9%	0.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.4%	0.0%
Two or more races	2.3%	0.7%
Hispanic or Latino	7.9%	2.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	New River	Sun Lakes
No high school diploma	4.6%	3.6%
High school graduate	28.1%	18.9%
Some college or associate's	35.8%	37.7%
Bachelor's degree	21.0%	23.4%
Graduate or professional degree	10.6%	16.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	New River	Sun Lakes
Drove alone	66.6%	69.8%
Carpooled	8.6%	1.8%
Public transit	0.2%	0.0%
Walked	1.2%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.9%
Worked from home	22.4%	21.2%
Other means	0.9%	6.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	New River	Sun Lakes
1-unit, detached	90.8%	82.4%
1-unit, attached	0.4%	4.3%
2 to 4 units	0.0%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	0.5%
20 or more units	0.0%	4.9%
Mobile home & other	8.8%	7.9%

Poverty & households

	New River	Sun Lakes
Poverty rate	5.4%	9.9%
Average household size	2.59	1.62
Mean commute (minutes)	34	23
Median year structure built	2002	1990