Surprise vs Tempe

A side-by-side comparison of Surprise and Tempe: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Tempe has the higher population (186,419 vs 149,519 in Surprise). Surprise has the higher median household income ($93,371 vs $77,643 in Tempe). Tempe has the higher median home value ($421,900 vs $396,000 in Surprise).

Population, income & housing

	Surprise	Tempe
Population	149,519	186,419
Median age	41.6 yrs	29.9 yrs
Median household income	$93,371	$77,643
Median home value	$396,000	$421,900
Median gross rent	$1,917	$1,623
Housing units	60,356	84,664
Homeownership rate	79.0%	41.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	31.0%	49.5%
Unemployment rate	4.2%	5.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Surprise	Tempe
Population	135,450 → 149,519 (+10.4%)	187,454 → 186,419 (-0.6%)
Median household income	$69,076 → $93,371 (+35.2%)	$57,994 → $77,643 (+33.9%)
Median home value	$239,500 → $396,000 (+65.3%)	$272,900 → $421,900 (+54.6%)
Median gross rent	$1,349 → $1,917 (+42.1%)	$1,164 → $1,623 (+39.4%)

Surprise

Population

135,450149,519

Median household income

$69,076$93,371

Median home value

$239,500$396,000

Median gross rent

$1,349$1,917

Tempe

Population

187,454186,419

Median household income

$57,994$77,643

Median home value

$272,900$421,900

Median gross rent

$1,164$1,623

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Surprise	Tempe
Under 5	5.6%	4.1%
5 to 17	18.2%	10.2%
18 to 24	7.3%	22.3%
25 to 34	10.7%	23.0%
35 to 44	12.2%	11.7%
45 to 54	12.7%	8.6%
55 to 64	10.9%	9.1%
65 to 74	11.2%	6.1%
75 and over	11.3%	4.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Surprise	Tempe
White (non-Hispanic)	66.9%	52.4%
Black or African American	4.6%	7.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.8%	1.7%
Asian	2.5%	9.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.3%	0.4%
Some other race	0.8%	0.7%
Two or more races	5.0%	5.0%
Hispanic or Latino	19.2%	23.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Surprise	Tempe
No high school diploma	5.7%	6.2%
High school graduate	25.2%	15.5%
Some college or associate's	38.0%	28.8%
Bachelor's degree	19.9%	28.9%
Graduate or professional degree	11.1%	20.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Surprise	Tempe
Drove alone	70.7%	60.6%
Carpooled	9.2%	8.1%
Public transit	0.1%	3.3%
Walked	0.8%	3.9%
Bicycle	0.2%	2.4%
Worked from home	17.6%	19.4%
Other means	1.4%	2.3%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Surprise	Tempe
1-unit, detached	85.3%	38.5%
1-unit, attached	1.7%	9.6%
2 to 4 units	1.4%	7.7%
5 to 19 units	2.9%	17.5%
20 or more units	3.9%	24.1%
Mobile home & other	4.8%	2.5%

Poverty & households

	Surprise	Tempe
Poverty rate	7.8%	16.2%
Average household size	2.73	2.28
Mean commute (minutes)	30	21
Median year structure built	2004	1983