Berkeley vs Oakland

A side-by-side comparison of Berkeley and Oakland: population, income, housing, and more.

Berkeley and Oakland are places in California. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Oakland has the higher population (438,072 vs 120,223 in Berkeley). Berkeley has the higher median household income ($108,558 vs $97,369 in Oakland). Berkeley has the higher median home value ($1,351,100 vs $924,700 in Oakland).

Population, income & housing

	Berkeley	Oakland
Population	120,223	438,072
Median age	32.9 yrs	37.6 yrs
Median household income	$108,558	$97,369
Median home value	$1,351,100	$924,700
Median gross rent	$2,127	$1,917
Housing units	52,112	187,847
Homeownership rate	43.3%	41.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	75.1%	47.9%
Unemployment rate	6.0%	6.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Berkeley	Oakland
Population	121,485 → 120,223 (-1.0%)	425,097 → 438,072 (+3.1%)
Median household income	$85,530 → $108,558 (+26.9%)	$73,692 → $97,369 (+32.1%)
Median home value	$1,004,900 → $1,351,100 (+34.5%)	$687,400 → $924,700 (+34.5%)
Median gross rent	$1,722 → $2,127 (+23.5%)	$1,445 → $1,917 (+32.7%)

Berkeley

Population

121,485120,223

Median household income

$85,530$108,558

Median home value

$1,004,900$1,351,100

Median gross rent

$1,722$2,127

Oakland

Population

425,097438,072

Median household income

$73,692$97,369

Median home value

$687,400$924,700

Median gross rent

$1,445$1,917

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Berkeley	Oakland
Under 5	3.0%	5.7%
5 to 17	9.1%	13.6%
18 to 24	24.3%	7.0%
25 to 34	16.4%	18.8%
35 to 44	10.9%	16.6%
45 to 54	10.0%	12.8%
55 to 64	9.6%	11.3%
65 to 74	10.1%	8.4%
75 and over	6.4%	5.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Berkeley	Oakland
White (non-Hispanic)	51.7%	27.9%
Black or African American	7.1%	20.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.3%
Asian	20.6%	15.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.4%
Some other race	0.9%	0.7%
Two or more races	7.3%	5.9%
Hispanic or Latino	12.1%	28.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Berkeley	Oakland
No high school diploma	3.9%	15.2%
High school graduate	6.6%	16.2%
Some college or associate's	14.4%	20.7%
Bachelor's degree	33.4%	26.5%
Graduate or professional degree	41.6%	21.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Berkeley	Oakland
Drove alone	27.4%	47.8%
Carpooled	3.8%	7.2%
Public transit	15.8%	14.5%
Walked	13.5%	3.0%
Bicycle	4.8%	1.9%
Worked from home	32.5%	23.4%
Other means	2.3%	2.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Berkeley	Oakland
1-unit, detached	40.4%	41.6%
1-unit, attached	3.6%	4.8%
2 to 4 units	18.0%	17.5%
5 to 19 units	18.7%	13.4%
20 or more units	19.1%	22.2%
Mobile home & other	0.2%	0.5%

Poverty & households

	Berkeley	Oakland
Poverty rate	16.8%	13.7%
Average household size	2.30	2.49
Mean commute (minutes)	30	31
Median year structure built	1946	1953