Berkeley vs Pleasanton

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

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

Berkeley has the higher population (120,223 vs 77,500 in Pleasanton). Pleasanton has the higher median household income ($186,206 vs $108,558 in Berkeley). Pleasanton has the higher median home value ($1,432,300 vs $1,351,100 in Berkeley).

Population, income & housing

	Berkeley	Pleasanton
Population	120,223	77,500
Median age	32.9 yrs	42.4 yrs
Median household income	$108,558	$186,206
Median home value	$1,351,100	$1,432,300
Median gross rent	$2,127	$3,017
Housing units	52,112	28,663
Homeownership rate	43.3%	67.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	75.1%	68.7%
Unemployment rate	6.0%	4.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Berkeley	Pleasanton
Population	121,485 → 120,223 (-1.0%)	81,717 → 77,500 (-5.2%)
Median household income	$85,530 → $108,558 (+26.9%)	$156,400 → $186,206 (+19.1%)
Median home value	$1,004,900 → $1,351,100 (+34.5%)	$986,800 → $1,432,300 (+45.1%)
Median gross rent	$1,722 → $2,127 (+23.5%)	$2,396 → $3,017 (+25.9%)

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

Pleasanton

Population

81,71777,500

Median household income

$156,400$186,206

Median home value

$986,800$1,432,300

Median gross rent

$2,396$3,017

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Berkeley	Pleasanton
Under 5	3.0%	4.4%
5 to 17	9.1%	18.9%
18 to 24	24.3%	5.7%
25 to 34	16.4%	9.8%
35 to 44	10.9%	15.3%
45 to 54	10.0%	16.3%
55 to 64	9.6%	13.1%
65 to 74	10.1%	9.1%
75 and over	6.4%	7.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Berkeley	Pleasanton
White (non-Hispanic)	51.7%	38.8%
Black or African American	7.1%	1.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.2%
Asian	20.6%	41.6%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.3%
Some other race	0.9%	0.2%
Two or more races	7.3%	4.7%
Hispanic or Latino	12.1%	12.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Berkeley	Pleasanton
No high school diploma	3.9%	3.8%
High school graduate	6.6%	9.7%
Some college or associate's	14.4%	17.8%
Bachelor's degree	33.4%	36.2%
Graduate or professional degree	41.6%	32.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Berkeley	Pleasanton
Drove alone	27.4%	55.8%
Carpooled	3.8%	6.1%
Public transit	15.8%	7.0%
Walked	13.5%	1.8%
Bicycle	4.8%	1.1%
Worked from home	32.5%	26.3%
Other means	2.3%	1.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Berkeley	Pleasanton
1-unit, detached	40.4%	60.7%
1-unit, attached	3.6%	11.7%
2 to 4 units	18.0%	5.2%
5 to 19 units	18.7%	7.5%
20 or more units	19.1%	13.3%
Mobile home & other	0.2%	1.6%

Poverty & households

	Berkeley	Pleasanton
Poverty rate	16.8%	5.5%
Average household size	2.30	2.78
Mean commute (minutes)	30	34
Median year structure built	1946	1984