Chico vs Oroville

A side-by-side comparison of Chico and Oroville: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Chico has the higher population (102,032 vs 19,855 in Oroville). Chico has the higher median household income ($67,929 vs $51,893 in Oroville). Chico has the higher median home value ($455,300 vs $280,600 in Oroville).

Population, income & housing

	Chico	Oroville
Population	102,032	19,855
Median age	31.0 yrs	35.5 yrs
Median household income	$67,929	$51,893
Median home value	$455,300	$280,600
Median gross rent	$1,442	$1,074
Housing units	45,451	7,841
Homeownership rate	44.3%	51.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	41.3%	13.0%
Unemployment rate	6.6%	6.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Chico	Oroville
Population	94,529 → 102,032 (+7.9%)	19,393 → 19,855 (+2.4%)
Median household income	$53,324 → $67,929 (+27.4%)	$34,428 → $51,893 (+50.7%)
Median home value	$327,700 → $455,300 (+38.9%)	$183,600 → $280,600 (+52.8%)
Median gross rent	$1,100 → $1,442 (+31.1%)	$848 → $1,074 (+26.7%)

Chico

Population

94,529102,032

Median household income

$53,324$67,929

Median home value

$327,700$455,300

Median gross rent

$1,100$1,442

Oroville

Population

19,39319,855

Median household income

$34,428$51,893

Median home value

$183,600$280,600

Median gross rent

$848$1,074

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Chico	Oroville
Under 5	4.7%	7.6%
5 to 17	14.1%	16.7%
18 to 24	21.4%	7.0%
25 to 34	15.0%	17.7%
35 to 44	12.3%	14.1%
45 to 54	9.5%	9.6%
55 to 64	8.9%	13.8%
65 to 74	8.6%	8.4%
75 and over	5.5%	5.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Chico	Oroville
White (non-Hispanic)	65.7%	56.6%
Black or African American	1.9%	3.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.5%	1.4%
Asian	4.9%	11.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.4%	0.1%
Some other race	0.3%	0.7%
Two or more races	5.5%	6.5%
Hispanic or Latino	20.7%	20.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Chico	Oroville
No high school diploma	6.8%	17.0%
High school graduate	16.1%	29.4%
Some college or associate's	35.8%	40.6%
Bachelor's degree	26.9%	9.8%
Graduate or professional degree	14.4%	3.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Chico	Oroville
Drove alone	69.8%	77.4%
Carpooled	9.6%	9.0%
Public transit	0.9%	1.0%
Walked	3.5%	3.7%
Bicycle	2.3%	0.0%
Worked from home	12.2%	6.4%
Other means	1.7%	2.4%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Chico	Oroville
1-unit, detached	51.7%	61.9%
1-unit, attached	4.1%	2.4%
2 to 4 units	14.6%	10.1%
5 to 19 units	14.2%	13.8%
20 or more units	11.0%	5.8%
Mobile home & other	4.4%	6.0%

Poverty & households

	Chico	Oroville
Poverty rate	22.1%	21.8%
Average household size	2.34	2.63
Mean commute (minutes)	17	20
Median year structure built	1983	1967