Bakersfield vs Wasco

A side-by-side comparison of Bakersfield and Wasco: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Bakersfield has the higher population (408,366 vs 26,222 in Wasco). Bakersfield has the higher median household income ($77,397 vs $55,521 in Wasco). Bakersfield has the higher median home value ($347,300 vs $251,900 in Wasco).

Population, income & housing

	Bakersfield	Wasco
Population	408,366	26,222
Median age	31.9 yrs	30.4 yrs
Median household income	$77,397	$55,521
Median home value	$347,300	$251,900
Median gross rent	$1,371	$991
Housing units	133,876	6,455
Homeownership rate	60.1%	59.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	23.3%	7.4%
Unemployment rate	7.0%	7.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Bakersfield	Wasco
Population	377,917 → 408,366 (+8.1%)	27,193 → 26,222 (-3.6%)
Median household income	$63,139 → $77,397 (+22.6%)	$39,250 → $55,521 (+41.5%)
Median home value	$247,000 → $347,300 (+40.6%)	$168,500 → $251,900 (+49.5%)
Median gross rent	$1,104 → $1,371 (+24.2%)	$756 → $991 (+31.1%)

Bakersfield

Population

377,917408,366

Median household income

$63,139$77,397

Median home value

$247,000$347,300

Median gross rent

$1,104$1,371

Wasco

Population

27,19326,222

Median household income

$39,250$55,521

Median home value

$168,500$251,900

Median gross rent

$756$991

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Bakersfield	Wasco
Under 5	7.7%	7.7%
5 to 17	21.9%	20.6%
18 to 24	9.8%	10.3%
25 to 34	15.6%	21.6%
35 to 44	13.2%	15.1%
45 to 54	11.2%	10.7%
55 to 64	9.7%	7.6%
65 to 74	6.8%	4.1%
75 and over	4.1%	2.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Bakersfield	Wasco
White (non-Hispanic)	29.0%	7.1%
Black or African American	5.8%	4.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.3%	0.4%
Asian	7.5%	0.6%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.0%
Some other race	0.5%	0.1%
Two or more races	3.2%	0.5%
Hispanic or Latino	53.6%	87.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Bakersfield	Wasco
No high school diploma	18.1%	37.7%
High school graduate	25.7%	31.3%
Some college or associate's	32.9%	23.5%
Bachelor's degree	15.1%	5.7%
Graduate or professional degree	8.2%	1.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Bakersfield	Wasco
Drove alone	80.4%	78.1%
Carpooled	9.8%	17.7%
Public transit	0.5%	0.0%
Walked	0.8%	2.0%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.0%
Worked from home	7.1%	1.9%
Other means	1.2%	0.3%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Bakersfield	Wasco
1-unit, detached	71.4%	75.8%
1-unit, attached	3.4%	2.6%
2 to 4 units	8.4%	5.8%
5 to 19 units	7.2%	2.7%
20 or more units	6.5%	8.7%
Mobile home & other	3.2%	4.4%

Poverty & households

	Bakersfield	Wasco
Poverty rate	16.0%	19.2%
Average household size	3.16	3.71
Mean commute (minutes)	24	22
Median year structure built	1989	1978