Carson vs Santa Monica

A side-by-side comparison of Carson and Santa Monica: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Carson has the higher population (93,523 vs 91,535 in Santa Monica). Santa Monica has the higher median household income ($109,739 vs $107,391 in Carson). Santa Monica has the higher median home value ($1,810,200 vs $645,600 in Carson).

Population, income & housing

	Carson	Santa Monica
Population	93,523	91,535
Median age	41.9 yrs	42.9 yrs
Median household income	$107,391	$109,739
Median home value	$645,600	$1,810,200
Median gross rent	$1,914	$2,338
Housing units	27,713	52,381
Homeownership rate	74.0%	28.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	29.1%	68.9%
Unemployment rate	6.9%	6.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Carson	Santa Monica
Population	92,079 → 93,523 (+1.6%)	91,577 → 91,535 (-0.0%)
Median household income	$82,305 → $107,391 (+30.5%)	$96,570 → $109,739 (+13.6%)
Median home value	$462,600 → $645,600 (+39.6%)	$1,382,700 → $1,810,200 (+30.9%)
Median gross rent	$1,524 → $1,914 (+25.6%)	$1,802 → $2,338 (+29.7%)

Carson

Population

92,07993,523

Median household income

$82,305$107,391

Median home value

$462,600$645,600

Median gross rent

$1,524$1,914

Santa Monica

Population

91,57791,535

Median household income

$96,570$109,739

Median home value

$1,382,700$1,810,200

Median gross rent

$1,802$2,338

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Carson	Santa Monica
Under 5	4.1%	4.3%
5 to 17	15.4%	9.8%
18 to 24	8.7%	5.4%
25 to 34	13.8%	18.3%
35 to 44	12.5%	15.0%
45 to 54	13.0%	13.4%
55 to 64	14.9%	14.4%
65 to 74	10.4%	10.1%
75 and over	7.3%	9.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Carson	Santa Monica
White (non-Hispanic)	6.4%	61.8%
Black or African American	22.3%	4.8%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.2%
Asian	26.6%	9.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	1.3%	0.1%
Some other race	0.5%	0.9%
Two or more races	4.0%	6.4%
Hispanic or Latino	38.9%	16.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Carson	Santa Monica
No high school diploma	16.5%	5.2%
High school graduate	22.3%	8.5%
Some college or associate's	32.2%	17.3%
Bachelor's degree	21.2%	39.5%
Graduate or professional degree	7.9%	29.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Carson	Santa Monica
Drove alone	78.2%	50.6%
Carpooled	8.3%	3.0%
Public transit	1.7%	2.8%
Walked	1.5%	5.4%
Bicycle	0.1%	2.7%
Worked from home	8.1%	33.1%
Other means	2.1%	2.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Carson	Santa Monica
1-unit, detached	72.0%	19.3%
1-unit, attached	7.0%	3.2%
2 to 4 units	1.9%	10.4%
5 to 19 units	3.4%	38.9%
20 or more units	7.0%	28.0%
Mobile home & other	8.6%	0.2%

Poverty & households

	Carson	Santa Monica
Poverty rate	9.0%	11.6%
Average household size	3.48	1.92
Mean commute (minutes)	27	26
Median year structure built	1965	1967