Compton vs Santa Monica

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

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

Compton has the higher population (93,525 vs 91,535 in Santa Monica). Santa Monica has the higher median household income ($109,739 vs $74,270 in Compton). Santa Monica has the higher median home value ($1,810,200 vs $546,700 in Compton).

Population, income & housing

	Compton	Santa Monica
Population	93,525	91,535
Median age	33.9 yrs	42.9 yrs
Median household income	$74,270	$109,739
Median home value	$546,700	$1,810,200
Median gross rent	$1,601	$2,338
Housing units	25,154	52,381
Homeownership rate	57.4%	28.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	10.9%	68.9%
Unemployment rate	7.1%	6.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Compton	Santa Monica
Population	96,803 → 93,525 (-3.4%)	91,577 → 91,535 (-0.0%)
Median household income	$52,883 → $74,270 (+40.4%)	$96,570 → $109,739 (+13.6%)
Median home value	$355,200 → $546,700 (+53.9%)	$1,382,700 → $1,810,200 (+30.9%)
Median gross rent	$1,219 → $1,601 (+31.3%)	$1,802 → $2,338 (+29.7%)

Compton

Population

96,80393,525

Median household income

$52,883$74,270

Median home value

$355,200$546,700

Median gross rent

$1,219$1,601

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)

	Compton	Santa Monica
Under 5	7.4%	4.3%
5 to 17	20.1%	9.8%
18 to 24	9.7%	5.4%
25 to 34	14.4%	18.3%
35 to 44	14.0%	15.0%
45 to 54	12.3%	13.4%
55 to 64	11.5%	14.4%
65 to 74	6.7%	10.1%
75 and over	3.9%	9.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Compton	Santa Monica
White (non-Hispanic)	0.7%	61.8%
Black or African American	24.9%	4.8%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.2%
Asian	1.1%	9.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.1%
Some other race	0.9%	0.9%
Two or more races	1.0%	6.4%
Hispanic or Latino	71.2%	16.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Compton	Santa Monica
No high school diploma	35.6%	5.2%
High school graduate	28.1%	8.5%
Some college or associate's	25.4%	17.3%
Bachelor's degree	7.7%	39.5%
Graduate or professional degree	3.3%	29.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Compton	Santa Monica
Drove alone	77.9%	50.6%
Carpooled	11.6%	3.0%
Public transit	3.6%	2.8%
Walked	0.6%	5.4%
Bicycle	0.2%	2.7%
Worked from home	4.3%	33.1%
Other means	1.7%	2.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Compton	Santa Monica
1-unit, detached	66.9%	19.3%
1-unit, attached	6.4%	3.2%
2 to 4 units	11.6%	10.4%
5 to 19 units	8.3%	38.9%
20 or more units	3.8%	28.0%
Mobile home & other	2.9%	0.2%

Poverty & households

	Compton	Santa Monica
Poverty rate	17.1%	11.6%
Average household size	3.84	1.92
Mean commute (minutes)	30	26
Median year structure built	1957	1967