Hawthorne vs Santa Monica

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

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

Santa Monica has the higher population (91,535 vs 85,933 in Hawthorne). Santa Monica has the higher median household income ($109,739 vs $72,719 in Hawthorne). Santa Monica has the higher median home value ($1,810,200 vs $813,700 in Hawthorne).

Population, income & housing

	Hawthorne	Santa Monica
Population	85,933	91,535
Median age	33.6 yrs	42.9 yrs
Median household income	$72,719	$109,739
Median home value	$813,700	$1,810,200
Median gross rent	$1,723	$2,338
Housing units	31,056	52,381
Homeownership rate	27.5%	28.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	25.0%	68.9%
Unemployment rate	7.8%	6.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Hawthorne	Santa Monica
Population	87,107 → 85,933 (-1.3%)	91,577 → 91,535 (-0.0%)
Median household income	$54,215 → $72,719 (+34.1%)	$96,570 → $109,739 (+13.6%)
Median home value	$564,300 → $813,700 (+44.2%)	$1,382,700 → $1,810,200 (+30.9%)
Median gross rent	$1,261 → $1,723 (+36.6%)	$1,802 → $2,338 (+29.7%)

Hawthorne

Population

87,10785,933

Median household income

$54,215$72,719

Median home value

$564,300$813,700

Median gross rent

$1,261$1,723

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)

	Hawthorne	Santa Monica
Under 5	6.6%	4.3%
5 to 17	18.4%	9.8%
18 to 24	8.7%	5.4%
25 to 34	18.9%	18.3%
35 to 44	14.3%	15.0%
45 to 54	13.3%	13.4%
55 to 64	10.1%	14.4%
65 to 74	6.0%	10.1%
75 and over	3.6%	9.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Hawthorne	Santa Monica
White (non-Hispanic)	9.5%	61.8%
Black or African American	24.6%	4.8%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.2%
Asian	6.3%	9.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.4%	0.1%
Some other race	0.6%	0.9%
Two or more races	2.6%	6.4%
Hispanic or Latino	55.8%	16.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Hawthorne	Santa Monica
No high school diploma	21.7%	5.2%
High school graduate	24.4%	8.5%
Some college or associate's	29.0%	17.3%
Bachelor's degree	17.0%	39.5%
Graduate or professional degree	7.9%	29.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Hawthorne	Santa Monica
Drove alone	70.3%	50.6%
Carpooled	10.5%	3.0%
Public transit	4.0%	2.8%
Walked	1.6%	5.4%
Bicycle	0.7%	2.7%
Worked from home	9.4%	33.1%
Other means	3.6%	2.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Hawthorne	Santa Monica
1-unit, detached	26.6%	19.3%
1-unit, attached	6.2%	3.2%
2 to 4 units	13.2%	10.4%
5 to 19 units	22.5%	38.9%
20 or more units	30.8%	28.0%
Mobile home & other	0.7%	0.2%

Poverty & households

	Hawthorne	Santa Monica
Poverty rate	16.4%	11.6%
Average household size	2.85	1.92
Mean commute (minutes)	29	26
Median year structure built	1972	1967