Los Angeles vs Palmdale

A side-by-side comparison of Los Angeles and Palmdale: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Los Angeles has the higher population (3,857,897 vs 165,487 in Palmdale). Palmdale has the higher median household income ($81,151 vs $80,366 in Los Angeles). Los Angeles has the higher median home value ($879,500 vs $435,300 in Palmdale).

Population, income & housing

	Los Angeles	Palmdale
Population	3,857,897	165,487
Median age	36.9 yrs	33.2 yrs
Median household income	$80,366	$81,151
Median home value	$879,500	$435,300
Median gross rent	$1,879	$1,736
Housing units	1,537,034	48,505
Homeownership rate	36.3%	66.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	37.8%	16.6%
Unemployment rate	7.9%	7.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Los Angeles	Palmdale
Population	3,966,936 → 3,857,897 (-2.7%)	156,293 → 165,487 (+5.9%)
Median household income	$62,142 → $80,366 (+29.3%)	$62,865 → $81,151 (+29.1%)
Median home value	$636,900 → $879,500 (+38.1%)	$280,000 → $435,300 (+55.5%)
Median gross rent	$1,450 → $1,879 (+29.6%)	$1,319 → $1,736 (+31.6%)

Los Angeles

Population

3,966,9363,857,897

Median household income

$62,142$80,366

Median home value

$636,900$879,500

Median gross rent

$1,450$1,879

Palmdale

Population

156,293165,487

Median household income

$62,865$81,151

Median home value

$280,000$435,300

Median gross rent

$1,319$1,736

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Los Angeles	Palmdale
Under 5	5.2%	7.2%
5 to 17	14.3%	21.9%
18 to 24	9.5%	9.4%
25 to 34	17.9%	13.7%
35 to 44	14.8%	13.2%
45 to 54	13.0%	12.1%
55 to 64	11.6%	11.7%
65 to 74	8.1%	7.0%
75 and over	5.7%	3.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Los Angeles	Palmdale
White (non-Hispanic)	28.3%	17.0%
Black or African American	8.2%	13.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.5%
Asian	11.8%	4.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.1%
Some other race	0.6%	0.6%
Two or more races	3.5%	1.8%
Hispanic or Latino	47.2%	62.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Los Angeles	Palmdale
No high school diploma	20.7%	23.0%
High school graduate	18.5%	30.6%
Some college or associate's	23.0%	29.8%
Bachelor's degree	24.5%	11.4%
Graduate or professional degree	13.3%	5.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Los Angeles	Palmdale
Drove alone	61.4%	74.0%
Carpooled	8.8%	13.3%
Public transit	6.7%	1.3%
Walked	3.1%	0.8%
Bicycle	0.7%	0.0%
Worked from home	17.3%	8.2%
Other means	2.0%	2.3%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Los Angeles	Palmdale
1-unit, detached	36.4%	78.5%
1-unit, attached	5.7%	1.8%
2 to 4 units	9.0%	2.8%
5 to 19 units	18.6%	4.8%
20 or more units	29.6%	7.5%
Mobile home & other	0.7%	4.6%

Poverty & households

	Los Angeles	Palmdale
Poverty rate	16.5%	14.6%
Average household size	2.64	3.55
Mean commute (minutes)	31	42
Median year structure built	1964	1989