Palmdale vs Santa Clarita

A side-by-side comparison of Palmdale and Santa Clarita: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Santa Clarita has the higher population (229,021 vs 165,487 in Palmdale). Santa Clarita has the higher median household income ($119,926 vs $81,151 in Palmdale). Santa Clarita has the higher median home value ($721,000 vs $435,300 in Palmdale).

Population, income & housing

	Palmdale	Santa Clarita
Population	165,487	229,021
Median age	33.2 yrs	38.1 yrs
Median household income	$81,151	$119,926
Median home value	$435,300	$721,000
Median gross rent	$1,736	$2,486
Housing units	48,505	77,808
Homeownership rate	66.2%	72.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	16.6%	39.3%
Unemployment rate	7.4%	5.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Palmdale	Santa Clarita
Population	156,293 → 165,487 (+5.9%)	213,411 → 229,021 (+7.3%)
Median household income	$62,865 → $81,151 (+29.1%)	$99,666 → $119,926 (+20.3%)
Median home value	$280,000 → $435,300 (+55.5%)	$537,000 → $721,000 (+34.3%)
Median gross rent	$1,319 → $1,736 (+31.6%)	$1,895 → $2,486 (+31.2%)

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

Santa Clarita

Population

213,411229,021

Median household income

$99,666$119,926

Median home value

$537,000$721,000

Median gross rent

$1,895$2,486

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Palmdale	Santa Clarita
Under 5	7.2%	6.3%
5 to 17	21.9%	18.6%
18 to 24	9.4%	8.1%
25 to 34	13.7%	12.5%
35 to 44	13.2%	14.2%
45 to 54	12.1%	14.2%
55 to 64	11.7%	13.0%
65 to 74	7.0%	8.0%
75 and over	3.7%	5.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Palmdale	Santa Clarita
White (non-Hispanic)	17.0%	43.3%
Black or African American	13.0%	4.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.5%	0.1%
Asian	4.3%	11.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.4%
Some other race	0.6%	0.6%
Two or more races	1.8%	4.3%
Hispanic or Latino	62.8%	36.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Palmdale	Santa Clarita
No high school diploma	23.0%	8.7%
High school graduate	30.6%	18.6%
Some college or associate's	29.8%	33.3%
Bachelor's degree	11.4%	26.5%
Graduate or professional degree	5.2%	12.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Palmdale	Santa Clarita
Drove alone	74.0%	70.9%
Carpooled	13.3%	8.3%
Public transit	1.3%	1.9%
Walked	0.8%	0.7%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.1%
Worked from home	8.2%	16.2%
Other means	2.3%	2.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Palmdale	Santa Clarita
1-unit, detached	78.5%	60.8%
1-unit, attached	1.8%	10.5%
2 to 4 units	2.8%	5.0%
5 to 19 units	4.8%	11.1%
20 or more units	7.5%	8.8%
Mobile home & other	4.6%	3.9%

Poverty & households

	Palmdale	Santa Clarita
Poverty rate	14.6%	7.7%
Average household size	3.55	3.02
Mean commute (minutes)	42	35
Median year structure built	1989	1987