Novato vs San Anselmo

A side-by-side comparison of Novato and San Anselmo: population, income, housing, and more.

Novato and San Anselmo are places in California. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Novato has the higher population (52,689 vs 12,711 in San Anselmo). San Anselmo has the higher median household income ($170,457 vs $112,193 in Novato). San Anselmo has the higher median home value ($1,524,300 vs $1,007,100 in Novato).

Population, income & housing

	Novato	San Anselmo
Population	52,689	12,711
Median age	47.8 yrs	45.7 yrs
Median household income	$112,193	$170,457
Median home value	$1,007,100	$1,524,300
Median gross rent	$2,422	$2,750
Housing units	21,257	5,398
Homeownership rate	65.5%	67.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	47.5%	70.8%
Unemployment rate	6.7%	5.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Novato	San Anselmo
Population	55,642 → 52,689 (-5.3%)	12,525 → 12,711 (+1.5%)
Median household income	$101,342 → $112,193 (+10.7%)	$128,212 → $170,457 (+32.9%)
Median home value	$782,500 → $1,007,100 (+28.7%)	$1,066,800 → $1,524,300 (+42.9%)
Median gross rent	$2,045 → $2,422 (+18.4%)	$1,930 → $2,750 (+42.5%)

Novato

Population

55,64252,689

Median household income

$101,342$112,193

Median home value

$782,500$1,007,100

Median gross rent

$2,045$2,422

San Anselmo

Population

12,52512,711

Median household income

$128,212$170,457

Median home value

$1,066,800$1,524,300

Median gross rent

$1,930$2,750

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Novato	San Anselmo
Under 5	4.6%	5.8%
5 to 17	16.0%	18.5%
18 to 24	5.9%	4.4%
25 to 34	8.4%	7.0%
35 to 44	12.0%	13.8%
45 to 54	14.1%	15.4%
55 to 64	15.0%	14.3%
65 to 74	14.0%	12.9%
75 and over	9.9%	7.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Novato	San Anselmo
White (non-Hispanic)	56.4%	77.1%
Black or African American	3.0%	1.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	6.5%	5.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.1%
Some other race	0.9%	0.5%
Two or more races	6.1%	6.6%
Hispanic or Latino	27.0%	8.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Novato	San Anselmo
No high school diploma	9.2%	2.4%
High school graduate	15.1%	7.2%
Some college or associate's	28.2%	19.6%
Bachelor's degree	29.3%	41.6%
Graduate or professional degree	18.1%	29.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Novato	San Anselmo
Drove alone	67.0%	55.9%
Carpooled	7.0%	2.9%
Public transit	4.2%	4.8%
Walked	2.0%	4.6%
Bicycle	0.7%	1.7%
Worked from home	17.7%	29.2%
Other means	1.4%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Novato	San Anselmo
1-unit, detached	58.1%	75.5%
1-unit, attached	12.1%	2.8%
2 to 4 units	6.2%	11.5%
5 to 19 units	10.3%	6.0%
20 or more units	10.4%	3.9%
Mobile home & other	3.0%	0.3%

Poverty & households

	Novato	San Anselmo
Poverty rate	9.0%	5.3%
Average household size	2.54	2.47
Mean commute (minutes)	28	29
Median year structure built	1974	1954