Atwater vs Merced

A side-by-side comparison of Atwater and Merced: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Merced has the higher population (89,766 vs 32,013 in Atwater). Atwater has the higher median household income ($63,945 vs $59,938 in Merced). Merced has the higher median home value ($347,700 vs $340,600 in Atwater).

Population, income & housing

	Atwater	Merced
Population	32,013	89,766
Median age	33.9 yrs	29.8 yrs
Median household income	$63,945	$59,938
Median home value	$340,600	$347,700
Median gross rent	$1,219	$1,293
Housing units	10,525	29,208
Homeownership rate	52.3%	44.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	13.1%	18.0%
Unemployment rate	11.0%	12.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Atwater	Merced
Population	29,296 → 32,013 (+9.3%)	82,662 → 89,766 (+8.6%)
Median household income	$55,674 → $63,945 (+14.9%)	$45,232 → $59,938 (+32.5%)
Median home value	$229,400 → $340,600 (+48.5%)	$237,500 → $347,700 (+46.4%)
Median gross rent	$998 → $1,219 (+22.1%)	$1,005 → $1,293 (+28.7%)

Atwater

Population

29,29632,013

Median household income

$55,674$63,945

Median home value

$229,400$340,600

Median gross rent

$998$1,219

Merced

Population

82,66289,766

Median household income

$45,232$59,938

Median home value

$237,500$347,700

Median gross rent

$1,005$1,293

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Atwater	Merced
Under 5	6.1%	7.6%
5 to 17	22.2%	22.5%
18 to 24	9.2%	11.9%
25 to 34	14.2%	16.6%
35 to 44	13.6%	12.1%
45 to 54	10.9%	10.0%
55 to 64	11.1%	9.5%
65 to 74	7.7%	6.0%
75 and over	5.0%	3.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Atwater	Merced
White (non-Hispanic)	29.3%	22.7%
Black or African American	3.4%	4.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.3%
Asian	5.3%	9.7%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	1.0%	0.3%
Some other race	0.2%	0.6%
Two or more races	3.4%	3.3%
Hispanic or Latino	57.5%	58.5%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Atwater	Merced
No high school diploma	26.2%	22.8%
High school graduate	28.5%	26.8%
Some college or associate's	32.1%	32.5%
Bachelor's degree	10.8%	11.7%
Graduate or professional degree	2.3%	6.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Atwater	Merced
Drove alone	80.5%	75.4%
Carpooled	10.3%	7.4%
Public transit	0.2%	0.8%
Walked	1.2%	1.7%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.6%
Worked from home	4.3%	7.9%
Other means	3.3%	6.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Atwater	Merced
1-unit, detached	67.5%	65.1%
1-unit, attached	3.0%	1.7%
2 to 4 units	13.4%	12.5%
5 to 19 units	6.9%	12.2%
20 or more units	2.8%	5.5%
Mobile home & other	6.3%	3.1%

Poverty & households

	Atwater	Merced
Poverty rate	20.0%	23.0%
Average household size	3.09	3.22
Mean commute (minutes)	29	27
Median year structure built	1979	1983