Monterey vs Salinas

A side-by-side comparison of Monterey and Salinas: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Salinas has the higher population (161,993 vs 29,772 in Monterey). Monterey has the higher median household income ($104,110 vs $89,150 in Salinas). Monterey has the higher median home value ($1,003,300 vs $610,900 in Salinas).

Population, income & housing

	Monterey	Salinas
Population	29,772	161,993
Median age	37.1 yrs	32.1 yrs
Median household income	$104,110	$89,150
Median home value	$1,003,300	$610,900
Median gross rent	$2,288	$1,923
Housing units	13,760	45,206
Homeownership rate	37.9%	47.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	54.4%	15.5%
Unemployment rate	5.5%	4.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Monterey	Salinas
Population	28,352 → 29,772 (+5.0%)	156,143 → 161,993 (+3.7%)
Median household income	$80,694 → $104,110 (+29.0%)	$61,527 → $89,150 (+44.9%)
Median home value	$782,500 → $1,003,300 (+28.2%)	$415,000 → $610,900 (+47.2%)
Median gross rent	$1,793 → $2,288 (+27.6%)	$1,411 → $1,923 (+36.3%)

Monterey

Population

28,35229,772

Median household income

$80,694$104,110

Median home value

$782,500$1,003,300

Median gross rent

$1,793$2,288

Salinas

Population

156,143161,993

Median household income

$61,527$89,150

Median home value

$415,000$610,900

Median gross rent

$1,411$1,923

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Monterey	Salinas
Under 5	5.4%	8.2%
5 to 17	9.0%	21.8%
18 to 24	12.0%	10.2%
25 to 34	20.6%	14.3%
35 to 44	11.6%	14.0%
45 to 54	9.5%	11.4%
55 to 64	12.2%	9.9%
65 to 74	9.6%	5.9%
75 and over	10.1%	4.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Monterey	Salinas
White (non-Hispanic)	63.4%	11.5%
Black or African American	3.2%	1.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.1%
Asian	6.5%	5.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.5%	0.1%
Some other race	1.1%	0.2%
Two or more races	4.1%	1.4%
Hispanic or Latino	21.1%	80.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Monterey	Salinas
No high school diploma	6.1%	37.6%
High school graduate	12.7%	23.5%
Some college or associate's	26.7%	23.4%
Bachelor's degree	27.6%	11.4%
Graduate or professional degree	26.8%	4.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Monterey	Salinas
Drove alone	58.3%	72.7%
Carpooled	4.5%	11.3%
Public transit	3.2%	0.9%
Walked	10.1%	1.2%
Bicycle	1.7%	0.1%
Worked from home	20.5%	4.3%
Other means	1.7%	9.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Monterey	Salinas
1-unit, detached	44.5%	56.4%
1-unit, attached	7.1%	6.0%
2 to 4 units	20.6%	8.1%
5 to 19 units	14.3%	16.5%
20 or more units	13.6%	8.5%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	4.5%

Poverty & households

	Monterey	Salinas
Poverty rate	10.5%	14.2%
Average household size	2.12	3.66
Mean commute (minutes)	19	27
Median year structure built	1970	1976