Salinas vs Seaside

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

Salinas and Seaside 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 31,964 in Seaside). Salinas has the higher median household income ($89,150 vs $82,303 in Seaside). Seaside has the higher median home value ($692,600 vs $610,900 in Salinas).

Population, income & housing

	Salinas	Seaside
Population	161,993	31,964
Median age	32.1 yrs	33.7 yrs
Median household income	$89,150	$82,303
Median home value	$610,900	$692,600
Median gross rent	$1,923	$2,314
Housing units	45,206	10,942
Homeownership rate	47.0%	37.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	15.5%	27.5%
Unemployment rate	4.7%	6.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Salinas	Seaside
Population	156,143 → 161,993 (+3.7%)	33,956 → 31,964 (-5.9%)
Median household income	$61,527 → $89,150 (+44.9%)	$63,575 → $82,303 (+29.5%)
Median home value	$415,000 → $610,900 (+47.2%)	$488,400 → $692,600 (+41.8%)
Median gross rent	$1,411 → $1,923 (+36.3%)	$1,781 → $2,314 (+29.9%)

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

Seaside

Population

33,95631,964

Median household income

$63,575$82,303

Median home value

$488,400$692,600

Median gross rent

$1,781$2,314

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Salinas	Seaside
Under 5	8.2%	4.7%
5 to 17	21.8%	17.0%
18 to 24	10.2%	13.7%
25 to 34	14.3%	16.4%
35 to 44	14.0%	12.6%
45 to 54	11.4%	11.2%
55 to 64	9.9%	12.0%
65 to 74	5.9%	7.8%
75 and over	4.4%	4.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Salinas	Seaside
White (non-Hispanic)	11.5%	30.9%
Black or African American	1.1%	4.9%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	5.3%	10.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	1.8%
Some other race	0.2%	0.8%
Two or more races	1.4%	5.6%
Hispanic or Latino	80.3%	46.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Salinas	Seaside
No high school diploma	37.6%	18.9%
High school graduate	23.5%	21.9%
Some college or associate's	23.4%	31.8%
Bachelor's degree	11.4%	17.3%
Graduate or professional degree	4.1%	10.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Salinas	Seaside
Drove alone	72.7%	70.6%
Carpooled	11.3%	12.9%
Public transit	0.9%	1.7%
Walked	1.2%	3.3%
Bicycle	0.1%	1.4%
Worked from home	4.3%	7.9%
Other means	9.5%	2.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Salinas	Seaside
1-unit, detached	56.4%	59.6%
1-unit, attached	6.0%	11.8%
2 to 4 units	8.1%	10.5%
5 to 19 units	16.5%	11.0%
20 or more units	8.5%	3.7%
Mobile home & other	4.5%	3.5%

Poverty & households

	Salinas	Seaside
Poverty rate	14.2%	14.9%
Average household size	3.66	2.95
Mean commute (minutes)	27	22
Median year structure built	1976	1968