Brea vs Placentia

A side-by-side comparison of Brea and Placentia: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Placentia has the higher population (52,384 vs 47,337 in Brea). Brea has the higher median household income ($124,837 vs $110,575 in Placentia). Brea has the higher median home value ($874,300 vs $871,000 in Placentia).

Population, income & housing

	Brea	Placentia
Population	47,337	52,384
Median age	39.6 yrs	38.0 yrs
Median household income	$124,837	$110,575
Median home value	$874,300	$871,000
Median gross rent	$2,285	$2,267
Housing units	17,205	17,545
Homeownership rate	60.3%	63.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	50.2%	43.7%
Unemployment rate	5.2%	5.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Brea	Placentia
Population	42,678 → 47,337 (+10.9%)	51,818 → 52,384 (+1.1%)
Median household income	$94,492 → $124,837 (+32.1%)	$95,757 → $110,575 (+15.5%)
Median home value	$660,400 → $874,300 (+32.4%)	$630,500 → $871,000 (+38.1%)
Median gross rent	$1,851 → $2,285 (+23.4%)	$1,792 → $2,267 (+26.5%)

Brea

Population

42,67847,337

Median household income

$94,492$124,837

Median home value

$660,400$874,300

Median gross rent

$1,851$2,285

Placentia

Population

51,81852,384

Median household income

$95,757$110,575

Median home value

$630,500$871,000

Median gross rent

$1,792$2,267

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Brea	Placentia
Under 5	5.9%	5.3%
5 to 17	16.6%	18.7%
18 to 24	8.0%	8.6%
25 to 34	13.3%	13.4%
35 to 44	14.0%	13.3%
45 to 54	13.2%	12.5%
55 to 64	12.4%	13.7%
65 to 74	10.0%	8.4%
75 and over	6.6%	6.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Brea	Placentia
White (non-Hispanic)	36.8%	38.9%
Black or African American	1.7%	2.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	25.9%	18.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.1%
Some other race	0.4%	0.6%
Two or more races	4.3%	4.3%
Hispanic or Latino	30.8%	35.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Brea	Placentia
No high school diploma	6.8%	9.1%
High school graduate	14.4%	19.0%
Some college or associate's	28.6%	28.1%
Bachelor's degree	31.1%	26.8%
Graduate or professional degree	19.1%	16.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Brea	Placentia
Drove alone	76.5%	71.7%
Carpooled	7.3%	8.9%
Public transit	0.7%	1.6%
Walked	1.1%	1.5%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.2%
Worked from home	12.9%	13.9%
Other means	1.3%	2.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Brea	Placentia
1-unit, detached	54.1%	59.6%
1-unit, attached	11.5%	10.4%
2 to 4 units	3.9%	7.6%
5 to 19 units	8.0%	6.7%
20 or more units	18.5%	11.4%
Mobile home & other	3.9%	4.3%

Poverty & households

	Brea	Placentia
Poverty rate	6.4%	8.5%
Average household size	2.85	3.05
Mean commute (minutes)	31	29
Median year structure built	1978	1976