Fullerton vs Santa Ana

A side-by-side comparison of Fullerton and Santa Ana: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Santa Ana has the higher population (311,639 vs 141,278 in Fullerton). Fullerton has the higher median household income ($104,219 vs $88,354 in Santa Ana). Fullerton has the higher median home value ($859,600 vs $657,800 in Santa Ana).

Population, income & housing

	Fullerton	Santa Ana
Population	141,278	311,639
Median age	36.1 yrs	34.3 yrs
Median household income	$104,219	$88,354
Median home value	$859,600	$657,800
Median gross rent	$2,124	$1,975
Housing units	49,707	82,352
Homeownership rate	51.5%	44.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	43.6%	18.0%
Unemployment rate	6.5%	5.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Fullerton	Santa Ana
Population	139,611 → 141,278 (+1.2%)	332,794 → 311,639 (-6.4%)
Median household income	$79,978 → $104,219 (+30.3%)	$66,145 → $88,354 (+33.6%)
Median home value	$650,000 → $859,600 (+32.2%)	$491,300 → $657,800 (+33.9%)
Median gross rent	$1,669 → $2,124 (+27.3%)	$1,563 → $1,975 (+26.4%)

Fullerton

Population

139,611141,278

Median household income

$79,978$104,219

Median home value

$650,000$859,600

Median gross rent

$1,669$2,124

Santa Ana

Population

332,794311,639

Median household income

$66,145$88,354

Median home value

$491,300$657,800

Median gross rent

$1,563$1,975

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Fullerton	Santa Ana
Under 5	6.0%	5.5%
5 to 17	16.6%	17.9%
18 to 24	10.1%	11.1%
25 to 34	15.5%	16.4%
35 to 44	12.5%	14.2%
45 to 54	12.9%	12.6%
55 to 64	11.9%	11.1%
65 to 74	8.0%	6.8%
75 and over	6.5%	4.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Fullerton	Santa Ana
White (non-Hispanic)	30.3%	8.7%
Black or African American	1.8%	0.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	24.4%	11.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.2%	0.1%
Some other race	0.4%	0.2%
Two or more races	3.2%	1.0%
Hispanic or Latino	39.6%	77.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Fullerton	Santa Ana
No high school diploma	11.7%	33.9%
High school graduate	15.7%	26.0%
Some college or associate's	28.9%	22.1%
Bachelor's degree	27.4%	12.8%
Graduate or professional degree	16.2%	5.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Fullerton	Santa Ana
Drove alone	70.6%	70.8%
Carpooled	10.3%	13.7%
Public transit	2.2%	3.0%
Walked	2.3%	1.4%
Bicycle	0.6%	0.5%
Worked from home	12.6%	8.7%
Other means	1.2%	2.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Fullerton	Santa Ana
1-unit, detached	52.1%	44.8%
1-unit, attached	8.4%	7.1%
2 to 4 units	8.3%	10.4%
5 to 19 units	11.2%	14.7%
20 or more units	17.9%	17.8%
Mobile home & other	2.1%	5.2%

Poverty & households

	Fullerton	Santa Ana
Poverty rate	12.2%	11.1%
Average household size	2.91	3.86
Mean commute (minutes)	30	25
Median year structure built	1969	1968