Placentia vs Rancho Santa Margarita

A side-by-side comparison of Placentia and Rancho Santa Margarita: population, income, housing, and more.

Placentia and Rancho Santa Margarita 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 47,257 in Rancho Santa Margarita). Rancho Santa Margarita has the higher median household income ($146,827 vs $110,575 in Placentia). Rancho Santa Margarita has the higher median home value ($907,900 vs $871,000 in Placentia).

Population, income & housing

	Placentia	Rancho Santa Margarita
Population	52,384	47,257
Median age	38.0 yrs	40.3 yrs
Median household income	$110,575	$146,827
Median home value	$871,000	$907,900
Median gross rent	$2,267	$2,481
Housing units	17,545	17,424
Homeownership rate	63.3%	73.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	43.7%	48.8%
Unemployment rate	5.4%	4.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Placentia	Rancho Santa Margarita
Population	51,818 → 52,384 (+1.1%)	48,503 → 47,257 (-2.6%)
Median household income	$95,757 → $110,575 (+15.5%)	$121,017 → $146,827 (+21.3%)
Median home value	$630,500 → $871,000 (+38.1%)	$662,200 → $907,900 (+37.1%)
Median gross rent	$1,792 → $2,267 (+26.5%)	$2,084 → $2,481 (+19.0%)

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

Rancho Santa Margarita

Population

48,50347,257

Median household income

$121,017$146,827

Median home value

$662,200$907,900

Median gross rent

$2,084$2,481

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Placentia	Rancho Santa Margarita
Under 5	5.3%	5.4%
5 to 17	18.7%	17.2%
18 to 24	8.6%	7.1%
25 to 34	13.4%	11.3%
35 to 44	13.3%	16.0%
45 to 54	12.5%	15.4%
55 to 64	13.7%	16.1%
65 to 74	8.4%	7.2%
75 and over	6.1%	4.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Placentia	Rancho Santa Margarita
White (non-Hispanic)	38.9%	59.6%
Black or African American	2.3%	1.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.2%
Asian	18.0%	12.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.0%
Some other race	0.6%	0.4%
Two or more races	4.3%	6.4%
Hispanic or Latino	35.9%	20.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Placentia	Rancho Santa Margarita
No high school diploma	9.1%	5.4%
High school graduate	19.0%	13.2%
Some college or associate's	28.1%	32.7%
Bachelor's degree	26.8%	32.0%
Graduate or professional degree	16.9%	16.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Placentia	Rancho Santa Margarita
Drove alone	71.7%	66.8%
Carpooled	8.9%	8.3%
Public transit	1.6%	0.2%
Walked	1.5%	1.1%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.2%
Worked from home	13.9%	22.6%
Other means	2.2%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Placentia	Rancho Santa Margarita
1-unit, detached	59.6%	54.5%
1-unit, attached	10.4%	19.7%
2 to 4 units	7.6%	5.8%
5 to 19 units	6.7%	11.3%
20 or more units	11.4%	8.5%
Mobile home & other	4.3%	0.2%

Poverty & households

	Placentia	Rancho Santa Margarita
Poverty rate	8.5%	5.1%
Average household size	3.05	2.77
Mean commute (minutes)	29	27
Median year structure built	1976	1992