Cathedral City vs Palm Desert

A side-by-side comparison of Cathedral City and Palm Desert: population, income, housing, and more.

Cathedral City and Palm Desert are places in California. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Cathedral City has the higher population (52,047 vs 51,551 in Palm Desert). Palm Desert has the higher median household income ($79,508 vs $67,031 in Cathedral City). Palm Desert has the higher median home value ($491,600 vs $420,700 in Cathedral City).

Population, income & housing

	Cathedral City	Palm Desert
Population	52,047	51,551
Median age	40.9 yrs	56.7 yrs
Median household income	$67,031	$79,508
Median home value	$420,700	$491,600
Median gross rent	$1,554	$1,717
Housing units	23,114	36,584
Homeownership rate	65.3%	64.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	25.8%	39.9%
Unemployment rate	6.4%	6.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Cathedral City	Palm Desert
Population	54,357 → 52,047 (-4.2%)	52,575 → 51,551 (-1.9%)
Median household income	$46,521 → $67,031 (+44.1%)	$59,977 → $79,508 (+32.6%)
Median home value	$279,500 → $420,700 (+50.5%)	$350,400 → $491,600 (+40.3%)
Median gross rent	$1,193 → $1,554 (+30.3%)	$1,319 → $1,717 (+30.2%)

Cathedral City

Population

54,35752,047

Median household income

$46,521$67,031

Median home value

$279,500$420,700

Median gross rent

$1,193$1,554

Palm Desert

Population

52,57551,551

Median household income

$59,977$79,508

Median home value

$350,400$491,600

Median gross rent

$1,319$1,717

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Cathedral City	Palm Desert
Under 5	4.8%	2.8%
5 to 17	15.3%	10.5%
18 to 24	8.1%	6.1%
25 to 34	13.0%	9.9%
35 to 44	13.0%	9.8%
45 to 54	11.6%	9.1%
55 to 64	15.2%	14.5%
65 to 74	11.0%	17.0%
75 and over	8.1%	20.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Cathedral City	Palm Desert
White (non-Hispanic)	30.5%	64.3%
Black or African American	1.8%	2.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.1%
Asian	6.1%	4.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.1%
Some other race	0.1%	0.2%
Two or more races	2.3%	3.0%
Hispanic or Latino	58.9%	26.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Cathedral City	Palm Desert
No high school diploma	19.1%	7.3%
High school graduate	27.7%	17.6%
Some college or associate's	27.4%	35.3%
Bachelor's degree	15.7%	24.3%
Graduate or professional degree	10.1%	15.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Cathedral City	Palm Desert
Drove alone	73.8%	69.6%
Carpooled	13.5%	12.8%
Public transit	1.2%	0.7%
Walked	1.0%	1.1%
Bicycle	0.4%	0.2%
Worked from home	8.8%	14.1%
Other means	1.3%	1.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Cathedral City	Palm Desert
1-unit, detached	57.0%	38.2%
1-unit, attached	8.9%	29.8%
2 to 4 units	11.2%	7.2%
5 to 19 units	7.8%	7.8%
20 or more units	3.8%	7.8%
Mobile home & other	11.3%	9.3%

Poverty & households

	Cathedral City	Palm Desert
Poverty rate	15.3%	11.3%
Average household size	2.69	2.11
Mean commute (minutes)	20	22
Median year structure built	1987	1985