Big River vs Searles Valley

A side-by-side comparison of Big River and Searles Valley: population, income, housing, and more.

Big River and Searles Valley are places in California. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Searles Valley has the higher population (1,698 vs 1,025 in Big River). Searles Valley has the higher median household income ($65,625 vs $40,179 in Big River). Big River has the higher median home value ($132,400 vs $68,500 in Searles Valley).

Population, income & housing

	Big River	Searles Valley
Population	1,025	1,698
Median age	60.9 yrs	33.3 yrs
Median household income	$40,179	$65,625
Median home value	$132,400	$68,500
Median gross rent	$795	$809
Housing units	978	847
Homeownership rate	78.9%	60.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	9.2%	14.1%
Unemployment rate	15.0%	10.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Big River	Searles Valley
Population	1,149 → 1,025 (-10.8%)	1,689 → 1,698 (+0.5%)
Median household income	$33,534 → $40,179 (+19.8%)	$36,806 → $65,625 (+78.3%)
Median home value	$91,400 → $132,400 (+44.9%)	$57,700 → $68,500 (+18.7%)
Median gross rent	$620 → $795 (+28.2%)	$621 → $809 (+30.3%)

Big River

Population

1,1491,025

Median household income

$33,534$40,179

Median home value

$91,400$132,400

Median gross rent

$620$795

Searles Valley

Population

1,6891,698

Median household income

$36,806$65,625

Median home value

$57,700$68,500

Median gross rent

$621$809

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Big River	Searles Valley
Under 5	0.9%	5.8%
5 to 17	6.6%	26.4%
18 to 24	2.4%	9.7%
25 to 34	2.4%	12.2%
35 to 44	4.3%	14.7%
45 to 54	8.1%	6.4%
55 to 64	36.0%	10.7%
65 to 74	20.6%	8.8%
75 and over	18.6%	5.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Big River	Searles Valley
White (non-Hispanic)	81.4%	64.0%
Black or African American	0.0%	2.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	1.6%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	1.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	1.8%
Two or more races	2.8%	8.4%
Hispanic or Latino	14.2%	22.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Big River	Searles Valley
No high school diploma	16.6%	10.9%
High school graduate	34.3%	39.3%
Some college or associate's	39.9%	35.7%
Bachelor's degree	6.7%	10.7%
Graduate or professional degree	2.5%	3.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Big River	Searles Valley
Drove alone	87.7%	76.5%
Carpooled	4.8%	13.5%
Public transit	0.9%	0.0%
Walked	0.0%	3.3%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.7%
Worked from home	6.6%	6.0%
Other means	0.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Big River	Searles Valley
1-unit, detached	49.4%	81.8%
1-unit, attached	0.5%	3.2%
2 to 4 units	3.4%	7.7%
5 to 19 units	1.0%	2.7%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.7%
Mobile home & other	45.7%	3.9%

Poverty & households

	Big River	Searles Valley
Poverty rate	19.9%	18.1%
Average household size	1.81	2.83
Mean commute (minutes)	16	19
Median year structure built	1986	1957