Carlsbad vs Encinitas

A side-by-side comparison of Carlsbad and Encinitas: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Carlsbad has the higher population (114,500 vs 61,585 in Encinitas). Encinitas has the higher median household income ($150,471 vs $139,326 in Carlsbad). Encinitas has the higher median home value ($1,466,000 vs $1,156,900 in Carlsbad).

Population, income & housing

	Carlsbad	Encinitas
Population	114,500	61,585
Median age	42.8 yrs	43.0 yrs
Median household income	$139,326	$150,471
Median home value	$1,156,900	$1,466,000
Median gross rent	$2,678	$2,730
Housing units	47,460	26,209
Homeownership rate	63.3%	66.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	61.4%	67.1%
Unemployment rate	6.3%	4.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Carlsbad	Encinitas
Population	114,253 → 114,500 (+0.2%)	62,780 → 61,585 (-1.9%)
Median household income	$110,478 → $139,326 (+26.1%)	$116,022 → $150,471 (+29.7%)
Median home value	$814,700 → $1,156,900 (+42.0%)	$947,700 → $1,466,000 (+54.7%)
Median gross rent	$2,025 → $2,678 (+32.2%)	$1,980 → $2,730 (+37.9%)

Carlsbad

Population

114,253114,500

Median household income

$110,478$139,326

Median home value

$814,700$1,156,900

Median gross rent

$2,025$2,678

Encinitas

Population

62,78061,585

Median household income

$116,022$150,471

Median home value

$947,700$1,466,000

Median gross rent

$1,980$2,730

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Carlsbad	Encinitas
Under 5	4.4%	5.5%
5 to 17	18.6%	14.9%
18 to 24	6.0%	5.1%
25 to 34	10.6%	12.5%
35 to 44	13.8%	14.4%
45 to 54	14.2%	13.3%
55 to 64	14.0%	13.9%
65 to 74	10.2%	12.8%
75 and over	8.2%	7.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Carlsbad	Encinitas
White (non-Hispanic)	66.0%	73.9%
Black or African American	1.0%	0.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.2%
Asian	9.4%	4.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.1%
Some other race	0.6%	0.4%
Two or more races	6.1%	4.8%
Hispanic or Latino	16.8%	15.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Carlsbad	Encinitas
No high school diploma	3.9%	4.7%
High school graduate	9.1%	8.3%
Some college or associate's	25.5%	20.0%
Bachelor's degree	36.8%	38.9%
Graduate or professional degree	24.6%	28.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Carlsbad	Encinitas
Drove alone	62.3%	61.7%
Carpooled	5.1%	5.5%
Public transit	0.8%	0.6%
Walked	1.2%	1.4%
Bicycle	0.5%	0.9%
Worked from home	29.0%	28.7%
Other means	1.1%	1.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Carlsbad	Encinitas
1-unit, detached	53.3%	56.7%
1-unit, attached	15.9%	18.1%
2 to 4 units	6.0%	7.4%
5 to 19 units	12.7%	7.0%
20 or more units	9.9%	7.5%
Mobile home & other	2.2%	3.3%

Poverty & households

	Carlsbad	Encinitas
Poverty rate	6.9%	7.3%
Average household size	2.59	2.53
Mean commute (minutes)	28	24
Median year structure built	1988	1980