Carlsbad vs Oceanside

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

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

Oceanside has the higher population (172,542 vs 114,500 in Carlsbad). Carlsbad has the higher median household income ($139,326 vs $93,724 in Oceanside). Carlsbad has the higher median home value ($1,156,900 vs $702,000 in Oceanside).

Population, income & housing

	Carlsbad	Oceanside
Population	114,500	172,542
Median age	42.8 yrs	38.1 yrs
Median household income	$139,326	$93,724
Median home value	$1,156,900	$702,000
Median gross rent	$2,678	$2,207
Housing units	47,460	66,744
Homeownership rate	63.3%	58.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	61.4%	34.3%
Unemployment rate	6.3%	5.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Carlsbad	Oceanside
Population	114,253 → 114,500 (+0.2%)	175,622 → 172,542 (-1.8%)
Median household income	$110,478 → $139,326 (+26.1%)	$72,697 → $93,724 (+28.9%)
Median home value	$814,700 → $1,156,900 (+42.0%)	$492,600 → $702,000 (+42.5%)
Median gross rent	$2,025 → $2,678 (+32.2%)	$1,753 → $2,207 (+25.9%)

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

Oceanside

Population

175,622172,542

Median household income

$72,697$93,724

Median home value

$492,600$702,000

Median gross rent

$1,753$2,207

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Carlsbad	Oceanside
Under 5	4.4%	5.8%
5 to 17	18.6%	15.4%
18 to 24	6.0%	8.7%
25 to 34	10.6%	15.7%
35 to 44	13.8%	13.4%
45 to 54	14.2%	11.8%
55 to 64	14.0%	13.4%
65 to 74	10.2%	9.1%
75 and over	8.2%	6.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Carlsbad	Oceanside
White (non-Hispanic)	66.0%	43.3%
Black or African American	1.0%	3.9%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	9.4%	7.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.5%
Some other race	0.6%	0.7%
Two or more races	6.1%	5.8%
Hispanic or Latino	16.8%	38.5%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Carlsbad	Oceanside
No high school diploma	3.9%	13.5%
High school graduate	9.1%	18.8%
Some college or associate's	25.5%	33.3%
Bachelor's degree	36.8%	22.1%
Graduate or professional degree	24.6%	12.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Carlsbad	Oceanside
Drove alone	62.3%	71.4%
Carpooled	5.1%	7.9%
Public transit	0.8%	2.1%
Walked	1.2%	1.1%
Bicycle	0.5%	0.2%
Worked from home	29.0%	14.8%
Other means	1.1%	2.4%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Carlsbad	Oceanside
1-unit, detached	53.3%	52.2%
1-unit, attached	15.9%	12.5%
2 to 4 units	6.0%	7.6%
5 to 19 units	12.7%	14.1%
20 or more units	9.9%	9.3%
Mobile home & other	2.2%	4.2%

Poverty & households

	Carlsbad	Oceanside
Poverty rate	6.9%	8.1%
Average household size	2.59	2.79
Mean commute (minutes)	28	30
Median year structure built	1988	1984