Carlsbad vs Vista

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

Carlsbad and Vista 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 98,646 in Vista). Carlsbad has the higher median household income ($139,326 vs $91,854 in Vista). Carlsbad has the higher median home value ($1,156,900 vs $674,400 in Vista).

Population, income & housing

	Carlsbad	Vista
Population	114,500	98,646
Median age	42.8 yrs	34.9 yrs
Median household income	$139,326	$91,854
Median home value	$1,156,900	$674,400
Median gross rent	$2,678	$2,148
Housing units	47,460	32,589
Homeownership rate	63.3%	49.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	61.4%	27.2%
Unemployment rate	6.3%	6.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Carlsbad	Vista
Population	114,253 → 114,500 (+0.2%)	100,686 → 98,646 (-2.0%)
Median household income	$110,478 → $139,326 (+26.1%)	$72,125 → $91,854 (+27.4%)
Median home value	$814,700 → $1,156,900 (+42.0%)	$480,900 → $674,400 (+40.2%)
Median gross rent	$2,025 → $2,678 (+32.2%)	$1,669 → $2,148 (+28.7%)

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

Vista

Population

100,68698,646

Median household income

$72,125$91,854

Median home value

$480,900$674,400

Median gross rent

$1,669$2,148

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Carlsbad	Vista
Under 5	4.4%	6.2%
5 to 17	18.6%	18.4%
18 to 24	6.0%	9.9%
25 to 34	10.6%	15.6%
35 to 44	13.8%	15.1%
45 to 54	14.2%	12.7%
55 to 64	14.0%	9.6%
65 to 74	10.2%	7.6%
75 and over	8.2%	4.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Carlsbad	Vista
White (non-Hispanic)	66.0%	36.7%
Black or African American	1.0%	2.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.4%
Asian	9.4%	4.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.8%
Some other race	0.6%	0.2%
Two or more races	6.1%	4.6%
Hispanic or Latino	16.8%	49.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Carlsbad	Vista
No high school diploma	3.9%	18.7%
High school graduate	9.1%	22.1%
Some college or associate's	25.5%	32.0%
Bachelor's degree	36.8%	18.3%
Graduate or professional degree	24.6%	8.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Carlsbad	Vista
Drove alone	62.3%	75.7%
Carpooled	5.1%	7.4%
Public transit	0.8%	1.0%
Walked	1.2%	1.0%
Bicycle	0.5%	0.1%
Worked from home	29.0%	13.2%
Other means	1.1%	1.8%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Carlsbad	Vista
1-unit, detached	53.3%	48.9%
1-unit, attached	15.9%	8.0%
2 to 4 units	6.0%	5.5%
5 to 19 units	12.7%	20.2%
20 or more units	9.9%	11.4%
Mobile home & other	2.2%	5.9%

Poverty & households

	Carlsbad	Vista
Poverty rate	6.9%	10.2%
Average household size	2.59	3.07
Mean commute (minutes)	28	27
Median year structure built	1988	1984