Descanso vs Pala

A side-by-side comparison of Descanso and Pala: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Descanso has the higher population (1,670 vs 924 in Pala). Descanso has the higher median household income ($125,714 vs $90,938 in Pala). Descanso has the higher median home value ($606,100 vs $265,000 in Pala).

Population, income & housing

	Descanso	Pala
Population	1,670	924
Median age	54.8 yrs	31.5 yrs
Median household income	$125,714	$90,938
Median home value	$606,100	$265,000
Median gross rent	$3,318	$1,235
Housing units	678	308
Homeownership rate	64.4%	59.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	20.5%	6.1%
Unemployment rate	0.9%	5.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Descanso	Pala
Population	1,568 → 1,670 (+6.5%)	1,005 → 924 (-8.1%)
Median household income	$92,232 → $125,714 (+36.3%)	$93,194 → $90,938 (-2.4%)
Median home value	$380,700 → $606,100 (+59.2%)	$301,500 → $265,000 (-12.1%)
Median gross rent	$944 → $3,318 (+251.5%)	$1,069 → $1,235 (+15.5%)

Descanso

Population

1,5681,670

Median household income

$92,232$125,714

Median home value

$380,700$606,100

Median gross rent

$944$3,318

Pala

Population

1,005924

Median household income

$93,194$90,938

Median home value

$301,500$265,000

Median gross rent

$1,069$1,235

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Descanso	Pala
Under 5	2.9%	10.4%
5 to 17	13.8%	19.0%
18 to 24	8.6%	14.2%
25 to 34	12.0%	11.8%
35 to 44	4.9%	9.4%
45 to 54	8.2%	14.1%
55 to 64	27.7%	11.8%
65 to 74	17.3%	4.8%
75 and over	4.7%	4.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Descanso	Pala
White (non-Hispanic)	78.9%	4.7%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.8%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	42.4%
Asian	0.2%	1.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	1.3%	0.0%
Two or more races	4.7%	0.0%
Hispanic or Latino	14.9%	50.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Descanso	Pala
No high school diploma	6.0%	31.9%
High school graduate	39.5%	30.3%
Some college or associate's	34.0%	31.7%
Bachelor's degree	7.3%	3.8%
Graduate or professional degree	13.2%	2.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Descanso	Pala
Drove alone	76.1%	90.1%
Carpooled	11.3%	5.1%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.0%	0.7%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	11.3%	4.1%
Other means	1.4%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Descanso	Pala
1-unit, detached	91.0%	60.7%
1-unit, attached	4.1%	0.6%
2 to 4 units	0.0%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	0.6%	0.0%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	4.3%	38.6%

Poverty & households

	Descanso	Pala
Poverty rate	2.0%	12.3%
Average household size	2.73	3.46
Mean commute (minutes)	28	20
Median year structure built	1973	1982