El Cajon vs Escondido

A side-by-side comparison of El Cajon and Escondido: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Escondido has the higher population (149,913 vs 104,909 in El Cajon). Escondido has the higher median household income ($84,477 vs $66,478 in El Cajon). Escondido has the higher median home value ($663,500 vs $632,800 in El Cajon).

Population, income & housing

	El Cajon	Escondido
Population	104,909	149,913
Median age	35.5 yrs	37.1 yrs
Median household income	$66,478	$84,477
Median home value	$632,800	$663,500
Median gross rent	$1,790	$1,922
Housing units	35,264	52,662
Homeownership rate	41.1%	52.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	22.2%	27.8%
Unemployment rate	9.2%	4.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	El Cajon	Escondido
Population	103,186 → 104,909 (+1.7%)	151,300 → 149,913 (-0.9%)
Median household income	$55,309 → $66,478 (+20.2%)	$64,038 → $84,477 (+31.9%)
Median home value	$445,600 → $632,800 (+42.0%)	$450,200 → $663,500 (+47.4%)
Median gross rent	$1,339 → $1,790 (+33.7%)	$1,448 → $1,922 (+32.7%)

El Cajon

Population

103,186104,909

Median household income

$55,309$66,478

Median home value

$445,600$632,800

Median gross rent

$1,339$1,790

Escondido

Population

151,300149,913

Median household income

$64,038$84,477

Median home value

$450,200$663,500

Median gross rent

$1,448$1,922

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	El Cajon	Escondido
Under 5	7.4%	6.5%
5 to 17	18.5%	16.3%
18 to 24	8.6%	8.5%
25 to 34	14.6%	15.1%
35 to 44	14.1%	14.4%
45 to 54	11.1%	12.3%
55 to 64	11.9%	12.7%
65 to 74	8.5%	8.2%
75 and over	5.2%	6.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	El Cajon	Escondido
White (non-Hispanic)	53.3%	34.5%
Black or African American	6.0%	2.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.1%
Asian	4.5%	6.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.7%	0.4%
Some other race	0.5%	0.6%
Two or more races	5.7%	3.6%
Hispanic or Latino	29.1%	51.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	El Cajon	Escondido
No high school diploma	15.6%	19.6%
High school graduate	28.9%	23.2%
Some college or associate's	33.3%	29.4%
Bachelor's degree	15.3%	18.3%
Graduate or professional degree	6.9%	9.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	El Cajon	Escondido
Drove alone	72.8%	72.0%
Carpooled	9.3%	9.8%
Public transit	2.6%	1.5%
Walked	2.5%	1.6%
Bicycle	0.6%	0.4%
Worked from home	10.2%	12.8%
Other means	2.1%	1.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	El Cajon	Escondido
1-unit, detached	38.7%	50.9%
1-unit, attached	6.3%	7.4%
2 to 4 units	8.0%	6.5%
5 to 19 units	17.7%	9.0%
20 or more units	24.5%	19.1%
Mobile home & other	5.0%	7.1%

Poverty & households

	El Cajon	Escondido
Poverty rate	20.0%	13.4%
Average household size	2.99	2.90
Mean commute (minutes)	25	28
Median year structure built	1974	1981