Oceanside vs San Diego

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

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

San Diego has the higher population (1,385,061 vs 172,542 in Oceanside). San Diego has the higher median household income ($104,321 vs $93,724 in Oceanside). San Diego has the higher median home value ($848,500 vs $702,000 in Oceanside).

Population, income & housing

	Oceanside	San Diego
Population	172,542	1,385,061
Median age	38.1 yrs	36.0 yrs
Median household income	$93,724	$104,321
Median home value	$702,000	$848,500
Median gross rent	$2,207	$2,223
Housing units	66,744	559,653
Homeownership rate	58.5%	47.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	34.3%	49.9%
Unemployment rate	5.4%	5.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Oceanside	San Diego
Population	175,622 → 172,542 (-1.8%)	1,409,573 → 1,385,061 (-1.7%)
Median household income	$72,697 → $93,724 (+28.9%)	$79,673 → $104,321 (+30.9%)
Median home value	$492,600 → $702,000 (+42.5%)	$602,600 → $848,500 (+40.8%)
Median gross rent	$1,753 → $2,207 (+25.9%)	$1,695 → $2,223 (+31.2%)

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

San Diego

Population

1,409,5731,385,061

Median household income

$79,673$104,321

Median home value

$602,600$848,500

Median gross rent

$1,695$2,223

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Oceanside	San Diego
Under 5	5.8%	5.3%
5 to 17	15.4%	13.5%
18 to 24	8.7%	10.7%
25 to 34	15.7%	18.7%
35 to 44	13.4%	14.7%
45 to 54	11.8%	12.0%
55 to 64	13.4%	10.9%
65 to 74	9.1%	8.2%
75 and over	6.8%	5.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Oceanside	San Diego
White (non-Hispanic)	43.3%	41.4%
Black or African American	3.9%	5.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.2%
Asian	7.2%	17.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.5%	0.4%
Some other race	0.7%	0.6%
Two or more races	5.8%	5.2%
Hispanic or Latino	38.5%	29.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Oceanside	San Diego
No high school diploma	13.5%	9.8%
High school graduate	18.8%	15.0%
Some college or associate's	33.3%	25.3%
Bachelor's degree	22.1%	28.8%
Graduate or professional degree	12.2%	21.1%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Oceanside	San Diego
Drove alone	71.4%	64.2%
Carpooled	7.9%	7.8%
Public transit	2.1%	3.0%
Walked	1.1%	3.4%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.7%
Worked from home	14.8%	19.2%
Other means	2.4%	1.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Oceanside	San Diego
1-unit, detached	52.2%	43.5%
1-unit, attached	12.5%	9.9%
2 to 4 units	7.6%	7.8%
5 to 19 units	14.1%	16.9%
20 or more units	9.3%	20.9%
Mobile home & other	4.2%	1.2%

Poverty & households

	Oceanside	San Diego
Poverty rate	8.1%	11.1%
Average household size	2.79	2.55
Mean commute (minutes)	30	24
Median year structure built	1984	1978