Atascadero vs San Luis Obispo

A side-by-side comparison of Atascadero and San Luis Obispo: population, income, housing, and more.

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

San Luis Obispo has the higher population (48,039 vs 29,735 in Atascadero). Atascadero has the higher median household income ($88,830 vs $66,711 in San Luis Obispo). San Luis Obispo has the higher median home value ($896,500 vs $673,400 in Atascadero).

Population, income & housing

	Atascadero	San Luis Obispo
Population	29,735	48,039
Median age	40.5 yrs	26.2 yrs
Median household income	$88,830	$66,711
Median home value	$673,400	$896,500
Median gross rent	$1,855	$1,906
Housing units	12,090	21,783
Homeownership rate	62.5%	39.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	30.2%	54.4%
Unemployment rate	4.1%	6.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Atascadero	San Luis Obispo
Population	30,130 → 29,735 (-1.3%)	47,302 → 48,039 (+1.6%)
Median household income	$79,658 → $88,830 (+11.5%)	$56,071 → $66,711 (+19.0%)
Median home value	$493,200 → $673,400 (+36.5%)	$643,200 → $896,500 (+39.4%)
Median gross rent	$1,415 → $1,855 (+31.1%)	$1,575 → $1,906 (+21.0%)

Atascadero

Population

30,13029,735

Median household income

$79,658$88,830

Median home value

$493,200$673,400

Median gross rent

$1,415$1,855

San Luis Obispo

Population

47,30248,039

Median household income

$56,071$66,711

Median home value

$643,200$896,500

Median gross rent

$1,575$1,906

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Atascadero	San Luis Obispo
Under 5	4.3%	2.9%
5 to 17	16.7%	7.8%
18 to 24	9.5%	37.0%
25 to 34	12.1%	13.8%
35 to 44	13.6%	8.8%
45 to 54	12.2%	6.9%
55 to 64	14.4%	9.1%
65 to 74	11.0%	7.8%
75 and over	6.2%	5.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Atascadero	San Luis Obispo
White (non-Hispanic)	66.9%	70.5%
Black or African American	0.6%	1.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.2%
Asian	2.1%	5.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.2%
Some other race	0.5%	0.5%
Two or more races	6.4%	5.2%
Hispanic or Latino	23.1%	17.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Atascadero	San Luis Obispo
No high school diploma	7.2%	4.0%
High school graduate	21.0%	12.7%
Some college or associate's	41.6%	28.9%
Bachelor's degree	20.3%	31.2%
Graduate or professional degree	9.9%	23.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Atascadero	San Luis Obispo
Drove alone	76.2%	64.0%
Carpooled	7.2%	6.7%
Public transit	0.9%	1.4%
Walked	2.8%	6.9%
Bicycle	0.2%	4.5%
Worked from home	12.4%	15.9%
Other means	0.3%	0.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Atascadero	San Luis Obispo
1-unit, detached	70.0%	45.2%
1-unit, attached	4.9%	8.3%
2 to 4 units	7.5%	15.8%
5 to 19 units	7.9%	13.5%
20 or more units	5.0%	11.8%
Mobile home & other	4.6%	5.3%

Poverty & households

	Atascadero	San Luis Obispo
Poverty rate	9.9%	30.0%
Average household size	2.54	2.34
Mean commute (minutes)	22	16
Median year structure built	1982	1976