Menlo Park vs San Carlos

A side-by-side comparison of Menlo Park and San Carlos: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Menlo Park has the higher population (32,775 vs 29,797 in San Carlos). San Carlos has the higher median household income ($233,333 vs $206,588 in Menlo Park). Both have a median home value of $2,000,001.

Population, income & housing

	Menlo Park	San Carlos
Population	32,775	29,797
Median age	38.5 yrs	41.6 yrs
Median household income	$206,588	$233,333
Median home value	$2,000,001	$2,000,001
Median gross rent	$3,156	$2,802
Housing units	13,136	11,679
Homeownership rate	55.3%	68.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	72.7%	68.1%
Unemployment rate	4.2%	4.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Menlo Park	San Carlos
Population	34,138 → 32,775 (-4.0%)	30,154 → 29,797 (-1.2%)
Median household income	$160,784 → $206,588 (+28.5%)	$182,083 → $233,333 (+28.1%)
Median home value	$2,000,001 → $2,000,001 (+0.0%)	$1,625,700 → $2,000,001 (+23.0%)
Median gross rent	$2,341 → $3,156 (+34.8%)	$2,321 → $2,802 (+20.7%)

Menlo Park

Population

34,13832,775

Median household income

$160,784$206,588

Median home value

$2,000,001$2,000,001

Median gross rent

$2,341$3,156

San Carlos

Population

30,15429,797

Median household income

$182,083$233,333

Median home value

$1,625,700$2,000,001

Median gross rent

$2,321$2,802

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Menlo Park	San Carlos
Under 5	6.8%	5.3%
5 to 17	15.4%	18.6%
18 to 24	8.6%	5.2%
25 to 34	14.5%	9.8%
35 to 44	15.5%	16.3%
45 to 54	12.6%	14.8%
55 to 64	11.6%	13.6%
65 to 74	8.2%	9.6%
75 and over	7.0%	6.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Menlo Park	San Carlos
White (non-Hispanic)	52.4%	57.3%
Black or African American	3.4%	0.8%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.1%
Asian	18.2%	21.8%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.4%	0.8%
Some other race	0.5%	1.3%
Two or more races	5.4%	7.2%
Hispanic or Latino	19.8%	10.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Menlo Park	San Carlos
No high school diploma	6.2%	3.3%
High school graduate	8.0%	7.7%
Some college or associate's	13.1%	20.9%
Bachelor's degree	26.6%	30.4%
Graduate or professional degree	46.1%	37.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Menlo Park	San Carlos
Drove alone	49.4%	54.1%
Carpooled	7.2%	4.0%
Public transit	3.0%	3.7%
Walked	1.5%	1.5%
Bicycle	7.8%	1.8%
Worked from home	29.3%	32.5%
Other means	1.8%	2.4%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Menlo Park	San Carlos
1-unit, detached	53.8%	66.9%
1-unit, attached	8.0%	4.8%
2 to 4 units	9.2%	3.8%
5 to 19 units	12.5%	15.8%
20 or more units	16.1%	8.7%
Mobile home & other	0.4%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Menlo Park	San Carlos
Poverty rate	5.1%	3.2%
Average household size	2.71	2.68
Mean commute (minutes)	24	25
Median year structure built	1962	1961