Carpinteria vs Isla Vista

A side-by-side comparison of Carpinteria and Isla Vista: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Isla Vista has the higher population (13,717 vs 13,100 in Carpinteria). Carpinteria has the higher median household income ($104,233 vs $24,428 in Isla Vista). Isla Vista has the higher median home value ($1,241,700 vs $965,200 in Carpinteria).

Population, income & housing

	Carpinteria	Isla Vista
Population	13,100	13,717
Median age	44.5 yrs	21.2 yrs
Median household income	$104,233	$24,428
Median home value	$965,200	$1,241,700
Median gross rent	$2,341	$1,856
Housing units	6,032	5,166
Homeownership rate	58.8%	1.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	44.6%	40.8%
Unemployment rate	4.8%	17.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Carpinteria	Isla Vista
Population	13,505 → 13,100 (-3.0%)	27,707 → 13,717 (-50.5%)
Median household income	$76,521 → $104,233 (+36.2%)	$24,545 → $24,428 (-0.5%)
Median home value	$705,300 → $965,200 (+36.8%)	$466,700 → $1,241,700 (+166.1%)
Median gross rent	$1,940 → $2,341 (+20.7%)	$1,503 → $1,856 (+23.5%)

Carpinteria

Population

13,50513,100

Median household income

$76,521$104,233

Median home value

$705,300$965,200

Median gross rent

$1,940$2,341

Isla Vista

Population

27,70713,717

Median household income

$24,545$24,428

Median home value

$466,700$1,241,700

Median gross rent

$1,503$1,856

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Carpinteria	Isla Vista
Under 5	6.1%	0.2%
5 to 17	13.6%	2.7%
18 to 24	7.6%	84.7%
25 to 34	11.2%	6.1%
35 to 44	12.1%	1.4%
45 to 54	13.4%	1.7%
55 to 64	14.3%	0.9%
65 to 74	14.8%	1.5%
75 and over	7.0%	0.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Carpinteria	Isla Vista
White (non-Hispanic)	49.2%	53.2%
Black or African American	0.9%	4.8%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	2.7%	14.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.2%
Some other race	0.4%	0.3%
Two or more races	3.3%	3.3%
Hispanic or Latino	43.4%	23.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Carpinteria	Isla Vista
No high school diploma	14.5%	9.4%
High school graduate	12.2%	19.0%
Some college or associate's	28.7%	30.9%
Bachelor's degree	27.0%	20.8%
Graduate or professional degree	17.6%	20.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Carpinteria	Isla Vista
Drove alone	63.2%	50.6%
Carpooled	10.4%	4.6%
Public transit	2.7%	3.5%
Walked	6.2%	17.2%
Bicycle	2.2%	13.1%
Worked from home	14.2%	8.3%
Other means	1.1%	2.8%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Carpinteria	Isla Vista
1-unit, detached	36.1%	5.1%
1-unit, attached	10.2%	3.7%
2 to 4 units	7.3%	19.9%
5 to 19 units	20.6%	37.5%
20 or more units	12.6%	33.8%
Mobile home & other	13.1%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Carpinteria	Isla Vista
Poverty rate	6.0%	69.3%
Average household size	2.55	2.61
Mean commute (minutes)	23	16
Median year structure built	1974	1975