Cupertino vs Palo Alto

A side-by-side comparison of Cupertino and Palo Alto: population, income, housing, and more.

Cupertino and Palo Alto are places in California. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Palo Alto has the higher population (67,231 vs 58,886 in Cupertino). Cupertino has the higher median household income ($231,139 vs $220,408 in Palo Alto). Both have a median home value of $2,000,001.

Population, income & housing

	Cupertino	Palo Alto
Population	58,886	67,231
Median age	41.3 yrs	42.5 yrs
Median household income	$231,139	$220,408
Median home value	$2,000,001	$2,000,001
Median gross rent	$3,501	$3,328
Housing units	22,341	29,104
Homeownership rate	61.3%	54.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	83.1%	82.4%
Unemployment rate	3.4%	3.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Cupertino	Palo Alto
Population	60,257 → 58,886 (-2.3%)	66,573 → 67,231 (+1.0%)
Median household income	$171,917 → $231,139 (+34.4%)	$158,271 → $220,408 (+39.3%)
Median home value	$1,711,300 → $2,000,001 (+16.9%)	$2,000,001 → $2,000,001 (+0.0%)
Median gross rent	$3,163 → $3,501 (+10.7%)	$2,569 → $3,328 (+29.5%)

Cupertino

Population

60,25758,886

Median household income

$171,917$231,139

Median home value

$1,711,300$2,000,001

Median gross rent

$3,163$3,501

Palo Alto

Population

66,57367,231

Median household income

$158,271$220,408

Median home value

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

Median gross rent

$2,569$3,328

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Cupertino	Palo Alto
Under 5	4.5%	5.2%
5 to 17	18.7%	17.1%
18 to 24	7.9%	6.0%
25 to 34	10.2%	11.7%
35 to 44	15.1%	12.5%
45 to 54	16.7%	15.2%
55 to 64	12.6%	12.9%
65 to 74	7.5%	9.0%
75 and over	6.8%	10.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Cupertino	Palo Alto
White (non-Hispanic)	21.0%	47.3%
Black or African American	1.0%	2.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	71.7%	36.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.3%	0.1%
Some other race	0.4%	0.3%
Two or more races	2.7%	6.8%
Hispanic or Latino	2.8%	7.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Cupertino	Palo Alto
No high school diploma	2.8%	3.0%
High school graduate	4.7%	5.1%
Some college or associate's	9.5%	9.5%
Bachelor's degree	34.1%	27.2%
Graduate or professional degree	49.0%	55.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Cupertino	Palo Alto
Drove alone	62.1%	46.7%
Carpooled	4.0%	3.9%
Public transit	1.1%	3.1%
Walked	2.8%	4.3%
Bicycle	0.7%	6.9%
Worked from home	28.3%	33.3%
Other means	1.0%	1.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Cupertino	Palo Alto
1-unit, detached	56.6%	56.0%
1-unit, attached	13.3%	5.7%
2 to 4 units	7.4%	5.6%
5 to 19 units	7.5%	12.0%
20 or more units	15.0%	20.3%
Mobile home & other	0.2%	0.3%

Poverty & households

	Cupertino	Palo Alto
Poverty rate	4.3%	5.4%
Average household size	2.76	2.55
Mean commute (minutes)	25	23
Median year structure built	1973	1963