Los Altos vs Stanford

A side-by-side comparison of Los Altos and Stanford: population, income, housing, and more.

Los Altos and Stanford are places in California. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Los Altos has the higher population (30,736 vs 17,958 in Stanford). Los Altos has the higher median household income ($250,001 vs $70,651 in Stanford). Both have a median home value of $2,000,001.

Population, income & housing

	Los Altos	Stanford
Population	30,736	17,958
Median age	46.0 yrs	22.7 yrs
Median household income	$250,001	$70,651
Median home value	$2,000,001	$2,000,001
Median gross rent	$3,501	$1,925
Housing units	11,620	4,325
Homeownership rate	80.8%	25.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	87.2%	91.1%
Unemployment rate	4.4%	7.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Los Altos	Stanford
Population	30,504 → 30,736 (+0.8%)	16,326 → 17,958 (+10.0%)
Median household income	$235,278 → $250,001 (+6.3%)	$58,906 → $70,651 (+19.9%)
Median home value	$2,000,001 → $2,000,001 (+0.0%)	$2,000,001 → $2,000,001 (+0.0%)
Median gross rent	$3,188 → $3,501 (+9.8%)	$1,617 → $1,925 (+19.0%)

Los Altos

Population

30,50430,736

Median household income

$235,278$250,001

Median home value

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

Median gross rent

$3,188$3,501

Stanford

Population

16,32617,958

Median household income

$58,906$70,651

Median home value

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

Median gross rent

$1,617$1,925

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Los Altos	Stanford
Under 5	4.3%	1.4%
5 to 17	20.0%	4.1%
18 to 24	6.7%	56.0%
25 to 34	6.7%	24.7%
35 to 44	10.9%	3.0%
45 to 54	17.5%	2.9%
55 to 64	13.1%	4.0%
65 to 74	10.2%	1.4%
75 and over	10.6%	2.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Los Altos	Stanford
White (non-Hispanic)	50.5%	45.5%
Black or African American	1.0%	4.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.1%
Asian	37.4%	25.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.2%
Some other race	0.9%	0.6%
Two or more races	4.6%	7.2%
Hispanic or Latino	5.5%	15.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Los Altos	Stanford
No high school diploma	1.0%	1.8%
High school graduate	2.9%	1.2%
Some college or associate's	8.9%	6.0%
Bachelor's degree	32.3%	33.1%
Graduate or professional degree	54.9%	58.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Los Altos	Stanford
Drove alone	53.5%	18.5%
Carpooled	4.9%	2.5%
Public transit	1.4%	2.8%
Walked	1.4%	20.8%
Bicycle	2.3%	30.2%
Worked from home	35.2%	21.4%
Other means	1.3%	3.8%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Los Altos	Stanford
1-unit, detached	81.3%	20.9%
1-unit, attached	5.4%	6.7%
2 to 4 units	2.0%	8.7%
5 to 19 units	3.1%	14.0%
20 or more units	8.0%	49.7%
Mobile home & other	0.1%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Los Altos	Stanford
Poverty rate	3.1%	18.2%
Average household size	2.83	1.98
Mean commute (minutes)	23	15
Median year structure built	1964	1982