Mountain View vs Palo Alto

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

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

Mountain View has the higher population (82,363 vs 67,231 in Palo Alto). Palo Alto has the higher median household income ($220,408 vs $179,917 in Mountain View). Palo Alto has the higher median home value ($2,000,001 vs $1,927,400 in Mountain View).

Population, income & housing

	Mountain View	Palo Alto
Population	82,363	67,231
Median age	35.3 yrs	42.5 yrs
Median household income	$179,917	$220,408
Median home value	$1,927,400	$2,000,001
Median gross rent	$2,975	$3,328
Housing units	38,770	29,104
Homeownership rate	38.8%	54.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	74.3%	82.4%
Unemployment rate	3.4%	3.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Mountain View	Palo Alto
Population	81,656 → 82,363 (+0.9%)	66,573 → 67,231 (+1.0%)
Median household income	$139,720 → $179,917 (+28.8%)	$158,271 → $220,408 (+39.3%)
Median home value	$1,413,500 → $1,927,400 (+36.4%)	$2,000,001 → $2,000,001 (+0.0%)
Median gross rent	$2,456 → $2,975 (+21.1%)	$2,569 → $3,328 (+29.5%)

Mountain View

Population

81,65682,363

Median household income

$139,720$179,917

Median home value

$1,413,500$1,927,400

Median gross rent

$2,456$2,975

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)

	Mountain View	Palo Alto
Under 5	6.0%	5.2%
5 to 17	14.3%	17.1%
18 to 24	6.6%	6.0%
25 to 34	22.4%	11.7%
35 to 44	17.0%	12.5%
45 to 54	11.9%	15.2%
55 to 64	10.1%	12.9%
65 to 74	6.6%	9.0%
75 and over	5.1%	10.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Mountain View	Palo Alto
White (non-Hispanic)	39.3%	47.3%
Black or African American	2.1%	2.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	34.4%	36.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.1%
Some other race	0.4%	0.3%
Two or more races	5.7%	6.8%
Hispanic or Latino	18.0%	7.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Mountain View	Palo Alto
No high school diploma	5.3%	3.0%
High school graduate	8.1%	5.1%
Some college or associate's	12.3%	9.5%
Bachelor's degree	29.7%	27.2%
Graduate or professional degree	44.6%	55.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Mountain View	Palo Alto
Drove alone	52.8%	46.7%
Carpooled	5.7%	3.9%
Public transit	4.1%	3.1%
Walked	3.1%	4.3%
Bicycle	4.9%	6.9%
Worked from home	27.9%	33.3%
Other means	1.4%	1.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Mountain View	Palo Alto
1-unit, detached	27.1%	56.0%
1-unit, attached	13.9%	5.7%
2 to 4 units	7.2%	5.6%
5 to 19 units	16.8%	12.0%
20 or more units	31.8%	20.3%
Mobile home & other	3.2%	0.3%

Poverty & households

	Mountain View	Palo Alto
Poverty rate	5.5%	5.4%
Average household size	2.35	2.55
Mean commute (minutes)	24	23
Median year structure built	1974	1963