Palo Alto vs Santa Clara

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

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

Santa Clara has the higher population (129,239 vs 67,231 in Palo Alto). Palo Alto has the higher median household income ($220,408 vs $173,670 in Santa Clara). Palo Alto has the higher median home value ($2,000,001 vs $1,527,900 in Santa Clara).

Population, income & housing

	Palo Alto	Santa Clara
Population	67,231	129,239
Median age	42.5 yrs	34.5 yrs
Median household income	$220,408	$173,670
Median home value	$2,000,001	$1,527,900
Median gross rent	$3,328	$2,985
Housing units	29,104	51,886
Homeownership rate	54.2%	41.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	82.4%	65.3%
Unemployment rate	3.7%	4.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Palo Alto	Santa Clara
Population	66,573 → 67,231 (+1.0%)	127,721 → 129,239 (+1.2%)
Median household income	$158,271 → $220,408 (+39.3%)	$126,006 → $173,670 (+37.8%)
Median home value	$2,000,001 → $2,000,001 (+0.0%)	$1,034,000 → $1,527,900 (+47.8%)
Median gross rent	$2,569 → $3,328 (+29.5%)	$2,396 → $2,985 (+24.6%)

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

Santa Clara

Population

127,721129,239

Median household income

$126,006$173,670

Median home value

$1,034,000$1,527,900

Median gross rent

$2,396$2,985

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Palo Alto	Santa Clara
Under 5	5.2%	5.6%
5 to 17	17.1%	12.3%
18 to 24	6.0%	10.2%
25 to 34	11.7%	23.0%
35 to 44	12.5%	16.1%
45 to 54	15.2%	11.3%
55 to 64	12.9%	10.6%
65 to 74	9.0%	5.9%
75 and over	10.3%	5.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Palo Alto	Santa Clara
White (non-Hispanic)	47.3%	28.6%
Black or African American	2.1%	2.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	36.1%	47.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.7%
Some other race	0.3%	0.5%
Two or more races	6.8%	4.6%
Hispanic or Latino	7.1%	16.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Palo Alto	Santa Clara
No high school diploma	3.0%	6.0%
High school graduate	5.1%	10.7%
Some college or associate's	9.5%	18.0%
Bachelor's degree	27.2%	31.4%
Graduate or professional degree	55.2%	33.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Palo Alto	Santa Clara
Drove alone	46.7%	61.0%
Carpooled	3.9%	7.4%
Public transit	3.1%	2.5%
Walked	4.3%	2.7%
Bicycle	6.9%	0.9%
Worked from home	33.3%	23.7%
Other means	1.7%	1.8%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Palo Alto	Santa Clara
1-unit, detached	56.0%	37.2%
1-unit, attached	5.7%	10.7%
2 to 4 units	5.6%	7.5%
5 to 19 units	12.0%	15.1%
20 or more units	20.3%	29.3%
Mobile home & other	0.3%	0.2%

Poverty & households

	Palo Alto	Santa Clara
Poverty rate	5.4%	7.8%
Average household size	2.55	2.57
Mean commute (minutes)	23	23
Median year structure built	1963	1973