San Jose vs Santa Clara

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

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

San Jose has the higher population (990,054 vs 129,239 in Santa Clara). Santa Clara has the higher median household income ($173,670 vs $141,565 in San Jose). Santa Clara has the higher median home value ($1,527,900 vs $1,187,800 in San Jose).

Population, income & housing

	San Jose	Santa Clara
Population	990,054	129,239
Median age	38.1 yrs	34.5 yrs
Median household income	$141,565	$173,670
Median home value	$1,187,800	$1,527,900
Median gross rent	$2,617	$2,985
Housing units	343,058	51,886
Homeownership rate	55.9%	41.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	46.5%	65.3%
Unemployment rate	4.7%	4.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	San Jose	Santa Clara
Population	1,027,690 → 990,054 (-3.7%)	127,721 → 129,239 (+1.2%)
Median household income	$109,593 → $141,565 (+29.2%)	$126,006 → $173,670 (+37.8%)
Median home value	$864,600 → $1,187,800 (+37.4%)	$1,034,000 → $1,527,900 (+47.8%)
Median gross rent	$2,107 → $2,617 (+24.2%)	$2,396 → $2,985 (+24.6%)

San Jose

Population

1,027,690990,054

Median household income

$109,593$141,565

Median home value

$864,600$1,187,800

Median gross rent

$2,107$2,617

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)

	San Jose	Santa Clara
Under 5	5.2%	5.6%
5 to 17	15.8%	12.3%
18 to 24	9.1%	10.2%
25 to 34	15.3%	23.0%
35 to 44	14.6%	16.1%
45 to 54	13.8%	11.3%
55 to 64	12.1%	10.6%
65 to 74	8.2%	5.9%
75 and over	5.9%	5.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	San Jose	Santa Clara
White (non-Hispanic)	23.2%	28.6%
Black or African American	2.7%	2.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.1%
Asian	38.4%	47.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.5%	0.7%
Some other race	0.4%	0.5%
Two or more races	3.7%	4.6%
Hispanic or Latino	31.0%	16.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	San Jose	Santa Clara
No high school diploma	14.5%	6.0%
High school graduate	16.4%	10.7%
Some college or associate's	22.6%	18.0%
Bachelor's degree	26.2%	31.4%
Graduate or professional degree	20.3%	33.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	San Jose	Santa Clara
Drove alone	64.6%	61.0%
Carpooled	10.5%	7.4%
Public transit	2.8%	2.5%
Walked	1.8%	2.7%
Bicycle	0.5%	0.9%
Worked from home	18.5%	23.7%
Other means	1.3%	1.8%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	San Jose	Santa Clara
1-unit, detached	51.3%	37.2%
1-unit, attached	11.2%	10.7%
2 to 4 units	6.4%	7.5%
5 to 19 units	9.0%	15.1%
20 or more units	18.6%	29.3%
Mobile home & other	3.5%	0.2%

Poverty & households

	San Jose	Santa Clara
Poverty rate	7.8%	7.8%
Average household size	2.98	2.57
Mean commute (minutes)	28	23
Median year structure built	1975	1973