San Jose vs Sunnyvale

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

San Jose and Sunnyvale 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 153,455 in Sunnyvale). Sunnyvale has the higher median household income ($181,862 vs $141,565 in San Jose). Sunnyvale has the higher median home value ($1,816,600 vs $1,187,800 in San Jose).

Population, income & housing

	San Jose	Sunnyvale
Population	990,054	153,455
Median age	38.1 yrs	35.1 yrs
Median household income	$141,565	$181,862
Median home value	$1,187,800	$1,816,600
Median gross rent	$2,617	$3,065
Housing units	343,058	61,808
Homeownership rate	55.9%	43.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	46.5%	69.2%
Unemployment rate	4.7%	4.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	San Jose	Sunnyvale
Population	1,027,690 → 990,054 (-3.7%)	152,770 → 153,455 (+0.4%)
Median household income	$109,593 → $141,565 (+29.2%)	$140,631 → $181,862 (+29.3%)
Median home value	$864,600 → $1,187,800 (+37.4%)	$1,223,600 → $1,816,600 (+48.5%)
Median gross rent	$2,107 → $2,617 (+24.2%)	$2,508 → $3,065 (+22.2%)

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

Sunnyvale

Population

152,770153,455

Median household income

$140,631$181,862

Median home value

$1,223,600$1,816,600

Median gross rent

$2,508$3,065

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	San Jose	Sunnyvale
Under 5	5.2%	6.8%
5 to 17	15.8%	13.4%
18 to 24	9.1%	6.5%
25 to 34	15.3%	23.0%
35 to 44	14.6%	16.0%
45 to 54	13.8%	11.3%
55 to 64	12.1%	10.6%
65 to 74	8.2%	6.7%
75 and over	5.9%	5.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	San Jose	Sunnyvale
White (non-Hispanic)	23.2%	27.5%
Black or African American	2.7%	1.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.2%
Asian	38.4%	49.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.5%	0.1%
Some other race	0.4%	0.5%
Two or more races	3.7%	4.5%
Hispanic or Latino	31.0%	16.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	San Jose	Sunnyvale
No high school diploma	14.5%	5.5%
High school graduate	16.4%	9.4%
Some college or associate's	22.6%	16.0%
Bachelor's degree	26.2%	30.3%
Graduate or professional degree	20.3%	38.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	San Jose	Sunnyvale
Drove alone	64.6%	55.4%
Carpooled	10.5%	8.7%
Public transit	2.8%	4.3%
Walked	1.8%	1.4%
Bicycle	0.5%	1.5%
Worked from home	18.5%	27.0%
Other means	1.3%	1.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	San Jose	Sunnyvale
1-unit, detached	51.3%	36.5%
1-unit, attached	11.2%	10.1%
2 to 4 units	6.4%	10.0%
5 to 19 units	9.0%	14.6%
20 or more units	18.6%	23.3%
Mobile home & other	3.5%	5.6%

Poverty & households

	San Jose	Sunnyvale
Poverty rate	7.8%	5.6%
Average household size	2.98	2.59
Mean commute (minutes)	28	23
Median year structure built	1975	1975