Santa Clara vs Sunnyvale

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

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

Sunnyvale has the higher population (153,455 vs 129,239 in Santa Clara). Sunnyvale has the higher median household income ($181,862 vs $173,670 in Santa Clara). Sunnyvale has the higher median home value ($1,816,600 vs $1,527,900 in Santa Clara).

Population, income & housing

	Santa Clara	Sunnyvale
Population	129,239	153,455
Median age	34.5 yrs	35.1 yrs
Median household income	$173,670	$181,862
Median home value	$1,527,900	$1,816,600
Median gross rent	$2,985	$3,065
Housing units	51,886	61,808
Homeownership rate	41.2%	43.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	65.3%	69.2%
Unemployment rate	4.4%	4.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Santa Clara	Sunnyvale
Population	127,721 → 129,239 (+1.2%)	152,770 → 153,455 (+0.4%)
Median household income	$126,006 → $173,670 (+37.8%)	$140,631 → $181,862 (+29.3%)
Median home value	$1,034,000 → $1,527,900 (+47.8%)	$1,223,600 → $1,816,600 (+48.5%)
Median gross rent	$2,396 → $2,985 (+24.6%)	$2,508 → $3,065 (+22.2%)

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

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)

	Santa Clara	Sunnyvale
Under 5	5.6%	6.8%
5 to 17	12.3%	13.4%
18 to 24	10.2%	6.5%
25 to 34	23.0%	23.0%
35 to 44	16.1%	16.0%
45 to 54	11.3%	11.3%
55 to 64	10.6%	10.6%
65 to 74	5.9%	6.7%
75 and over	5.2%	5.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Santa Clara	Sunnyvale
White (non-Hispanic)	28.6%	27.5%
Black or African American	2.0%	1.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.2%
Asian	47.4%	49.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.7%	0.1%
Some other race	0.5%	0.5%
Two or more races	4.6%	4.5%
Hispanic or Latino	16.1%	16.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Santa Clara	Sunnyvale
No high school diploma	6.0%	5.5%
High school graduate	10.7%	9.4%
Some college or associate's	18.0%	16.0%
Bachelor's degree	31.4%	30.3%
Graduate or professional degree	33.9%	38.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Santa Clara	Sunnyvale
Drove alone	61.0%	55.4%
Carpooled	7.4%	8.7%
Public transit	2.5%	4.3%
Walked	2.7%	1.4%
Bicycle	0.9%	1.5%
Worked from home	23.7%	27.0%
Other means	1.8%	1.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Santa Clara	Sunnyvale
1-unit, detached	37.2%	36.5%
1-unit, attached	10.7%	10.1%
2 to 4 units	7.5%	10.0%
5 to 19 units	15.1%	14.6%
20 or more units	29.3%	23.3%
Mobile home & other	0.2%	5.6%

Poverty & households

	Santa Clara	Sunnyvale
Poverty rate	7.8%	5.6%
Average household size	2.57	2.59
Mean commute (minutes)	23	23
Median year structure built	1973	1975