Capitola vs Santa Cruz

A side-by-side comparison of Capitola and Santa Cruz: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Santa Cruz has the higher population (60,953 vs 9,813 in Capitola). Santa Cruz has the higher median household income ($111,427 vs $96,412 in Capitola). Santa Cruz has the higher median home value ($1,180,100 vs $746,000 in Capitola).

Population, income & housing

	Capitola	Santa Cruz
Population	9,813	60,953
Median age	46.3 yrs	30.7 yrs
Median household income	$96,412	$111,427
Median home value	$746,000	$1,180,100
Median gross rent	$2,376	$2,302
Housing units	5,086	23,778
Homeownership rate	50.3%	47.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	45.6%	57.7%
Unemployment rate	2.5%	6.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Capitola	Santa Cruz
Population	10,121 → 9,813 (-3.0%)	64,522 → 60,953 (-5.5%)
Median household income	$71,059 → $96,412 (+35.7%)	$77,921 → $111,427 (+43.0%)
Median home value	$721,900 → $746,000 (+3.3%)	$854,200 → $1,180,100 (+38.2%)
Median gross rent	$1,780 → $2,376 (+33.5%)	$1,889 → $2,302 (+21.9%)

Capitola

Population

10,1219,813

Median household income

$71,059$96,412

Median home value

$721,900$746,000

Median gross rent

$1,780$2,376

Santa Cruz

Population

64,52260,953

Median household income

$77,921$111,427

Median home value

$854,200$1,180,100

Median gross rent

$1,889$2,302

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Capitola	Santa Cruz
Under 5	3.8%	2.7%
5 to 17	12.8%	9.5%
18 to 24	6.3%	29.6%
25 to 34	11.6%	13.5%
35 to 44	14.8%	10.7%
45 to 54	12.5%	10.6%
55 to 64	13.8%	9.6%
65 to 74	14.8%	8.6%
75 and over	9.7%	5.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Capitola	Santa Cruz
White (non-Hispanic)	59.5%	59.7%
Black or African American	0.3%	1.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.4%	0.1%
Asian	4.4%	9.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.1%
Some other race	0.1%	1.0%
Two or more races	4.0%	5.7%
Hispanic or Latino	31.3%	22.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Capitola	Santa Cruz
No high school diploma	9.0%	4.9%
High school graduate	13.5%	10.2%
Some college or associate's	31.9%	27.1%
Bachelor's degree	29.2%	29.3%
Graduate or professional degree	16.4%	28.4%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Capitola	Santa Cruz
Drove alone	56.5%	53.0%
Carpooled	4.7%	6.2%
Public transit	1.1%	4.8%
Walked	6.1%	9.9%
Bicycle	1.2%	5.2%
Worked from home	25.7%	19.3%
Other means	4.8%	1.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Capitola	Santa Cruz
1-unit, detached	36.2%	55.2%
1-unit, attached	6.4%	10.3%
2 to 4 units	27.5%	10.5%
5 to 19 units	12.2%	11.0%
20 or more units	6.7%	10.9%
Mobile home & other	11.0%	2.2%

Poverty & households

	Capitola	Santa Cruz
Poverty rate	13.9%	17.6%
Average household size	2.13	2.33
Mean commute (minutes)	25	23
Median year structure built	1975	1970