Capitola vs Watsonville

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

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

Watsonville has the higher population (51,968 vs 9,813 in Capitola). Capitola has the higher median household income ($96,412 vs $74,785 in Watsonville). Capitola has the higher median home value ($746,000 vs $657,700 in Watsonville).

Population, income & housing

	Capitola	Watsonville
Population	9,813	51,968
Median age	46.3 yrs	32.7 yrs
Median household income	$96,412	$74,785
Median home value	$746,000	$657,700
Median gross rent	$2,376	$1,784
Housing units	5,086	15,792
Homeownership rate	50.3%	43.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	45.6%	12.7%
Unemployment rate	2.5%	7.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Capitola	Watsonville
Population	10,121 → 9,813 (-3.0%)	53,800 → 51,968 (-3.4%)
Median household income	$71,059 → $96,412 (+35.7%)	$55,470 → $74,785 (+34.8%)
Median home value	$721,900 → $746,000 (+3.3%)	$464,200 → $657,700 (+41.7%)
Median gross rent	$1,780 → $2,376 (+33.5%)	$1,409 → $1,784 (+26.6%)

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

Watsonville

Population

53,80051,968

Median household income

$55,470$74,785

Median home value

$464,200$657,700

Median gross rent

$1,409$1,784

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Capitola	Watsonville
Under 5	3.8%	7.1%
5 to 17	12.8%	22.7%
18 to 24	6.3%	10.3%
25 to 34	11.6%	12.1%
35 to 44	14.8%	12.3%
45 to 54	12.5%	12.3%
55 to 64	13.8%	10.7%
65 to 74	14.8%	7.6%
75 and over	9.7%	4.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Capitola	Watsonville
White (non-Hispanic)	59.5%	12.1%
Black or African American	0.3%	0.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.4%	0.1%
Asian	4.4%	2.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.1%	0.7%
Two or more races	4.0%	1.2%
Hispanic or Latino	31.3%	83.5%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Capitola	Watsonville
No high school diploma	9.0%	34.5%
High school graduate	13.5%	24.7%
Some college or associate's	31.9%	28.1%
Bachelor's degree	29.2%	8.5%
Graduate or professional degree	16.4%	4.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Capitola	Watsonville
Drove alone	56.5%	70.1%
Carpooled	4.7%	16.7%
Public transit	1.1%	1.4%
Walked	6.1%	1.4%
Bicycle	1.2%	0.0%
Worked from home	25.7%	6.1%
Other means	4.8%	4.4%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Capitola	Watsonville
1-unit, detached	36.2%	54.4%
1-unit, attached	6.4%	8.3%
2 to 4 units	27.5%	8.2%
5 to 19 units	12.2%	9.6%
20 or more units	6.7%	13.7%
Mobile home & other	11.0%	5.9%

Poverty & households

	Capitola	Watsonville
Poverty rate	13.9%	15.1%
Average household size	2.13	3.35
Mean commute (minutes)	25	27
Median year structure built	1975	1976