Live Oak vs Watsonville

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

Live Oak 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 16,866 in Live Oak). Live Oak has the higher median household income ($107,500 vs $74,785 in Watsonville). Live Oak has the higher median home value ($975,900 vs $657,700 in Watsonville).

Population, income & housing

	Live Oak	Watsonville
Population	16,866	51,968
Median age	41.3 yrs	32.7 yrs
Median household income	$107,500	$74,785
Median home value	$975,900	$657,700
Median gross rent	$2,414	$1,784
Housing units	6,778	15,792
Homeownership rate	60.0%	43.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	41.5%	12.7%
Unemployment rate	4.2%	7.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Live Oak	Watsonville
Population	16,837 → 16,866 (+0.2%)	53,800 → 51,968 (-3.4%)
Median household income	$83,750 → $107,500 (+28.4%)	$55,470 → $74,785 (+34.8%)
Median home value	$718,600 → $975,900 (+35.8%)	$464,200 → $657,700 (+41.7%)
Median gross rent	$1,921 → $2,414 (+25.7%)	$1,409 → $1,784 (+26.6%)

Live Oak

Population

16,83716,866

Median household income

$83,750$107,500

Median home value

$718,600$975,900

Median gross rent

$1,921$2,414

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)

	Live Oak	Watsonville
Under 5	4.6%	7.1%
5 to 17	11.7%	22.7%
18 to 24	10.8%	10.3%
25 to 34	14.6%	12.1%
35 to 44	12.3%	12.3%
45 to 54	12.0%	12.3%
55 to 64	13.7%	10.7%
65 to 74	13.8%	7.6%
75 and over	6.3%	4.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Live Oak	Watsonville
White (non-Hispanic)	60.0%	12.1%
Black or African American	1.1%	0.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	4.9%	2.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.5%	0.0%
Some other race	0.4%	0.7%
Two or more races	4.8%	1.2%
Hispanic or Latino	28.2%	83.5%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Live Oak	Watsonville
No high school diploma	9.6%	34.5%
High school graduate	16.5%	24.7%
Some college or associate's	32.4%	28.1%
Bachelor's degree	25.8%	8.5%
Graduate or professional degree	15.7%	4.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Live Oak	Watsonville
Drove alone	63.3%	70.1%
Carpooled	12.2%	16.7%
Public transit	1.8%	1.4%
Walked	4.1%	1.4%
Bicycle	2.3%	0.0%
Worked from home	15.1%	6.1%
Other means	1.2%	4.4%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Live Oak	Watsonville
1-unit, detached	51.5%	54.4%
1-unit, attached	11.2%	8.3%
2 to 4 units	12.1%	8.2%
5 to 19 units	5.3%	9.6%
20 or more units	6.9%	13.7%
Mobile home & other	13.0%	5.9%

Poverty & households

	Live Oak	Watsonville
Poverty rate	13.1%	15.1%
Average household size	2.47	3.35
Mean commute (minutes)	23	27
Median year structure built	1979	1976