Santa Cruz vs Scotts Valley

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

Santa Cruz and Scotts Valley 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 12,138 in Scotts Valley). Scotts Valley has the higher median household income ($140,887 vs $111,427 in Santa Cruz). Santa Cruz has the higher median home value ($1,180,100 vs $1,092,000 in Scotts Valley).

Population, income & housing

	Santa Cruz	Scotts Valley
Population	60,953	12,138
Median age	30.7 yrs	47.8 yrs
Median household income	$111,427	$140,887
Median home value	$1,180,100	$1,092,000
Median gross rent	$2,302	$2,362
Housing units	23,778	5,440
Homeownership rate	47.7%	72.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	57.7%	54.4%
Unemployment rate	6.3%	2.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Santa Cruz	Scotts Valley
Population	64,522 → 60,953 (-5.5%)	11,863 → 12,138 (+2.3%)
Median household income	$77,921 → $111,427 (+43.0%)	$108,289 → $140,887 (+30.1%)
Median home value	$854,200 → $1,180,100 (+38.2%)	$815,600 → $1,092,000 (+33.9%)
Median gross rent	$1,889 → $2,302 (+21.9%)	$1,975 → $2,362 (+19.6%)

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

Scotts Valley

Population

11,86312,138

Median household income

$108,289$140,887

Median home value

$815,600$1,092,000

Median gross rent

$1,975$2,362

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Santa Cruz	Scotts Valley
Under 5	2.7%	5.1%
5 to 17	9.5%	11.7%
18 to 24	29.6%	7.8%
25 to 34	13.5%	9.2%
35 to 44	10.7%	12.1%
45 to 54	10.6%	11.9%
55 to 64	9.6%	18.0%
65 to 74	8.6%	12.9%
75 and over	5.0%	11.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Santa Cruz	Scotts Valley
White (non-Hispanic)	59.7%	74.4%
Black or African American	1.6%	0.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	9.5%	6.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.0%
Some other race	1.0%	0.1%
Two or more races	5.7%	4.3%
Hispanic or Latino	22.4%	13.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Santa Cruz	Scotts Valley
No high school diploma	4.9%	4.7%
High school graduate	10.2%	10.2%
Some college or associate's	27.1%	30.6%
Bachelor's degree	29.3%	31.7%
Graduate or professional degree	28.4%	22.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Santa Cruz	Scotts Valley
Drove alone	53.0%	66.7%
Carpooled	6.2%	3.6%
Public transit	4.8%	0.4%
Walked	9.9%	1.7%
Bicycle	5.2%	2.0%
Worked from home	19.3%	24.5%
Other means	1.6%	1.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Santa Cruz	Scotts Valley
1-unit, detached	55.2%	54.7%
1-unit, attached	10.3%	12.4%
2 to 4 units	10.5%	4.3%
5 to 19 units	11.0%	7.1%
20 or more units	10.9%	4.1%
Mobile home & other	2.2%	17.3%

Poverty & households

	Santa Cruz	Scotts Valley
Poverty rate	17.6%	4.8%
Average household size	2.33	2.37
Mean commute (minutes)	23	25
Median year structure built	1970	1985