Santa Cruz vs Soquel

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

Santa Cruz and Soquel 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 10,691 in Soquel). Soquel has the higher median household income ($114,991 vs $111,427 in Santa Cruz). Santa Cruz has the higher median home value ($1,180,100 vs $908,500 in Soquel).

Population, income & housing

	Santa Cruz	Soquel
Population	60,953	10,691
Median age	30.7 yrs	42.6 yrs
Median household income	$111,427	$114,991
Median home value	$1,180,100	$908,500
Median gross rent	$2,302	$2,293
Housing units	23,778	4,381
Homeownership rate	47.7%	71.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	57.7%	44.7%
Unemployment rate	6.3%	4.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Santa Cruz	Soquel
Population	64,522 → 60,953 (-5.5%)	10,883 → 10,691 (-1.8%)
Median household income	$77,921 → $111,427 (+43.0%)	$93,305 → $114,991 (+23.2%)
Median home value	$854,200 → $1,180,100 (+38.2%)	$712,300 → $908,500 (+27.5%)
Median gross rent	$1,889 → $2,302 (+21.9%)	$1,990 → $2,293 (+15.2%)

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

Soquel

Population

10,88310,691

Median household income

$93,305$114,991

Median home value

$712,300$908,500

Median gross rent

$1,990$2,293

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Santa Cruz	Soquel
Under 5	2.7%	4.3%
5 to 17	9.5%	17.0%
18 to 24	29.6%	9.4%
25 to 34	13.5%	7.6%
35 to 44	10.7%	13.8%
45 to 54	10.6%	11.4%
55 to 64	9.6%	14.1%
65 to 74	8.6%	15.2%
75 and over	5.0%	7.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Santa Cruz	Soquel
White (non-Hispanic)	59.7%	69.1%
Black or African American	1.6%	0.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	9.5%	3.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.0%
Some other race	1.0%	0.2%
Two or more races	5.7%	3.3%
Hispanic or Latino	22.4%	23.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Santa Cruz	Soquel
No high school diploma	4.9%	5.5%
High school graduate	10.2%	18.6%
Some college or associate's	27.1%	31.2%
Bachelor's degree	29.3%	26.3%
Graduate or professional degree	28.4%	18.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Santa Cruz	Soquel
Drove alone	53.0%	70.3%
Carpooled	6.2%	9.3%
Public transit	4.8%	0.2%
Walked	9.9%	2.8%
Bicycle	5.2%	1.4%
Worked from home	19.3%	14.7%
Other means	1.6%	1.3%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Santa Cruz	Soquel
1-unit, detached	55.2%	58.5%
1-unit, attached	10.3%	10.6%
2 to 4 units	10.5%	4.7%
5 to 19 units	11.0%	3.5%
20 or more units	10.9%	0.5%
Mobile home & other	2.2%	22.3%

Poverty & households

	Santa Cruz	Soquel
Poverty rate	17.6%	6.4%
Average household size	2.33	2.50
Mean commute (minutes)	23	23
Median year structure built	1970	1977