Santa Cruz vs Watsonville

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

Santa Cruz and Watsonville 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 51,968 in Watsonville). Santa Cruz has the higher median household income ($111,427 vs $74,785 in Watsonville). Santa Cruz has the higher median home value ($1,180,100 vs $657,700 in Watsonville).

Population, income & housing

	Santa Cruz	Watsonville
Population	60,953	51,968
Median age	30.7 yrs	32.7 yrs
Median household income	$111,427	$74,785
Median home value	$1,180,100	$657,700
Median gross rent	$2,302	$1,784
Housing units	23,778	15,792
Homeownership rate	47.7%	43.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	57.7%	12.7%
Unemployment rate	6.3%	7.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Santa Cruz	Watsonville
Population	64,522 → 60,953 (-5.5%)	53,800 → 51,968 (-3.4%)
Median household income	$77,921 → $111,427 (+43.0%)	$55,470 → $74,785 (+34.8%)
Median home value	$854,200 → $1,180,100 (+38.2%)	$464,200 → $657,700 (+41.7%)
Median gross rent	$1,889 → $2,302 (+21.9%)	$1,409 → $1,784 (+26.6%)

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

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)

	Santa Cruz	Watsonville
Under 5	2.7%	7.1%
5 to 17	9.5%	22.7%
18 to 24	29.6%	10.3%
25 to 34	13.5%	12.1%
35 to 44	10.7%	12.3%
45 to 54	10.6%	12.3%
55 to 64	9.6%	10.7%
65 to 74	8.6%	7.6%
75 and over	5.0%	4.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Santa Cruz	Watsonville
White (non-Hispanic)	59.7%	12.1%
Black or African American	1.6%	0.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	9.5%	2.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.0%
Some other race	1.0%	0.7%
Two or more races	5.7%	1.2%
Hispanic or Latino	22.4%	83.5%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Santa Cruz	Watsonville
No high school diploma	4.9%	34.5%
High school graduate	10.2%	24.7%
Some college or associate's	27.1%	28.1%
Bachelor's degree	29.3%	8.5%
Graduate or professional degree	28.4%	4.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Santa Cruz	Watsonville
Drove alone	53.0%	70.1%
Carpooled	6.2%	16.7%
Public transit	4.8%	1.4%
Walked	9.9%	1.4%
Bicycle	5.2%	0.0%
Worked from home	19.3%	6.1%
Other means	1.6%	4.4%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Santa Cruz	Watsonville
1-unit, detached	55.2%	54.4%
1-unit, attached	10.3%	8.3%
2 to 4 units	10.5%	8.2%
5 to 19 units	11.0%	9.6%
20 or more units	10.9%	13.7%
Mobile home & other	2.2%	5.9%

Poverty & households

	Santa Cruz	Watsonville
Poverty rate	17.6%	15.1%
Average household size	2.33	3.35
Mean commute (minutes)	23	27
Median year structure built	1970	1976