Soquel vs Watsonville

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

Soquel 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 10,691 in Soquel). Soquel has the higher median household income ($114,991 vs $74,785 in Watsonville). Soquel has the higher median home value ($908,500 vs $657,700 in Watsonville).

Population, income & housing

	Soquel	Watsonville
Population	10,691	51,968
Median age	42.6 yrs	32.7 yrs
Median household income	$114,991	$74,785
Median home value	$908,500	$657,700
Median gross rent	$2,293	$1,784
Housing units	4,381	15,792
Homeownership rate	71.5%	43.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	44.7%	12.7%
Unemployment rate	4.2%	7.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Soquel	Watsonville
Population	10,883 → 10,691 (-1.8%)	53,800 → 51,968 (-3.4%)
Median household income	$93,305 → $114,991 (+23.2%)	$55,470 → $74,785 (+34.8%)
Median home value	$712,300 → $908,500 (+27.5%)	$464,200 → $657,700 (+41.7%)
Median gross rent	$1,990 → $2,293 (+15.2%)	$1,409 → $1,784 (+26.6%)

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

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)

	Soquel	Watsonville
Under 5	4.3%	7.1%
5 to 17	17.0%	22.7%
18 to 24	9.4%	10.3%
25 to 34	7.6%	12.1%
35 to 44	13.8%	12.3%
45 to 54	11.4%	12.3%
55 to 64	14.1%	10.7%
65 to 74	15.2%	7.6%
75 and over	7.2%	4.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Soquel	Watsonville
White (non-Hispanic)	69.1%	12.1%
Black or African American	0.3%	0.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.1%
Asian	3.4%	2.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.2%	0.7%
Two or more races	3.3%	1.2%
Hispanic or Latino	23.7%	83.5%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Soquel	Watsonville
No high school diploma	5.5%	34.5%
High school graduate	18.6%	24.7%
Some college or associate's	31.2%	28.1%
Bachelor's degree	26.3%	8.5%
Graduate or professional degree	18.3%	4.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Soquel	Watsonville
Drove alone	70.3%	70.1%
Carpooled	9.3%	16.7%
Public transit	0.2%	1.4%
Walked	2.8%	1.4%
Bicycle	1.4%	0.0%
Worked from home	14.7%	6.1%
Other means	1.3%	4.4%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Soquel	Watsonville
1-unit, detached	58.5%	54.4%
1-unit, attached	10.6%	8.3%
2 to 4 units	4.7%	8.2%
5 to 19 units	3.5%	9.6%
20 or more units	0.5%	13.7%
Mobile home & other	22.3%	5.9%

Poverty & households

	Soquel	Watsonville
Poverty rate	6.4%	15.1%
Average household size	2.50	3.35
Mean commute (minutes)	23	27
Median year structure built	1977	1976