Cottonwood vs Palo Cedro

A side-by-side comparison of Cottonwood and Palo Cedro: population, income, housing, and more.

Cottonwood and Palo Cedro are places in California. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Cottonwood has the higher population (7,170 vs 3,561 in Palo Cedro). Palo Cedro has the higher median household income ($118,542 vs $96,679 in Cottonwood). Palo Cedro has the higher median home value ($529,900 vs $362,800 in Cottonwood).

Population, income & housing

	Cottonwood	Palo Cedro
Population	7,170	3,561
Median age	38.9 yrs	41.2 yrs
Median household income	$96,679	$118,542
Median home value	$362,800	$529,900
Median gross rent	$1,219	$1,204
Housing units	2,650	1,219
Homeownership rate	63.7%	95.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	14.7%	44.3%
Unemployment rate	5.7%	5.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Cottonwood	Palo Cedro
Population	3,243 → 7,170 (+121.1%)	1,143 → 3,561 (+211.5%)
Median household income	$34,653 → $96,679 (+179.0%)	$74,931 → $118,542 (+58.2%)
Median home value	$159,100 → $362,800 (+128.0%)	$368,300 → $529,900 (+43.9%)
Median gross rent	$903 → $1,219 (+35.0%)	$1,806 → $1,204 (-33.3%)

Cottonwood

Population

3,2437,170

Median household income

$34,653$96,679

Median home value

$159,100$362,800

Median gross rent

$903$1,219

Palo Cedro

Population

1,1433,561

Median household income

$74,931$118,542

Median home value

$368,300$529,900

Median gross rent

$1,806$1,204

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Cottonwood	Palo Cedro
Under 5	5.9%	8.0%
5 to 17	15.0%	23.6%
18 to 24	8.6%	4.3%
25 to 34	12.7%	8.5%
35 to 44	15.5%	10.4%
45 to 54	15.8%	13.5%
55 to 64	10.4%	12.0%
65 to 74	11.9%	10.3%
75 and over	4.2%	9.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Cottonwood	Palo Cedro
White (non-Hispanic)	78.4%	88.0%
Black or African American	1.3%	0.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.3%	1.2%
Asian	2.8%	0.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.2%	0.0%
Two or more races	4.3%	7.6%
Hispanic or Latino	12.7%	2.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Cottonwood	Palo Cedro
No high school diploma	14.0%	3.1%
High school graduate	23.1%	15.0%
Some college or associate's	48.1%	37.5%
Bachelor's degree	11.0%	30.1%
Graduate or professional degree	3.7%	14.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Cottonwood	Palo Cedro
Drove alone	81.0%	76.4%
Carpooled	9.5%	5.1%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.8%	1.2%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	7.9%	17.3%
Other means	0.7%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Cottonwood	Palo Cedro
1-unit, detached	64.7%	94.0%
1-unit, attached	1.8%	0.2%
2 to 4 units	7.7%	1.6%
5 to 19 units	1.8%	0.0%
20 or more units	2.5%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	21.5%	4.3%

Poverty & households

	Cottonwood	Palo Cedro
Poverty rate	8.4%	3.1%
Average household size	2.82	2.95
Mean commute (minutes)	23	33
Median year structure built	1980	1978