Sparks vs Sun Valley

A side-by-side comparison of Sparks and Sun Valley: population, income, housing, and more.

Sparks and Sun Valley are places in Nevada. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Sparks has the higher population (109,106 vs 22,697 in Sun Valley). Sparks has the higher median household income ($86,979 vs $76,108 in Sun Valley). Sparks has the higher median home value ($455,900 vs $321,000 in Sun Valley).

Population, income & housing

	Sparks	Sun Valley
Population	109,106	22,697
Median age	36.9 yrs	33.2 yrs
Median household income	$86,979	$76,108
Median home value	$455,900	$321,000
Median gross rent	$1,651	$1,161
Housing units	44,473	7,248
Homeownership rate	59.9%	72.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	26.3%	9.5%
Unemployment rate	5.7%	6.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Sparks	Sun Valley
Population	100,589 → 109,106 (+8.5%)	21,159 → 22,697 (+7.3%)
Median household income	$64,645 → $86,979 (+34.5%)	$57,368 → $76,108 (+32.7%)
Median home value	$301,500 → $455,900 (+51.2%)	$169,000 → $321,000 (+89.9%)
Median gross rent	$1,138 → $1,651 (+45.1%)	$1,016 → $1,161 (+14.3%)

Sparks

Population

100,589109,106

Median household income

$64,645$86,979

Median home value

$301,500$455,900

Median gross rent

$1,138$1,651

Sun Valley

Population

21,15922,697

Median household income

$57,368$76,108

Median home value

$169,000$321,000

Median gross rent

$1,016$1,161

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Sparks	Sun Valley
Under 5	5.8%	7.2%
5 to 17	16.8%	20.6%
18 to 24	9.4%	8.1%
25 to 34	15.5%	16.5%
35 to 44	13.0%	10.7%
45 to 54	12.9%	13.6%
55 to 64	11.0%	11.3%
65 to 74	9.2%	7.8%
75 and over	6.4%	4.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Sparks	Sun Valley
White (non-Hispanic)	54.4%	40.1%
Black or African American	2.0%	1.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.4%	1.4%
Asian	5.2%	1.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.8%	0.3%
Some other race	0.5%	0.1%
Two or more races	4.0%	3.2%
Hispanic or Latino	32.6%	52.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Sparks	Sun Valley
No high school diploma	12.9%	33.1%
High school graduate	25.6%	29.5%
Some college or associate's	35.3%	27.9%
Bachelor's degree	16.9%	6.6%
Graduate or professional degree	9.4%	2.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Sparks	Sun Valley
Drove alone	73.0%	70.6%
Carpooled	12.8%	21.8%
Public transit	2.0%	1.2%
Walked	1.3%	0.7%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.4%
Worked from home	9.5%	3.2%
Other means	1.2%	2.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Sparks	Sun Valley
1-unit, detached	63.2%	43.0%
1-unit, attached	4.7%	0.4%
2 to 4 units	7.5%	1.5%
5 to 19 units	14.9%	0.8%
20 or more units	8.0%	0.8%
Mobile home & other	1.7%	53.4%

Poverty & households

	Sparks	Sun Valley
Poverty rate	9.0%	15.4%
Average household size	2.63	3.27
Mean commute (minutes)	23	26
Median year structure built	1991	1989