Harlingen vs San Benito

A side-by-side comparison of Harlingen and San Benito: population, income, housing, and more.

Harlingen and San Benito are places in Texas. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Harlingen has the higher population (71,669 vs 24,677 in San Benito). Harlingen has the higher median household income ($55,891 vs $41,445 in San Benito). Harlingen has the higher median home value ($125,700 vs $85,100 in San Benito).

Population, income & housing

	Harlingen	San Benito
Population	71,669	24,677
Median age	33.2 yrs	32.3 yrs
Median household income	$55,891	$41,445
Median home value	$125,700	$85,100
Median gross rent	$893	$885
Housing units	29,487	8,867
Homeownership rate	57.4%	68.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	21.7%	13.2%
Unemployment rate	5.1%	5.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Harlingen	San Benito
Population	65,129 → 71,669 (+10.0%)	24,371 → 24,677 (+1.3%)
Median household income	$39,752 → $55,891 (+40.6%)	$27,460 → $41,445 (+50.9%)
Median home value	$87,500 → $125,700 (+43.7%)	$57,000 → $85,100 (+49.3%)
Median gross rent	$737 → $893 (+21.2%)	$703 → $885 (+25.9%)

Harlingen

Population

65,12971,669

Median household income

$39,752$55,891

Median home value

$87,500$125,700

Median gross rent

$737$893

San Benito

Population

24,37124,677

Median household income

$27,460$41,445

Median home value

$57,000$85,100

Median gross rent

$703$885

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Harlingen	San Benito
Under 5	7.5%	5.5%
5 to 17	21.5%	23.5%
18 to 24	8.0%	12.7%
25 to 34	15.3%	11.2%
35 to 44	11.2%	11.2%
45 to 54	10.6%	11.0%
55 to 64	9.3%	9.8%
65 to 74	9.4%	7.1%
75 and over	7.1%	8.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Harlingen	San Benito
White (non-Hispanic)	14.5%	8.9%
Black or African American	1.1%	0.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.0%
Asian	1.0%	0.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	0.8%	0.2%
Hispanic or Latino	82.2%	90.5%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Harlingen	San Benito
No high school diploma	21.4%	29.5%
High school graduate	27.5%	29.1%
Some college or associate's	29.5%	28.2%
Bachelor's degree	13.7%	8.9%
Graduate or professional degree	8.0%	4.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Harlingen	San Benito
Drove alone	78.8%	75.6%
Carpooled	9.4%	12.4%
Public transit	0.1%	0.9%
Walked	1.1%	0.6%
Bicycle	0.3%	0.0%
Worked from home	9.1%	9.7%
Other means	1.2%	0.8%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Harlingen	San Benito
1-unit, detached	59.7%	69.8%
1-unit, attached	2.9%	3.2%
2 to 4 units	10.6%	7.0%
5 to 19 units	11.5%	5.2%
20 or more units	4.8%	2.7%
Mobile home & other	10.4%	12.0%

Poverty & households

	Harlingen	San Benito
Poverty rate	24.5%	28.0%
Average household size	2.73	3.12
Mean commute (minutes)	18	19
Median year structure built	1987	1985