Puyallup vs Tacoma

A side-by-side comparison of Puyallup and Tacoma: population, income, housing, and more.

Puyallup and Tacoma are places in Washington. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Tacoma has the higher population (220,482 vs 42,642 in Puyallup). Puyallup has the higher median household income ($95,639 vs $83,857 in Tacoma). Puyallup has the higher median home value ($507,000 vs $454,600 in Tacoma).

Population, income & housing

	Puyallup	Tacoma
Population	42,642	220,482
Median age	37.2 yrs	37.3 yrs
Median household income	$95,639	$83,857
Median home value	$507,000	$454,600
Median gross rent	$1,750	$1,597
Housing units	17,537	96,151
Homeownership rate	51.3%	56.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	28.3%	33.5%
Unemployment rate	5.3%	5.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Puyallup	Tacoma
Population	40,991 → 42,642 (+4.0%)	212,869 → 220,482 (+3.6%)
Median household income	$73,248 → $95,639 (+30.6%)	$62,358 → $83,857 (+34.5%)
Median home value	$329,000 → $507,000 (+54.1%)	$277,900 → $454,600 (+63.6%)
Median gross rent	$1,288 → $1,750 (+35.9%)	$1,180 → $1,597 (+35.3%)

Puyallup

Population

40,99142,642

Median household income

$73,248$95,639

Median home value

$329,000$507,000

Median gross rent

$1,288$1,750

Tacoma

Population

212,869220,482

Median household income

$62,358$83,857

Median home value

$277,900$454,600

Median gross rent

$1,180$1,597

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Puyallup	Tacoma
Under 5	6.2%	5.7%
5 to 17	15.7%	13.9%
18 to 24	8.7%	9.0%
25 to 34	17.1%	17.5%
35 to 44	13.9%	15.4%
45 to 54	11.6%	11.9%
55 to 64	11.6%	12.1%
65 to 74	8.1%	9.0%
75 and over	7.0%	5.6%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Puyallup	Tacoma
White (non-Hispanic)	69.9%	56.1%
Black or African American	4.0%	10.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.3%	0.9%
Asian	6.1%	8.6%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.6%	0.9%
Some other race	0.9%	0.6%
Two or more races	7.9%	9.7%
Hispanic or Latino	10.2%	13.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Puyallup	Tacoma
No high school diploma	6.6%	8.7%
High school graduate	28.6%	25.6%
Some college or associate's	36.5%	32.2%
Bachelor's degree	20.0%	21.0%
Graduate or professional degree	8.3%	12.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Puyallup	Tacoma
Drove alone	75.5%	67.1%
Carpooled	9.4%	10.2%
Public transit	2.2%	4.7%
Walked	1.4%	2.6%
Bicycle	0.1%	0.4%
Worked from home	10.7%	13.7%
Other means	0.8%	1.3%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Puyallup	Tacoma
1-unit, detached	55.2%	61.6%
1-unit, attached	2.9%	3.0%
2 to 4 units	11.7%	7.2%
5 to 19 units	17.4%	12.0%
20 or more units	11.7%	15.7%
Mobile home & other	1.2%	0.5%

Poverty & households

	Puyallup	Tacoma
Poverty rate	7.5%	12.0%
Average household size	2.51	2.35
Mean commute (minutes)	32	29
Median year structure built	1986	1967