Placer County vs Sonoma County

A side-by-side comparison of Placer County and Sonoma County: population, income, housing, and more.

Placer County and Sonoma County are counties in California. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Sonoma County has the higher population (485,642 vs 412,435 in Placer County). Placer County has the higher median household income ($114,678 vs $102,840 in Sonoma County). Sonoma County has the higher median home value ($779,000 vs $658,800 in Placer County).

Population, income & housing

	Placer County	Sonoma County
Population	412,435	485,642
Median age	42.4 yrs	42.7 yrs
Median household income	$114,678	$102,840
Median home value	$658,800	$779,000
Median gross rent	$1,991	$2,093
Housing units	176,233	206,319
Homeownership rate	74.3%	62.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	42.9%	37.8%
Unemployment rate	4.5%	5.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Placer County	Sonoma County
Population	385,512 → 412,435 (+7.0%)	499,772 → 485,642 (-2.8%)
Median household income	$89,691 → $114,678 (+27.9%)	$81,018 → $102,840 (+26.9%)
Median home value	$471,500 → $658,800 (+39.7%)	$609,600 → $779,000 (+27.8%)
Median gross rent	$1,542 → $1,991 (+29.1%)	$1,621 → $2,093 (+29.1%)

Placer County

Population

385,512412,435

Median household income

$89,691$114,678

Median home value

$471,500$658,800

Median gross rent

$1,542$1,991

Sonoma County

Population

499,772485,642

Median household income

$81,018$102,840

Median home value

$609,600$779,000

Median gross rent

$1,621$2,093

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Placer County	Sonoma County
Under 5	5.0%	4.7%
5 to 17	16.9%	14.6%
18 to 24	7.2%	7.8%
25 to 34	10.8%	12.4%
35 to 44	13.7%	13.2%
45 to 54	13.0%	12.4%
55 to 64	13.2%	13.9%
65 to 74	11.4%	12.8%
75 and over	8.7%	8.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Placer County	Sonoma County
White (non-Hispanic)	67.3%	59.1%
Black or African American	1.6%	1.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.3%
Asian	8.9%	4.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.2%	0.3%
Some other race	0.6%	0.5%
Two or more races	6.0%	4.6%
Hispanic or Latino	15.4%	29.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Placer County	Sonoma County
No high school diploma	5.1%	11.1%
High school graduate	17.2%	18.6%
Some college or associate's	34.9%	32.4%
Bachelor's degree	27.7%	23.5%
Graduate or professional degree	15.2%	14.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Placer County	Sonoma County
Drove alone	69.9%	71.0%
Carpooled	6.4%	9.2%
Public transit	0.6%	1.0%
Walked	1.3%	2.4%
Bicycle	0.3%	0.7%
Worked from home	20.2%	14.4%
Other means	1.3%	1.4%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Placer County	Sonoma County
1-unit, detached	78.4%	67.0%
1-unit, attached	3.2%	7.7%
2 to 4 units	4.6%	6.7%
5 to 19 units	6.0%	6.8%
20 or more units	5.2%	7.1%
Mobile home & other	2.8%	4.7%

Poverty & households

	Placer County	Sonoma County
Poverty rate	6.7%	8.6%
Average household size	2.62	2.50
Mean commute (minutes)	28	25
Median year structure built	1994	1979