Sacramento County vs Santa Clara County

A side-by-side comparison of Sacramento County and Santa Clara County: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Santa Clara County has the higher population (1,903,297 vs 1,584,047 in Sacramento County). Santa Clara County has the higher median household income ($159,674 vs $88,724 in Sacramento County). Santa Clara County has the higher median home value ($1,382,800 vs $498,900 in Sacramento County).

Population, income & housing

	Sacramento County	Santa Clara County
Population	1,584,047	1,903,297
Median age	37.2 yrs	37.9 yrs
Median household income	$88,724	$159,674
Median home value	$498,900	$1,382,800
Median gross rent	$1,702	$2,814
Housing units	593,616	694,209
Homeownership rate	58.6%	55.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	33.3%	55.9%
Unemployment rate	6.4%	4.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Sacramento County	Santa Clara County
Population	1,524,553 → 1,584,047 (+3.9%)	1,927,470 → 1,903,297 (-1.3%)
Median household income	$67,151 → $88,724 (+32.1%)	$124,055 → $159,674 (+28.7%)
Median home value	$351,900 → $498,900 (+41.8%)	$984,000 → $1,382,800 (+40.5%)
Median gross rent	$1,252 → $1,702 (+35.9%)	$2,268 → $2,814 (+24.1%)

Sacramento County

Population

1,524,5531,584,047

Median household income

$67,151$88,724

Median home value

$351,900$498,900

Median gross rent

$1,252$1,702

Santa Clara County

Population

1,927,4701,903,297

Median household income

$124,055$159,674

Median home value

$984,000$1,382,800

Median gross rent

$2,268$2,814

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Sacramento County	Santa Clara County
Under 5	6.0%	5.3%
5 to 17	17.1%	15.6%
18 to 24	8.3%	8.7%
25 to 34	15.3%	15.9%
35 to 44	14.2%	14.5%
45 to 54	12.2%	13.4%
55 to 64	12.0%	12.1%
65 to 74	9.0%	8.1%
75 and over	5.9%	6.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Sacramento County	Santa Clara County
White (non-Hispanic)	41.5%	28.2%
Black or African American	9.1%	2.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.3%	0.1%
Asian	17.2%	39.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	1.1%	0.4%
Some other race	0.5%	0.5%
Two or more races	6.3%	4.1%
Hispanic or Latino	24.0%	25.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Sacramento County	Santa Clara County
No high school diploma	11.6%	10.7%
High school graduate	21.9%	13.5%
Some college or associate's	33.2%	20.0%
Bachelor's degree	21.4%	28.2%
Graduate or professional degree	11.9%	27.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Sacramento County	Santa Clara County
Drove alone	67.6%	61.7%
Carpooled	9.5%	8.9%
Public transit	1.5%	2.7%
Walked	1.7%	2.1%
Bicycle	0.7%	1.3%
Worked from home	17.3%	21.9%
Other means	1.7%	1.3%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Sacramento County	Santa Clara County
1-unit, detached	65.0%	50.8%
1-unit, attached	6.3%	11.0%
2 to 4 units	7.0%	6.7%
5 to 19 units	10.0%	9.8%
20 or more units	9.3%	18.8%
Mobile home & other	2.5%	2.8%

Poverty & households

	Sacramento County	Santa Clara County
Poverty rate	12.6%	6.9%
Average household size	2.74	2.85
Mean commute (minutes)	28	27
Median year structure built	1980	1975