Palo Alto Demographics & Data

Palo Alto is a special place in the US & is considered by many to be an engine of innovation & economic growth. With Stanford in the vicinity and its resulting startups such as Google being birthed on campus, the demographics of this town are vastly different from other places in California & the US. One way to look at this is just the median household income differences between Palo Alto which is at $121,000 compared to $61,000 for California.

Vozag, a data & research firm analyzed demographic data for Palo Alto which showed interesting differences between Palo Alto & the rest of California. The first interesting difference is the level of education attainment. Nearly 80% of adults who are atleast 25 years have a minimum of a bachelors degree compared to only 30% for the rest of California. A better education leads to a higher income and the data driving that is quite apparent in Palo Alto.

Another interesting tidbit is that Palo Alto is considered to be a diverse place. For instance, if you compared the Asian percentage of population to the rest of California, its nearly double with Palo Alto at 29% while rest of California is at 15%. The connection between a diverse population and higher education & income levels have been studied before. Here is a relevant excerpt from SF Gate talking about the rise in population of Asians in California and its connection to other key indicators.

Sarah Burd-Sharps, co-author of the “A Portrait of California” study published in 2011 by the American Human Development Project in New York, said of the 5.4 million new Asians in the United States over the past decade, 1.4 million live in this state. “The opportunities for Asian Americans are high in San Francisco, and in California overall,” she said. “They live longer, have more education, and have a high level of overall well-being here.” . Her study shows that Asian Americans in the Bay Area have a life expectancy of 87.4 years, higher than any other ethnic group or area of the state. Also, 51.5 percent of Asian Americans in the Bay Area have at least a bachelor’s degree, higher than any other ethnicity. “There definitely is a connection Asian people have to education and raising your children well - just as all Americans strive for,” Lee said. “And we are making great contributions to society and our communities. Just look at (San Francisco Mayor) Ed Lee and (Oakland Mayor) Jean Quan.”