ZIP 94022 vs ZIP 94304

This side-by-side compares ZIP 94022 (Los Altos, CA) and ZIP 94304 (Palo Alto, CA) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 94022 has a population of 18,500 at 409 people per square mile, while ZIP 94304 has 3,627 at 215 per square mile. That difference in population size and density alone reshapes how every other metric should be interpreted — a higher-income ZIP with 1,200 residents behaves very differently from one with 45,000.

On income and education, ZIP 94022 reports a median household income of $250,001 against $154,141 in ZIP 94304, with per-capita income of $152,520 vs $114,617. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 88.4% in 94022 and 82.2% in 94304. Poverty rate reads 4.8% vs 6.9%, and unemployment 3.5% vs 3.7% — these four fields alone drive most of the difference in the scorecard grades you will see for each ZIP.

Housing separates these two ZIPs further: median home value sits at $2,000,001 in 94022 versus $2,000,001 in 94304, with median rent of $3,501 and $3,501 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 81.7% vs 23.2%. When reading the comparison table below, focus on paired metrics rather than single winners — a ZIP with lower home values and lower income is not strictly "worse" if rent-to-income ratios and commute times land in the same zone. Every value is pulled from the exact same ACS table so the two columns are genuinely comparable.