ZIP 94704 vs ZIP 94720

This side-by-side compares ZIP 94704 (Berkeley, CA) and ZIP 94720 (Berkeley, CA) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 94704 has a population of 25,592 at 9,256 people per square mile, while ZIP 94720 has 2,964 at 1,840 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 94704 reports a median household income of $50,129 against — in ZIP 94720, with per-capita income of $35,247 vs $11,262. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 72.4% in 94704 and 82.3% in 94720. Poverty rate reads 44.7% vs 48.9%, and unemployment 8.0% vs 10.5% — 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 $906,100 in 94704 versus $507,800 in 94720, with median rent of $1,937 and $3,501 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 12.4% vs 24.8%. 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.