How has San Diego County changed in 5 years? Incomes haven’t kept pace with housing costs, census data show

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The typical San Diego County household now makes $109,000 a year, but disparities remain in incomes, poverty, educational attainment and other quality-of-life factors, the latest estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau show.

The bureau’s American Community Survey this week released its estimates about demographics, housing, employment and other topics covering the most recent five-year period, from 2020 through 2024; the survey also publishes estimates representing single-year periods.

The survey, which generates estimates based on samples of households across the country, is the primary single source of detailed data about all of the nation’s more than 342 million people.

Here are some of the survey’s findings for San Diego County as of 2024:

Population

There are just under 3.3 million people living in San Diego County, according to the survey’s one-year estimate for 2024. That estimate is down from 2019, when there were more than 3.3 million people in the county.

County residents are skewing older, too, and fewer of them are children. The median age for a San Diego County resident is now 37, up from 35 in 2014. And only about 20% of residents are under 18 — down from 22% in 2014.