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Data on this report is based on areas within the legal city boundary, outlined in black on the map. Any additional neighborhoods shown on the map are associated with the city by name and are included for reference only.

El Cerrito, CA
Real Estate & Demographic Data





El Cerrito profile


Living in El Cerrito



El Cerrito is a medium-sized city located in the state of California. With a population of 25,583 people and ten associated neighborhoods, El Cerrito is the 281st largest community in California.

El Cerrito home prices are not only among the most expensive in California, but El Cerrito real estate also consistently ranks among the most expensive in America.

Also of interest is that El Cerrito has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

Of important note, El Cerrito is also a city of artists. El Cerrito has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape El Cerrito’s character.

And if you like science, one thing you'll find is that El Cerrito has lots of scientists living in town - whether they be life scientists, physical scientists (like astronomers), or social scientists (like geographers!). So, if you're scientific-minded, you might like it here too.

Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 23.94% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.

One downside of living in El Cerrito is that it can take a long time to commute to work. In El Cerrito, the average commute to work is 32.96 minutes, which is quite a bit higher than the national average. On the other hand, local public transit is widely used in the city, so leaving the car at home and taking transit is often a viable alternative.

For the size of the city, public transportation in El Cerrito is quite heavily used. Mostly, people who use it for their daily commute are taking the subway. For El Cerrito, the benefits are reduced air pollution and congestion on the highways.

Do you have a 4-year college degree or graduate degree? If so, you may feel right at home in El Cerrito. 65.60% of adults here have a 4-year degree or graduate degree, whereas the national average for all cities and towns is just 21.84%.

The per capita income in El Cerrito in 2022 was $67,881, which is wealthy relative to California and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $271,524 for a family of four. However, El Cerrito contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

El Cerrito is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call El Cerrito home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of El Cerrito residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. El Cerrito also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 12.76% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in El Cerrito include German, English, Irish, Italian, and European.

El Cerrito also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 33.11%.

The most common language spoken in El Cerrito is English. Other important languages spoken here include Chinese and Spanish.