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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.

Palm Desert, CA
Real Estate & Demographic Data






Palm Desert profile


Living in Palm Desert



Palm Desert is a larger medium-sized city located in the state of California. With a population of 51,951 people and 18 associated neighborhoods, Palm Desert is the 182nd largest community in California.

Housing costs in Palm Desert are among some of the highest in the nation, although real estate prices here don't compare to real estate prices in the most expensive communities in California.

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

A relatively large number of people in Palm Desert telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 14.10% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. 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.

The citizens of Palm Desert are very well educated compared to the average community in the nation: 39.86% of adults in Palm Desert have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.

The per capita income in Palm Desert in 2022 was $57,793, which is upper middle income relative to California, and wealthy relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $231,172 for a family of four. However, Palm Desert contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

Palm Desert is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Palm Desert home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Palm Desert residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Palm Desert also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 26.05% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Palm Desert include English, Irish, German, Italian, and French.

Palm Desert also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 17.45%.

The most common language spoken in Palm Desert is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Tagalog.