Sunnyvale is a city located in Santa Clara County California. Sunnyvale has a 2023 population of 145,302. Sunnyvale is currently declining at a rate of -2.31% annually and its population has decreased by -6.77% since the most recent census, which recorded a population of 155,860 in 2020.
The average household income in Sunnyvale is $209,785 with a poverty rate of 5.24%. The median rental costs in recent years comes to - per month, and the median house value is -. The median age in Sunnyvale is 35.2 years, 34.5 years for males, and 36.2 years for females.
Sunnyvale is the seventh most populous city in the Bay Area of San Francisco, California. It's also the 4th largest city in Silicon Valley behind San Jose, Fremont, and Hayward. Sunnyvale is bordered by San Jose to the north, Los Altos to the southwest, and Santa Clara to the east. As part of Silicon Valley, Sunnyvale is home to the headquarters of many tech companies and several aerospace and defense companies.
Interestingly, Sunnyvale is also one of the few cities in the United States to feature a single unified Department of Public Safety, exclusively comprising personnel who are trained as firefighters, police officers, and emergency medical responders.
About 47% of Sunnyvale's population is foreign-born, one of the country's highest foreign-born populations. Sunnyvale has an Asian-majority population. In the 1880s, Chinese workers made up roughly one-third of the farming workforce. The Asian Indian population is Sunnyvale's fastest growing group and will soon overtake the Vietnamese as the second-largest Asian population in Silicon Valley after the Chinese.
In 1920, 8 years after officially becoming a city, Sunnyvale had a population of just 1675 people. The 1950s brought a huge boom with an 18% population growth, bringing the population from 9,829 in 1950 to 52,898 in 1960.
Sunnyvale has continued year after year to rank as one of the top ten safest cities of its size in the U.S. 2018 saw SmartAsset name Sunnyvale the third safest city in the country for the third consecutive year. The city continues its modest population growth that is still behind most of California.
Upon the arrival of the Spanish in the 1770s at the Santa Clara Valley, Native Americans heavily populated the area. With the Spanish, however, came smallpox, measles, and other diseases new to the natives which greatly reduced their population. The region was under Mexican rule in the 1840s when a land grant was provided to Lupe Yñigo, one of the only Native Americans to hold a grant. By 1850, California was granted statehood in the United State.
In 1901, Sunnyvale was named in honor of its sunny region away from the fog of neighboring areas. Within a few years, Sunnyvale had its first fruit-packing factory. Today, California is the world’s largest producer of dried fruit. During WWII, however, the fruit industry started to give way to the high tech industry as workers from the fruit farms moved over to work in munitions factories.
Post-war, the farms were cleared to make way for new homes, factories and offices. Lockheed moved to Sunnyvale, and following them came numerous other high-tech companies, including AMD and Yahoo. By 2002, most remaining orchards were gone, replaced with homes and shops.
According to the most recent ACS, the racial composition of Sunnyvale was:
3.19
Average Family Size
2.69
Average Household Size
45.4%
Rate of Home Ownership
Married
Male
Female
NonFamily
owner
renter
Only English
Spanish
Other Indo-European Languages
Asian and Pacific Island Languages
Other Languages
40% of Sunnyvale residents speak only English, while 60% speak other languages. The non-English language spoken by the largest group is Asian and Pacific Island languages, which is spoken by 42.69% of the population.
5.24%
Overall Poverty Rate
4.36%
Male Poverty Rate
6.2%
Female Poverty Rate
The race most likely to be in poverty in Sunnyvale is Multiple, with 14.65% below the poverty level.
The race least likely to be in poverty in Sunnyvale is Islander, with 2.94% below the poverty level.
The poverty rate among those that worked full-time for the past 12 months was 0.95%. Among those working part-time, it was 7.51%, and for those that did not work, the poverty rate was 13.05%.
Married
Widowed
Divorced
Separated
NeverMarried
56.0%
Overall Marriage Rate
55.4%
Male Marriage Rate
56.7%
Female Marriage Rate
male
female
The age group where males are most likely to be married is 45-54, while the female age group most likely to be married is 35-44.
Married
Widowed
Divorced
Separated
NeverMarried
Less Than 9th Grade
High School Graduate
Some College
Bachelors or Greater
3.26%
Veteran Poverty Rate
33.09%
Veteran Disability Rate
LaborForceParticipation
71.7%
Labor Force Participation
68.7%
Employment Rate
4.1%
Unemployment Rate
LaborForceParticipation
LaborForceParticipation
Europe
Asia
Africa
Oceania
Latin America
North America
Non citizens include legal permanent residents (green card holders), international students, temporary workers, humanitarian migrants, and illegal immigrants.
Europe
Asia
Africa
Oceania
Latin America
North America
35.59%
Born in Sunnyvale
51.76%
Native Born
50.4%
Foreign Born
31.93%
Non Citizen
18.48%
Naturalized
51.76% of Sunnyvale residents were born in the United States, with 35.59% having been born in California. 31.93% of residents are not US citizens. Of those not born in the United States, the largest percentage are from Asia.