2025 Compare Cities Economy:
Palo Alto, CA vs Columbus, OH

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Highlights
- Household income in Columbus, is 70% less than it is in Palo Alto and is 18% below the National Average.
- Palo Alto unemployment rate is 3.5%.
- Columbus unemployment rate is 5.7%.
 Palo Alto, CAColumbus, OHUnited States
 Unemployment Rate  Unlock5.7%6.0%
 Recent Job Growth  Unlock0.9%1.6%
 Future Job Growth40.5%  Unlock33.5%
 Sales Taxes9.0%  Unlock6.2%
 Income Taxes  Unlock5.7%4.6%
 Income per Cap.$105,070  Unlock$37,638
 Household Income  Unlock$58,575$69,021
 Family Median Income$241,579  Unlock$85,028
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 Est. Households By Income
 Palo Alto, CAColumbus, OHUnited States
 Income Less Than 15K  Unlock10.8%9.4%
 Income between 15K and 20K1.3%  Unlock3.8%
 Income between 20K and 30K  Unlock8.4%8.1%
 Income between 30K and 40K2.6%  Unlock8.0%
 Income between 40K and 50K  Unlock8.7%7.6%
 Income between 50K and 60K2.6%  Unlock7.2%
 Income between 60K and 75K  Unlock10.6%9.6%
 Income between 75K and 100K5.4%  Unlock12.8%
 Income between 100K and 150K  Unlock15.3%16.3%
 Income between 150K and 200K9.9%  Unlock7.8%
 Income greater than 200K  Unlock4.3%9.5%
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 Population By Occupation
 Palo Alto, CAColumbus, OHUnited States
 Management, business, finance26.5%  Unlock16.4%
 Engineering, computers, science  Unlock8.0%6.5%
 Community, social services1.0%  Unlock1.8%
 Legal  Unlock1.1%1.2%
 Education, library10.2%  Unlock6.2%
 Arts, design, media, sports, entertainment  Unlock2.1%2.0%
 Healthcare practitioners and technology5.9%  Unlock6.2%
 Healthcare support  Unlock3.6%3.3%
 Firefighters, law enforcement0.6%  Unlock2.1%
 Food preparation, serving  Unlock6.0%5.4%
 Building maintenance0.4%  Unlock3.6%
 Personal care  Unlock2.4%2.6%
 Sales, office, administrative support10.0%  Unlock20.9%
 Farming, fishing, forestry  Unlock0.1%0.6%
 Construction, extraction, maintenance/repair1.6%  Unlock8.1%
 Production, transportation, material moving  Unlock14.2%13.1%
Reviews for Palo Alto    8 Reviews

The Bay Area in general, but Palo Alto specifically provides many of the qualities sought by many; the climate is beautiful, there is access to cultural and recreational  More

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Over 17 years ago

Very  More

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Over 18 years ago

VTA and SamsTrans and Caltrain all provide good service and most times frequency of service is  More

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Reviews for Columbus    156 Reviews

Ellenore · 
Over 2 years ago

I've lived here for my whole life! Awesome place to  More

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We lived in Columbus from 2014-2022, originally from Denver work has taken us to Charlotte, NC, Austin and Atlanta for perspective. One of our biggest reasons for  More

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Over 3 years ago

The city has nice areas and old/ugly areas that look like the remains of a civil war. The nice areas are pretty. Traffic isn't bad compared to Cali but the summer  More

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