Census Offers No Surprises For Cupertino

Cupertino’s population grew 15.3 percent in the decade between 2000 and 2010, according to figures released Tuesday from the 2010 census.

It was the second-largest increase in cities in Santa Clara County, second to Gilroy, which saw its population grow 17.7 percent.

What the population growth—which increased to 58,302 in 2010 from 50,546 in 2000—means to the city in terms of grants or other funding is “negligible,” says City Manager Dave Knapp.

“We don’t have a sudden influx of money,” he said.

By comparison, a California city with a giant spike was Lincoln, in Placer County, with an increase of 282 percent.

Santa Clara County, with 1.78 million people, is the sixth-largest county in terms of population in the state, compared with 1.68 million in 2000, which amounts to an almost 6 percent increase.

The demographics of Cupertino are no surprise, says Knapp, as there has been a steady increase in the Asian community in the city for several years. Asians now make up more than 63 percent of the population, up almost 19 percent from 2000 when Asians were just over 44 percent of the population. Whites, non-Hispanic, comes in second at a tad over 31 percent in 2010 compared with just over 50 percent in 2000.

The number of housing units in the city increased to 21,027 in 2010, which is about an 11 percent increase over 2000, and the number of vacant units increased more than 43 percent.

Check out the census data on American Fact Finder.