Nearly 1 in 4 Santa Clara County households has an electric car, the highest share of any U.S. county, Census survey finds

Santa Clara County has a larger share of households with an electric vehicle than any other county in the country, according to figures the U.S. Census Bureau released Thursday.

About 24.1% of the county's households, or roughly 163,000, reported owning or leasing at least one electric vehicle in the 2025 American Community Survey, the bureau said. The count includes plug-in hybrids as well as fully electric cars.

"When we look at the county level, Santa Clara County in California led the nation with about 24% of households reporting having an EV," said Tricia Holley, a survey statistician at the bureau.

A first-time question

This is the first year the survey asked about electric vehicles. Every household that keeps at least one vehicle at home was asked whether it owned or leased one that runs on electricity.

Nationally, about 7.3 million of the country's roughly 134 million households, or 5.5%, said yes. Homeowners were more likely to have one (6.4%) than renters (3.6%).

California far ahead

The five counties with the highest shares were all in California, the bureau said. Statewide, 13.8% of households had at least one EV, more than twice the national rate. Among California homeowners the figure was 17.7%, and among renters 8.9%.

Behind California came Washington (8.9%), Hawaii (8.5%), Nevada (8.2%) and Vermont (7.7%). The lowest shares were in North Dakota (1.3%), Wyoming and Louisiana (1.6% each), and South Dakota and Mississippi (1.8% each).

Outside California, the counties with the highest rates included Boulder County, Colorado, and Loudoun County, Virginia (13.9% each), King County, Washington (13.4%), and Douglas County, Colorado (12.6%). The bureau said those four were not statistically different from one another.

The same release included the survey's first national look at how homes handle wastewater: almost 80% are on a public sewer and 19.2% use a septic tank.

Sources

census.gov

census.gov