La Quinta, CA population, income and ZIP codes

La Quinta city is a small city in California, with 38,299 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #224 of 1,618 ranked by population — larger than 86% of them. The median age here is 52.1 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. Places under 65,000 residents only appear in the five-year release, never the one-year file, so these values pool sixty months of responses and lag the current year by design.

Households in La Quinta city earn a median of $97,628 a year, 24.3% above the national figure of $78,538 and 7% above the $91,111 median for the 1,050 California cities we cover. This figure covers the household, not the worker: two people on ordinary wages at one address outrank a single professional in the same table. Poverty reaches 9.1% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in La Quinta city is valued at $612,800, 102% above the national figure and 4% above the $589,600 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,747 a month, 24.3% above the national figure, or roughly $20,964 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 21.5% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 6.3×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is out of reach on local earnings alone and the ownership market leans on outside income, equity or dual high earners. 74.8% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

Home values sit at 6.3× median household income, far past the 3.9× national mark, so ownership costs here are set by something other than local wages — second homes, retirees with equity, or commuters earning elsewhere. A median age of 52.1 puts La Quinta city well into retirement-weighted territory, which pulls median household income down even where household wealth is high, because retirement draws are counted differently from wages.

Every value on this page is published directly by the Census for this area — nothing is modelled or interpolated. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.