Laguna Beach, CA population, income and ZIP codes

Laguna Beach city is a mid-size town in California, with 22,777 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #322 of 1,618 ranked by population — larger than 80% of them. The median age here is 52.3 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 Laguna Beach city earn a median of $140,508 a year, 78.9% above the national figure of $78,538 and 54% 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 5.8% of residents here, less than half the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Laguna Beach city is valued at $2,000,001, 559.2% above the national figure and 239% above the $589,600 peer median, while median gross rent runs $2,802 a month, 99.3% above the national figure, or roughly $33,624 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 23.9% 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 14.2×, 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. 64.3% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

Home values sit at 14.2× 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 52.3 puts Laguna Beach 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.