Pacific Grove, CA population, income and ZIP codes

Pacific Grove city is a mid-size town in California, with 15,003 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #405 of 1,618 ranked by population — larger than 75% of them. The median age here is 50.3 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 Pacific Grove city earn a median of $105,568 a year, 34.4% above the national figure of $78,538 and 16% above the $91,111 median for the 1,050 California cities we cover. Median household income counts every pre-tax dollar arriving at an address — wages, self-employment, Social Security, pensions, interest and public assistance — for everyone living there, so multi-earner households pull the figure up even where individual pay is modest. Poverty reaches 7.1% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Pacific Grove city is valued at $1,129,400, 272.2% above the national figure and 92% above the $589,600 peer median, while median gross rent runs $2,384 a month, 69.6% above the national figure, or roughly $28,608 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 27.1% 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 10.7×, 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. 48.8% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. Rent is reported gross — contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities — which is why it runs above the advertised price on a listing for the same unit.

Home values sit at 10.7× 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 50.3 puts Pacific Grove 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.

All values below were released by the Census for this exact geography, with no gap-filling on our side. 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.