Rancho Santa Margarita, CA population, income and ZIP codes

Rancho Santa Margarita city is a small city in California, with 47,257 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #199 of 1,618 ranked by population — larger than 87% of them. The median age here is 40.3 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly older profile than the country as a whole. 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 Rancho Santa Margarita city earn a median of $146,827 a year, 87% above the national figure of $78,538 and 61% 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 5.1% of residents here, less than half the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Rancho Santa Margarita city is valued at $907,900, 199.2% above the national figure and 54% above the $589,600 peer median, while median gross rent runs $2,481 a month, 76.5% above the national figure, or roughly $29,772 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 20.3% 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 6.2×, 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. 73.4% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. 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 6.2× 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.

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.