Brea vs Rancho Santa Margarita

A side-by-side comparison of Brea and Rancho Santa Margarita: population, income, housing, and more.

Brea and Rancho Santa Margarita are places in California. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Brea has the higher population (47,337 vs 47,257 in Rancho Santa Margarita). Rancho Santa Margarita has the higher median household income ($146,827 vs $124,837 in Brea). Rancho Santa Margarita has the higher median home value ($907,900 vs $874,300 in Brea).

Population, income & housing

	Brea	Rancho Santa Margarita
Population	47,337	47,257
Median age	39.6 yrs	40.3 yrs
Median household income	$124,837	$146,827
Median home value	$874,300	$907,900
Median gross rent	$2,285	$2,481
Housing units	17,205	17,424
Homeownership rate	60.3%	73.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	50.2%	48.8%
Unemployment rate	5.2%	4.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Brea	Rancho Santa Margarita
Population	42,678 → 47,337 (+10.9%)	48,503 → 47,257 (-2.6%)
Median household income	$94,492 → $124,837 (+32.1%)	$121,017 → $146,827 (+21.3%)
Median home value	$660,400 → $874,300 (+32.4%)	$662,200 → $907,900 (+37.1%)
Median gross rent	$1,851 → $2,285 (+23.4%)	$2,084 → $2,481 (+19.0%)

Brea

Population

42,67847,337

Median household income

$94,492$124,837

Median home value

$660,400$874,300

Median gross rent

$1,851$2,285

Rancho Santa Margarita

Population

48,50347,257

Median household income

$121,017$146,827

Median home value

$662,200$907,900

Median gross rent

$2,084$2,481

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Brea	Rancho Santa Margarita
Under 5	5.9%	5.4%
5 to 17	16.6%	17.2%
18 to 24	8.0%	7.1%
25 to 34	13.3%	11.3%
35 to 44	14.0%	16.0%
45 to 54	13.2%	15.4%
55 to 64	12.4%	16.1%
65 to 74	10.0%	7.2%
75 and over	6.6%	4.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Brea	Rancho Santa Margarita
White (non-Hispanic)	36.8%	59.6%
Black or African American	1.7%	1.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.2%
Asian	25.9%	12.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.0%
Some other race	0.4%	0.4%
Two or more races	4.3%	6.4%
Hispanic or Latino	30.8%	20.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Brea	Rancho Santa Margarita
No high school diploma	6.8%	5.4%
High school graduate	14.4%	13.2%
Some college or associate's	28.6%	32.7%
Bachelor's degree	31.1%	32.0%
Graduate or professional degree	19.1%	16.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Brea	Rancho Santa Margarita
Drove alone	76.5%	66.8%
Carpooled	7.3%	8.3%
Public transit	0.7%	0.2%
Walked	1.1%	1.1%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.2%
Worked from home	12.9%	22.6%
Other means	1.3%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Brea	Rancho Santa Margarita
1-unit, detached	54.1%	54.5%
1-unit, attached	11.5%	19.7%
2 to 4 units	3.9%	5.8%
5 to 19 units	8.0%	11.3%
20 or more units	18.5%	8.5%
Mobile home & other	3.9%	0.2%

Poverty & households

	Brea	Rancho Santa Margarita
Poverty rate	6.4%	5.1%
Average household size	2.85	2.77
Mean commute (minutes)	31	27
Median year structure built	1978	1992