Buena Park vs Costa Mesa

A side-by-side comparison of Buena Park and Costa Mesa: population, income, housing, and more.

Buena Park and Costa Mesa are places in California. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Costa Mesa has the higher population (110,538 vs 83,052 in Buena Park). Costa Mesa has the higher median household income ($110,073 vs $108,187 in Buena Park). Costa Mesa has the higher median home value ($1,054,700 vs $771,900 in Buena Park).

Population, income & housing

	Buena Park	Costa Mesa
Population	83,052	110,538
Median age	37.4 yrs	36.5 yrs
Median household income	$108,187	$110,073
Median home value	$771,900	$1,054,700
Median gross rent	$2,112	$2,395
Housing units	24,961	43,684
Homeownership rate	56.1%	39.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	32.1%	43.6%
Unemployment rate	5.3%	4.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Buena Park	Costa Mesa
Population	82,489 → 83,052 (+0.7%)	113,159 → 110,538 (-2.3%)
Median household income	$78,932 → $108,187 (+37.1%)	$84,138 → $110,073 (+30.8%)
Median home value	$579,100 → $771,900 (+33.3%)	$749,400 → $1,054,700 (+40.7%)
Median gross rent	$1,662 → $2,112 (+27.1%)	$1,857 → $2,395 (+29.0%)

Buena Park

Population

82,48983,052

Median household income

$78,932$108,187

Median home value

$579,100$771,900

Median gross rent

$1,662$2,112

Costa Mesa

Population

113,159110,538

Median household income

$84,138$110,073

Median home value

$749,400$1,054,700

Median gross rent

$1,857$2,395

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Buena Park	Costa Mesa
Under 5	5.6%	5.4%
5 to 17	17.1%	13.4%
18 to 24	8.7%	8.9%
25 to 34	14.9%	19.4%
35 to 44	14.7%	14.9%
45 to 54	12.0%	12.8%
55 to 64	12.9%	12.2%
65 to 74	8.3%	8.1%
75 and over	5.7%	4.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Buena Park	Costa Mesa
White (non-Hispanic)	20.5%	47.6%
Black or African American	2.0%	1.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.1%
Asian	31.7%	8.6%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.3%	0.9%
Some other race	0.2%	0.5%
Two or more races	2.8%	4.3%
Hispanic or Latino	42.5%	36.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Buena Park	Costa Mesa
No high school diploma	15.1%	12.2%
High school graduate	23.4%	16.6%
Some college or associate's	29.5%	27.6%
Bachelor's degree	22.4%	30.9%
Graduate or professional degree	9.7%	12.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Buena Park	Costa Mesa
Drove alone	74.8%	65.2%
Carpooled	11.7%	7.9%
Public transit	1.4%	1.6%
Walked	0.7%	2.3%
Bicycle	0.5%	1.0%
Worked from home	9.8%	20.0%
Other means	1.1%	2.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Buena Park	Costa Mesa
1-unit, detached	57.8%	39.7%
1-unit, attached	9.0%	10.0%
2 to 4 units	7.5%	14.8%
5 to 19 units	11.3%	16.5%
20 or more units	12.7%	16.4%
Mobile home & other	1.7%	2.6%

Poverty & households

	Buena Park	Costa Mesa
Poverty rate	8.6%	8.9%
Average household size	3.39	2.60
Mean commute (minutes)	29	22
Median year structure built	1966	1971