Buena Park vs Lake Forest

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

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

Lake Forest has the higher population (85,846 vs 83,052 in Buena Park). Lake Forest has the higher median household income ($131,378 vs $108,187 in Buena Park). Lake Forest has the higher median home value ($876,300 vs $771,900 in Buena Park).

Population, income & housing

	Buena Park	Lake Forest
Population	83,052	85,846
Median age	37.4 yrs	40.4 yrs
Median household income	$108,187	$131,378
Median home value	$771,900	$876,300
Median gross rent	$2,112	$2,616
Housing units	24,961	31,739
Homeownership rate	56.1%	70.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	32.1%	50.1%
Unemployment rate	5.3%	4.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Buena Park	Lake Forest
Population	82,489 → 83,052 (+0.7%)	83,974 → 85,846 (+2.2%)
Median household income	$78,932 → $108,187 (+37.1%)	$109,492 → $131,378 (+20.0%)
Median home value	$579,100 → $771,900 (+33.3%)	$647,500 → $876,300 (+35.3%)
Median gross rent	$1,662 → $2,112 (+27.1%)	$2,025 → $2,616 (+29.2%)

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

Lake Forest

Population

83,97485,846

Median household income

$109,492$131,378

Median home value

$647,500$876,300

Median gross rent

$2,025$2,616

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Buena Park	Lake Forest
Under 5	5.6%	6.6%
5 to 17	17.1%	14.8%
18 to 24	8.7%	7.4%
25 to 34	14.9%	12.8%
35 to 44	14.7%	15.0%
45 to 54	12.0%	15.1%
55 to 64	12.9%	13.3%
65 to 74	8.3%	9.6%
75 and over	5.7%	5.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Buena Park	Lake Forest
White (non-Hispanic)	20.5%	46.3%
Black or African American	2.0%	1.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.2%
Asian	31.7%	20.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.3%	0.4%
Some other race	0.2%	0.5%
Two or more races	2.8%	4.9%
Hispanic or Latino	42.5%	25.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Buena Park	Lake Forest
No high school diploma	15.1%	6.1%
High school graduate	23.4%	14.9%
Some college or associate's	29.5%	29.0%
Bachelor's degree	22.4%	32.3%
Graduate or professional degree	9.7%	17.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Buena Park	Lake Forest
Drove alone	74.8%	67.3%
Carpooled	11.7%	7.5%
Public transit	1.4%	1.0%
Walked	0.7%	0.9%
Bicycle	0.5%	0.5%
Worked from home	9.8%	21.7%
Other means	1.1%	1.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Buena Park	Lake Forest
1-unit, detached	57.8%	53.3%
1-unit, attached	9.0%	18.2%
2 to 4 units	7.5%	5.4%
5 to 19 units	11.3%	13.0%
20 or more units	12.7%	6.1%
Mobile home & other	1.7%	3.9%

Poverty & households

	Buena Park	Lake Forest
Poverty rate	8.6%	8.3%
Average household size	3.39	2.82
Mean commute (minutes)	29	25
Median year structure built	1966	1984