Costa Mesa vs Garden Grove

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

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

Garden Grove has the higher population (170,603 vs 110,538 in Costa Mesa). Costa Mesa has the higher median household income ($110,073 vs $90,166 in Garden Grove). Costa Mesa has the higher median home value ($1,054,700 vs $765,500 in Garden Grove).

Population, income & housing

	Costa Mesa	Garden Grove
Population	110,538	170,603
Median age	36.5 yrs	39.6 yrs
Median household income	$110,073	$90,166
Median home value	$1,054,700	$765,500
Median gross rent	$2,395	$1,971
Housing units	43,684	50,401
Homeownership rate	39.4%	53.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	43.6%	24.9%
Unemployment rate	4.9%	5.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Costa Mesa	Garden Grove
Population	113,159 → 110,538 (-2.3%)	173,258 → 170,603 (-1.5%)
Median household income	$84,138 → $110,073 (+30.8%)	$69,278 → $90,166 (+30.2%)
Median home value	$749,400 → $1,054,700 (+40.7%)	$554,400 → $765,500 (+38.1%)
Median gross rent	$1,857 → $2,395 (+29.0%)	$1,590 → $1,971 (+24.0%)

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

Garden Grove

Population

173,258170,603

Median household income

$69,278$90,166

Median home value

$554,400$765,500

Median gross rent

$1,590$1,971

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Costa Mesa	Garden Grove
Under 5	5.4%	4.8%
5 to 17	13.4%	16.4%
18 to 24	8.9%	9.0%
25 to 34	19.4%	14.3%
35 to 44	14.9%	11.7%
45 to 54	12.8%	15.0%
55 to 64	12.2%	14.1%
65 to 74	8.1%	8.5%
75 and over	4.9%	6.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Costa Mesa	Garden Grove
White (non-Hispanic)	47.6%	16.8%
Black or African American	1.5%	1.1%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	8.6%	41.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.9%	0.3%
Some other race	0.5%	0.5%
Two or more races	4.3%	2.3%
Hispanic or Latino	36.4%	37.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Costa Mesa	Garden Grove
No high school diploma	12.2%	24.6%
High school graduate	16.6%	23.8%
Some college or associate's	27.6%	26.6%
Bachelor's degree	30.9%	18.9%
Graduate or professional degree	12.7%	6.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Costa Mesa	Garden Grove
Drove alone	65.2%	73.9%
Carpooled	7.9%	11.9%
Public transit	1.6%	1.3%
Walked	2.3%	1.0%
Bicycle	1.0%	0.3%
Worked from home	20.0%	10.1%
Other means	2.0%	1.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Costa Mesa	Garden Grove
1-unit, detached	39.7%	55.1%
1-unit, attached	10.0%	8.9%
2 to 4 units	14.8%	8.0%
5 to 19 units	16.5%	11.5%
20 or more units	16.4%	12.8%
Mobile home & other	2.6%	3.8%

Poverty & households

	Costa Mesa	Garden Grove
Poverty rate	8.9%	12.2%
Average household size	2.60	3.45
Mean commute (minutes)	22	29
Median year structure built	1971	1964