Costa Mesa vs Huntington Beach

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

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

Huntington Beach has the higher population (196,010 vs 110,538 in Costa Mesa). Huntington Beach has the higher median household income ($119,885 vs $110,073 in Costa Mesa). Costa Mesa has the higher median home value ($1,054,700 vs $1,047,300 in Huntington Beach).

Population, income & housing

	Costa Mesa	Huntington Beach
Population	110,538	196,010
Median age	36.5 yrs	43.4 yrs
Median household income	$110,073	$119,885
Median home value	$1,054,700	$1,047,300
Median gross rent	$2,395	$2,424
Housing units	43,684	81,812
Homeownership rate	39.4%	55.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	43.6%	47.2%
Unemployment rate	4.9%	5.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Costa Mesa	Huntington Beach
Population	113,159 → 110,538 (-2.3%)	200,259 → 196,010 (-2.1%)
Median household income	$84,138 → $110,073 (+30.8%)	$95,046 → $119,885 (+26.1%)
Median home value	$749,400 → $1,054,700 (+40.7%)	$771,100 → $1,047,300 (+35.8%)
Median gross rent	$1,857 → $2,395 (+29.0%)	$1,903 → $2,424 (+27.4%)

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

Huntington Beach

Population

200,259196,010

Median household income

$95,046$119,885

Median home value

$771,100$1,047,300

Median gross rent

$1,903$2,424

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Costa Mesa	Huntington Beach
Under 5	5.4%	4.7%
5 to 17	13.4%	13.1%
18 to 24	8.9%	7.9%
25 to 34	19.4%	14.2%
35 to 44	14.9%	12.3%
45 to 54	12.8%	13.4%
55 to 64	12.2%	15.3%
65 to 74	8.1%	10.9%
75 and over	4.9%	8.2%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Costa Mesa	Huntington Beach
White (non-Hispanic)	47.6%	59.2%
Black or African American	1.5%	1.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.3%
Asian	8.6%	12.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.9%	0.4%
Some other race	0.5%	0.6%
Two or more races	4.3%	6.5%
Hispanic or Latino	36.4%	19.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Costa Mesa	Huntington Beach
No high school diploma	12.2%	6.1%
High school graduate	16.6%	16.2%
Some college or associate's	27.6%	30.6%
Bachelor's degree	30.9%	29.5%
Graduate or professional degree	12.7%	17.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Costa Mesa	Huntington Beach
Drove alone	65.2%	70.6%
Carpooled	7.9%	6.6%
Public transit	1.6%	0.5%
Walked	2.3%	1.5%
Bicycle	1.0%	0.6%
Worked from home	20.0%	19.4%
Other means	2.0%	0.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Costa Mesa	Huntington Beach
1-unit, detached	39.7%	46.2%
1-unit, attached	10.0%	12.7%
2 to 4 units	14.8%	13.9%
5 to 19 units	16.5%	10.0%
20 or more units	16.4%	13.9%
Mobile home & other	2.6%	3.3%

Poverty & households

	Costa Mesa	Huntington Beach
Poverty rate	8.9%	7.5%
Average household size	2.60	2.51
Mean commute (minutes)	22	29
Median year structure built	1971	1974