Costa Mesa vs Lake Forest

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

Costa Mesa and Lake Forest 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 85,846 in Lake Forest). Lake Forest has the higher median household income ($131,378 vs $110,073 in Costa Mesa). Costa Mesa has the higher median home value ($1,054,700 vs $876,300 in Lake Forest).

Population, income & housing

	Costa Mesa	Lake Forest
Population	110,538	85,846
Median age	36.5 yrs	40.4 yrs
Median household income	$110,073	$131,378
Median home value	$1,054,700	$876,300
Median gross rent	$2,395	$2,616
Housing units	43,684	31,739
Homeownership rate	39.4%	70.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher	43.6%	50.1%
Unemployment rate	4.9%	4.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Costa Mesa	Lake Forest
Population	113,159 → 110,538 (-2.3%)	83,974 → 85,846 (+2.2%)
Median household income	$84,138 → $110,073 (+30.8%)	$109,492 → $131,378 (+20.0%)
Median home value	$749,400 → $1,054,700 (+40.7%)	$647,500 → $876,300 (+35.3%)
Median gross rent	$1,857 → $2,395 (+29.0%)	$2,025 → $2,616 (+29.2%)

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

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)

	Costa Mesa	Lake Forest
Under 5	5.4%	6.6%
5 to 17	13.4%	14.8%
18 to 24	8.9%	7.4%
25 to 34	19.4%	12.8%
35 to 44	14.9%	15.0%
45 to 54	12.8%	15.1%
55 to 64	12.2%	13.3%
65 to 74	8.1%	9.6%
75 and over	4.9%	5.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Costa Mesa	Lake Forest
White (non-Hispanic)	47.6%	46.3%
Black or African American	1.5%	1.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.2%
Asian	8.6%	20.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.9%	0.4%
Some other race	0.5%	0.5%
Two or more races	4.3%	4.9%
Hispanic or Latino	36.4%	25.6%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Costa Mesa	Lake Forest
No high school diploma	12.2%	6.1%
High school graduate	16.6%	14.9%
Some college or associate's	27.6%	29.0%
Bachelor's degree	30.9%	32.3%
Graduate or professional degree	12.7%	17.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Costa Mesa	Lake Forest
Drove alone	65.2%	67.3%
Carpooled	7.9%	7.5%
Public transit	1.6%	1.0%
Walked	2.3%	0.9%
Bicycle	1.0%	0.5%
Worked from home	20.0%	21.7%
Other means	2.0%	1.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Costa Mesa	Lake Forest
1-unit, detached	39.7%	53.3%
1-unit, attached	10.0%	18.2%
2 to 4 units	14.8%	5.4%
5 to 19 units	16.5%	13.0%
20 or more units	16.4%	6.1%
Mobile home & other	2.6%	3.9%

Poverty & households

	Costa Mesa	Lake Forest
Poverty rate	8.9%	8.3%
Average household size	2.60	2.82
Mean commute (minutes)	22	25
Median year structure built	1971	1984