Costa Mesa vs Mission Viejo

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

Costa Mesa and Mission Viejo 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 92,415 in Mission Viejo). Mission Viejo has the higher median household income ($136,071 vs $110,073 in Costa Mesa). Costa Mesa has the higher median home value ($1,054,700 vs $946,300 in Mission Viejo).

Population, income & housing

	Costa Mesa	Mission Viejo
Population	110,538	92,415
Median age	36.5 yrs	46.1 yrs
Median household income	$110,073	$136,071
Median home value	$1,054,700	$946,300
Median gross rent	$2,395	$2,713
Housing units	43,684	34,360
Homeownership rate	39.4%	77.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	43.6%	51.1%
Unemployment rate	4.9%	4.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Costa Mesa	Mission Viejo
Population	113,159 → 110,538 (-2.3%)	95,516 → 92,415 (-3.2%)
Median household income	$84,138 → $110,073 (+30.8%)	$118,477 → $136,071 (+14.9%)
Median home value	$749,400 → $1,054,700 (+40.7%)	$693,000 → $946,300 (+36.6%)
Median gross rent	$1,857 → $2,395 (+29.0%)	$2,267 → $2,713 (+19.7%)

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

Mission Viejo

Population

95,51692,415

Median household income

$118,477$136,071

Median home value

$693,000$946,300

Median gross rent

$2,267$2,713

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Costa Mesa	Mission Viejo
Under 5	5.4%	5.7%
5 to 17	13.4%	14.4%
18 to 24	8.9%	6.4%
25 to 34	19.4%	9.8%
35 to 44	14.9%	12.4%
45 to 54	12.8%	13.3%
55 to 64	12.2%	15.7%
65 to 74	8.1%	13.3%
75 and over	4.9%	9.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Costa Mesa	Mission Viejo
White (non-Hispanic)	47.6%	59.4%
Black or African American	1.5%	1.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	8.6%	14.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.9%	0.0%
Some other race	0.5%	0.3%
Two or more races	4.3%	5.4%
Hispanic or Latino	36.4%	19.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Costa Mesa	Mission Viejo
No high school diploma	12.2%	6.3%
High school graduate	16.6%	16.0%
Some college or associate's	27.6%	26.7%
Bachelor's degree	30.9%	32.1%
Graduate or professional degree	12.7%	19.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Costa Mesa	Mission Viejo
Drove alone	65.2%	69.8%
Carpooled	7.9%	6.4%
Public transit	1.6%	0.5%
Walked	2.3%	1.5%
Bicycle	1.0%	0.2%
Worked from home	20.0%	20.0%
Other means	2.0%	1.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Costa Mesa	Mission Viejo
1-unit, detached	39.7%	71.7%
1-unit, attached	10.0%	12.0%
2 to 4 units	14.8%	4.2%
5 to 19 units	16.5%	5.5%
20 or more units	16.4%	6.5%
Mobile home & other	2.6%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Costa Mesa	Mission Viejo
Poverty rate	8.9%	5.0%
Average household size	2.60	2.75
Mean commute (minutes)	22	27
Median year structure built	1971	1980