Costa Mesa vs Newport Beach

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

Costa Mesa and Newport Beach 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 84,304 in Newport Beach). Newport Beach has the higher median household income ($158,461 vs $110,073 in Costa Mesa). Newport Beach has the higher median home value ($2,000,001 vs $1,054,700 in Costa Mesa).

Population, income & housing

	Costa Mesa	Newport Beach
Population	110,538	84,304
Median age	36.5 yrs	46.0 yrs
Median household income	$110,073	$158,461
Median home value	$1,054,700	$2,000,001
Median gross rent	$2,395	$3,146
Housing units	43,684	45,243
Homeownership rate	39.4%	53.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	43.6%	69.6%
Unemployment rate	4.9%	4.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Costa Mesa	Newport Beach
Population	113,159 → 110,538 (-2.3%)	85,694 → 84,304 (-1.6%)
Median household income	$84,138 → $110,073 (+30.8%)	$127,223 → $158,461 (+24.6%)
Median home value	$749,400 → $1,054,700 (+40.7%)	$1,898,900 → $2,000,001 (+5.3%)
Median gross rent	$1,857 → $2,395 (+29.0%)	$2,251 → $3,146 (+39.8%)

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

Newport Beach

Population

85,69484,304

Median household income

$127,223$158,461

Median home value

$1,898,900$2,000,001

Median gross rent

$2,251$3,146

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Costa Mesa	Newport Beach
Under 5	5.4%	3.5%
5 to 17	13.4%	13.9%
18 to 24	8.9%	5.9%
25 to 34	19.4%	13.5%
35 to 44	14.9%	12.2%
45 to 54	12.8%	12.7%
55 to 64	12.2%	15.0%
65 to 74	8.1%	12.5%
75 and over	4.9%	10.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Costa Mesa	Newport Beach
White (non-Hispanic)	47.6%	75.9%
Black or African American	1.5%	0.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	8.6%	8.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.9%	0.0%
Some other race	0.5%	0.7%
Two or more races	4.3%	4.4%
Hispanic or Latino	36.4%	10.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Costa Mesa	Newport Beach
No high school diploma	12.2%	2.2%
High school graduate	16.6%	7.6%
Some college or associate's	27.6%	20.6%
Bachelor's degree	30.9%	41.1%
Graduate or professional degree	12.7%	28.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Costa Mesa	Newport Beach
Drove alone	65.2%	64.9%
Carpooled	7.9%	4.5%
Public transit	1.6%	0.2%
Walked	2.3%	1.6%
Bicycle	1.0%	0.6%
Worked from home	20.0%	27.1%
Other means	2.0%	1.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Costa Mesa	Newport Beach
1-unit, detached	39.7%	46.1%
1-unit, attached	10.0%	16.5%
2 to 4 units	14.8%	10.8%
5 to 19 units	16.5%	7.1%
20 or more units	16.4%	18.4%
Mobile home & other	2.6%	1.1%

Poverty & households

	Costa Mesa	Newport Beach
Poverty rate	8.9%	7.3%
Average household size	2.60	2.20
Mean commute (minutes)	22	24
Median year structure built	1971	1977