Huntington Beach vs Irvine

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

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

Irvine has the higher population (308,160 vs 196,010 in Huntington Beach). Irvine has the higher median household income ($129,647 vs $119,885 in Huntington Beach). Irvine has the higher median home value ($1,115,400 vs $1,047,300 in Huntington Beach).

Population, income & housing

	Huntington Beach	Irvine
Population	196,010	308,160
Median age	43.4 yrs	33.9 yrs
Median household income	$119,885	$129,647
Median home value	$1,047,300	$1,115,400
Median gross rent	$2,424	$2,893
Housing units	81,812	120,368
Homeownership rate	55.8%	43.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	47.2%	70.6%
Unemployment rate	5.4%	5.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Huntington Beach	Irvine
Population	200,259 → 196,010 (-2.1%)	273,157 → 308,160 (+12.8%)
Median household income	$95,046 → $119,885 (+26.1%)	$105,126 → $129,647 (+23.3%)
Median home value	$771,100 → $1,047,300 (+35.8%)	$838,000 → $1,115,400 (+33.1%)
Median gross rent	$1,903 → $2,424 (+27.4%)	$2,361 → $2,893 (+22.5%)

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

Irvine

Population

273,157308,160

Median household income

$105,126$129,647

Median home value

$838,000$1,115,400

Median gross rent

$2,361$2,893

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Huntington Beach	Irvine
Under 5	4.7%	6.5%
5 to 17	13.1%	15.2%
18 to 24	7.9%	12.9%
25 to 34	14.2%	17.2%
35 to 44	12.3%	14.5%
45 to 54	13.4%	13.5%
55 to 64	15.3%	9.7%
65 to 74	10.9%	6.2%
75 and over	8.2%	4.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Huntington Beach	Irvine
White (non-Hispanic)	59.2%	35.4%
Black or African American	1.2%	1.9%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.3%	0.1%
Asian	12.5%	43.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.4%	0.4%
Some other race	0.6%	0.6%
Two or more races	6.5%	6.4%
Hispanic or Latino	19.4%	11.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Huntington Beach	Irvine
No high school diploma	6.1%	3.4%
High school graduate	16.2%	7.0%
Some college or associate's	30.6%	19.1%
Bachelor's degree	29.5%	39.4%
Graduate or professional degree	17.7%	31.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Huntington Beach	Irvine
Drove alone	70.6%	60.8%
Carpooled	6.6%	6.0%
Public transit	0.5%	0.9%
Walked	1.5%	3.7%
Bicycle	0.6%	1.3%
Worked from home	19.4%	25.9%
Other means	0.9%	1.3%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Huntington Beach	Irvine
1-unit, detached	46.2%	36.8%
1-unit, attached	12.7%	19.1%
2 to 4 units	13.9%	5.0%
5 to 19 units	10.0%	11.5%
20 or more units	13.9%	26.6%
Mobile home & other	3.3%	1.1%

Poverty & households

	Huntington Beach	Irvine
Poverty rate	7.5%	11.7%
Average household size	2.51	2.65
Mean commute (minutes)	29	24
Median year structure built	1974	2001