Lake Forest vs Mission Viejo

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

Lake Forest and Mission Viejo are places in California. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Mission Viejo has the higher population (92,415 vs 85,846 in Lake Forest). Mission Viejo has the higher median household income ($136,071 vs $131,378 in Lake Forest). Mission Viejo has the higher median home value ($946,300 vs $876,300 in Lake Forest).

Population, income & housing

	Lake Forest	Mission Viejo
Population	85,846	92,415
Median age	40.4 yrs	46.1 yrs
Median household income	$131,378	$136,071
Median home value	$876,300	$946,300
Median gross rent	$2,616	$2,713
Housing units	31,739	34,360
Homeownership rate	70.7%	77.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	50.1%	51.1%
Unemployment rate	4.6%	4.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Lake Forest	Mission Viejo
Population	83,974 → 85,846 (+2.2%)	95,516 → 92,415 (-3.2%)
Median household income	$109,492 → $131,378 (+20.0%)	$118,477 → $136,071 (+14.9%)
Median home value	$647,500 → $876,300 (+35.3%)	$693,000 → $946,300 (+36.6%)
Median gross rent	$2,025 → $2,616 (+29.2%)	$2,267 → $2,713 (+19.7%)

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

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)

	Lake Forest	Mission Viejo
Under 5	6.6%	5.7%
5 to 17	14.8%	14.4%
18 to 24	7.4%	6.4%
25 to 34	12.8%	9.8%
35 to 44	15.0%	12.4%
45 to 54	15.1%	13.3%
55 to 64	13.3%	15.7%
65 to 74	9.6%	13.3%
75 and over	5.4%	9.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Lake Forest	Mission Viejo
White (non-Hispanic)	46.3%	59.4%
Black or African American	1.7%	1.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.0%
Asian	20.3%	14.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.4%	0.0%
Some other race	0.5%	0.3%
Two or more races	4.9%	5.4%
Hispanic or Latino	25.6%	19.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Lake Forest	Mission Viejo
No high school diploma	6.1%	6.3%
High school graduate	14.9%	16.0%
Some college or associate's	29.0%	26.7%
Bachelor's degree	32.3%	32.1%
Graduate or professional degree	17.8%	19.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Lake Forest	Mission Viejo
Drove alone	67.3%	69.8%
Carpooled	7.5%	6.4%
Public transit	1.0%	0.5%
Walked	0.9%	1.5%
Bicycle	0.5%	0.2%
Worked from home	21.7%	20.0%
Other means	1.0%	1.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Lake Forest	Mission Viejo
1-unit, detached	53.3%	71.7%
1-unit, attached	18.2%	12.0%
2 to 4 units	5.4%	4.2%
5 to 19 units	13.0%	5.5%
20 or more units	6.1%	6.5%
Mobile home & other	3.9%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Lake Forest	Mission Viejo
Poverty rate	8.3%	5.0%
Average household size	2.82	2.75
Mean commute (minutes)	25	27
Median year structure built	1984	1980