Lake Forest vs Newport Beach

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

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

Lake Forest has the higher population (85,846 vs 84,304 in Newport Beach). Newport Beach has the higher median household income ($158,461 vs $131,378 in Lake Forest). Newport Beach has the higher median home value ($2,000,001 vs $876,300 in Lake Forest).

Population, income & housing

	Lake Forest	Newport Beach
Population	85,846	84,304
Median age	40.4 yrs	46.0 yrs
Median household income	$131,378	$158,461
Median home value	$876,300	$2,000,001
Median gross rent	$2,616	$3,146
Housing units	31,739	45,243
Homeownership rate	70.7%	53.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	50.1%	69.6%
Unemployment rate	4.6%	4.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Lake Forest	Newport Beach
Population	83,974 → 85,846 (+2.2%)	85,694 → 84,304 (-1.6%)
Median household income	$109,492 → $131,378 (+20.0%)	$127,223 → $158,461 (+24.6%)
Median home value	$647,500 → $876,300 (+35.3%)	$1,898,900 → $2,000,001 (+5.3%)
Median gross rent	$2,025 → $2,616 (+29.2%)	$2,251 → $3,146 (+39.8%)

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

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)

	Lake Forest	Newport Beach
Under 5	6.6%	3.5%
5 to 17	14.8%	13.9%
18 to 24	7.4%	5.9%
25 to 34	12.8%	13.5%
35 to 44	15.0%	12.2%
45 to 54	15.1%	12.7%
55 to 64	13.3%	15.0%
65 to 74	9.6%	12.5%
75 and over	5.4%	10.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Lake Forest	Newport Beach
White (non-Hispanic)	46.3%	75.9%
Black or African American	1.7%	0.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.0%
Asian	20.3%	8.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.4%	0.0%
Some other race	0.5%	0.7%
Two or more races	4.9%	4.4%
Hispanic or Latino	25.6%	10.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Lake Forest	Newport Beach
No high school diploma	6.1%	2.2%
High school graduate	14.9%	7.6%
Some college or associate's	29.0%	20.6%
Bachelor's degree	32.3%	41.1%
Graduate or professional degree	17.8%	28.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Lake Forest	Newport Beach
Drove alone	67.3%	64.9%
Carpooled	7.5%	4.5%
Public transit	1.0%	0.2%
Walked	0.9%	1.6%
Bicycle	0.5%	0.6%
Worked from home	21.7%	27.1%
Other means	1.0%	1.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Lake Forest	Newport Beach
1-unit, detached	53.3%	46.1%
1-unit, attached	18.2%	16.5%
2 to 4 units	5.4%	10.8%
5 to 19 units	13.0%	7.1%
20 or more units	6.1%	18.4%
Mobile home & other	3.9%	1.1%

Poverty & households

	Lake Forest	Newport Beach
Poverty rate	8.3%	7.3%
Average household size	2.82	2.20
Mean commute (minutes)	25	24
Median year structure built	1984	1977