Lake Forest vs Westminster

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

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

Westminster has the higher population (90,147 vs 85,846 in Lake Forest). Lake Forest has the higher median household income ($131,378 vs $82,686 in Westminster). Lake Forest has the higher median home value ($876,300 vs $820,000 in Westminster).

Population, income & housing

	Lake Forest	Westminster
Population	85,846	90,147
Median age	40.4 yrs	41.7 yrs
Median household income	$131,378	$82,686
Median home value	$876,300	$820,000
Median gross rent	$2,616	$2,100
Housing units	31,739	29,104
Homeownership rate	70.7%	52.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	50.1%	26.5%
Unemployment rate	4.6%	7.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Lake Forest	Westminster
Population	83,974 → 85,846 (+2.2%)	91,137 → 90,147 (-1.1%)
Median household income	$109,492 → $131,378 (+20.0%)	$62,625 → $82,686 (+32.0%)
Median home value	$647,500 → $876,300 (+35.3%)	$603,700 → $820,000 (+35.8%)
Median gross rent	$2,025 → $2,616 (+29.2%)	$1,585 → $2,100 (+32.5%)

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

Westminster

Population

91,13790,147

Median household income

$62,625$82,686

Median home value

$603,700$820,000

Median gross rent

$1,585$2,100

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Lake Forest	Westminster
Under 5	6.6%	5.6%
5 to 17	14.8%	15.2%
18 to 24	7.4%	8.4%
25 to 34	12.8%	13.1%
35 to 44	15.0%	10.8%
45 to 54	15.1%	14.3%
55 to 64	13.3%	14.9%
65 to 74	9.6%	9.3%
75 and over	5.4%	8.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Lake Forest	Westminster
White (non-Hispanic)	46.3%	20.1%
Black or African American	1.7%	0.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.1%
Asian	20.3%	50.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.4%	0.4%
Some other race	0.5%	0.5%
Two or more races	4.9%	2.9%
Hispanic or Latino	25.6%	24.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Lake Forest	Westminster
No high school diploma	6.1%	22.2%
High school graduate	14.9%	25.0%
Some college or associate's	29.0%	26.4%
Bachelor's degree	32.3%	18.5%
Graduate or professional degree	17.8%	7.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Lake Forest	Westminster
Drove alone	67.3%	70.4%
Carpooled	7.5%	15.2%
Public transit	1.0%	1.1%
Walked	0.9%	1.0%
Bicycle	0.5%	0.8%
Worked from home	21.7%	9.6%
Other means	1.0%	1.9%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Lake Forest	Westminster
1-unit, detached	53.3%	54.6%
1-unit, attached	18.2%	8.0%
2 to 4 units	5.4%	7.9%
5 to 19 units	13.0%	7.6%
20 or more units	6.1%	12.3%
Mobile home & other	3.9%	9.7%

Poverty & households

	Lake Forest	Westminster
Poverty rate	8.3%	15.8%
Average household size	2.82	3.22
Mean commute (minutes)	25	28
Median year structure built	1984	1970