Big Bear City vs Phelan

A side-by-side comparison of Big Bear City and Phelan: population, income, housing, and more.

Big Bear City and Phelan are places in California. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Phelan has the higher population (18,059 vs 12,493 in Big Bear City). Phelan has the higher median household income ($83,759 vs $72,457 in Big Bear City). Big Bear City has the higher median home value ($427,700 vs $357,200 in Phelan).

Population, income & housing

	Big Bear City	Phelan
Population	12,493	18,059
Median age	44.3 yrs	33.9 yrs
Median household income	$72,457	$83,759
Median home value	$427,700	$357,200
Median gross rent	$1,454	$1,623
Housing units	12,489	5,510
Homeownership rate	71.9%	80.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	28.4%	13.9%
Unemployment rate	8.0%	12.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Big Bear City	Phelan
Population	13,463 → 12,493 (-7.2%)	15,987 → 18,059 (+13.0%)
Median household income	$51,875 → $72,457 (+39.7%)	$59,375 → $83,759 (+41.1%)
Median home value	$257,200 → $427,700 (+66.3%)	$237,800 → $357,200 (+50.2%)
Median gross rent	$1,113 → $1,454 (+30.6%)	$1,109 → $1,623 (+46.3%)

Big Bear City

Population

13,46312,493

Median household income

$51,875$72,457

Median home value

$257,200$427,700

Median gross rent

$1,113$1,454

Phelan

Population

15,98718,059

Median household income

$59,375$83,759

Median home value

$237,800$357,200

Median gross rent

$1,109$1,623

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Big Bear City	Phelan
Under 5	7.1%	9.3%
5 to 17	14.2%	18.3%
18 to 24	8.4%	7.0%
25 to 34	8.9%	17.0%
35 to 44	12.4%	11.3%
45 to 54	10.5%	11.6%
55 to 64	17.1%	14.9%
65 to 74	13.9%	6.7%
75 and over	7.5%	3.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Big Bear City	Phelan
White (non-Hispanic)	69.9%	48.1%
Black or African American	0.9%	0.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.6%	0.1%
Asian	0.9%	2.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.5%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.3%
Two or more races	3.6%	3.9%
Hispanic or Latino	23.6%	44.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Big Bear City	Phelan
No high school diploma	8.2%	10.3%
High school graduate	26.6%	40.1%
Some college or associate's	36.8%	35.7%
Bachelor's degree	20.4%	9.1%
Graduate or professional degree	8.0%	4.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Big Bear City	Phelan
Drove alone	72.3%	75.0%
Carpooled	7.3%	8.4%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	3.9%	1.4%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	15.4%	12.5%
Other means	1.1%	2.7%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Big Bear City	Phelan
1-unit, detached	94.4%	75.7%
1-unit, attached	0.6%	0.9%
2 to 4 units	1.1%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	0.2%	0.0%
20 or more units	0.2%	0.5%
Mobile home & other	3.4%	22.9%

Poverty & households

	Big Bear City	Phelan
Poverty rate	15.3%	14.5%
Average household size	2.35	3.45
Mean commute (minutes)	26	48
Median year structure built	1978	1991