Imperial Beach vs Lemon Grove

A side-by-side comparison of Imperial Beach and Lemon Grove: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Lemon Grove has the higher population (27,489 vs 25,897 in Imperial Beach). Lemon Grove has the higher median household income ($79,278 vs $79,071 in Imperial Beach). Imperial Beach has the higher median home value ($811,000 vs $640,600 in Lemon Grove).

Population, income & housing

	Imperial Beach	Lemon Grove
Population	25,897	27,489
Median age	35.2 yrs	38.8 yrs
Median household income	$79,071	$79,278
Median home value	$811,000	$640,600
Median gross rent	$1,914	$1,769
Housing units	10,276	9,698
Homeownership rate	30.7%	53.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	23.7%	20.3%
Unemployment rate	7.7%	7.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Imperial Beach	Lemon Grove
Population	27,315 → 25,897 (-5.2%)	26,802 → 27,489 (+2.6%)
Median household income	$53,690 → $79,071 (+47.3%)	$63,548 → $79,278 (+24.8%)
Median home value	$563,600 → $811,000 (+43.9%)	$432,000 → $640,600 (+48.3%)
Median gross rent	$1,459 → $1,914 (+31.2%)	$1,333 → $1,769 (+32.7%)

Imperial Beach

Population

27,31525,897

Median household income

$53,690$79,071

Median home value

$563,600$811,000

Median gross rent

$1,459$1,914

Lemon Grove

Population

26,80227,489

Median household income

$63,548$79,278

Median home value

$432,000$640,600

Median gross rent

$1,333$1,769

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Imperial Beach	Lemon Grove
Under 5	7.1%	5.9%
5 to 17	14.6%	15.9%
18 to 24	9.8%	7.6%
25 to 34	17.9%	16.6%
35 to 44	14.7%	12.5%
45 to 54	12.5%	12.2%
55 to 64	11.3%	14.5%
65 to 74	7.8%	10.2%
75 and over	4.3%	4.7%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Imperial Beach	Lemon Grove
White (non-Hispanic)	33.1%	27.1%
Black or African American	4.5%	14.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	6.1%	8.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.2%	0.3%
Some other race	0.6%	0.2%
Two or more races	4.6%	5.2%
Hispanic or Latino	50.8%	44.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Imperial Beach	Lemon Grove
No high school diploma	14.7%	10.9%
High school graduate	29.0%	28.2%
Some college or associate's	32.6%	40.6%
Bachelor's degree	16.3%	12.4%
Graduate or professional degree	7.4%	7.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Imperial Beach	Lemon Grove
Drove alone	71.6%	73.8%
Carpooled	9.5%	9.3%
Public transit	4.4%	2.6%
Walked	3.5%	0.9%
Bicycle	0.7%	0.3%
Worked from home	9.4%	12.0%
Other means	0.9%	1.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Imperial Beach	Lemon Grove
1-unit, detached	39.4%	62.9%
1-unit, attached	10.9%	8.0%
2 to 4 units	12.6%	8.6%
5 to 19 units	28.8%	7.8%
20 or more units	7.3%	12.6%
Mobile home & other	1.1%	0.1%

Poverty & households

	Imperial Beach	Lemon Grove
Poverty rate	15.2%	10.3%
Average household size	2.67	2.89
Mean commute (minutes)	28	30
Median year structure built	1972	1967