Imperial Beach vs Rancho San Diego

A side-by-side comparison of Imperial Beach and Rancho San Diego: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Imperial Beach has the higher population (25,897 vs 22,264 in Rancho San Diego). Rancho San Diego has the higher median household income ($118,431 vs $79,071 in Imperial Beach). Rancho San Diego has the higher median home value ($854,200 vs $811,000 in Imperial Beach).

Population, income & housing

	Imperial Beach	Rancho San Diego
Population	25,897	22,264
Median age	35.2 yrs	43.3 yrs
Median household income	$79,071	$118,431
Median home value	$811,000	$854,200
Median gross rent	$1,914	$2,431
Housing units	10,276	8,362
Homeownership rate	30.7%	75.9%
Bachelor's degree or higher	23.7%	44.5%
Unemployment rate	7.7%	8.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Imperial Beach	Rancho San Diego
Population	27,315 → 25,897 (-5.2%)	21,799 → 22,264 (+2.1%)
Median household income	$53,690 → $79,071 (+47.3%)	$95,892 → $118,431 (+23.5%)
Median home value	$563,600 → $811,000 (+43.9%)	$611,000 → $854,200 (+39.8%)
Median gross rent	$1,459 → $1,914 (+31.2%)	$1,900 → $2,431 (+27.9%)

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

Rancho San Diego

Population

21,79922,264

Median household income

$95,892$118,431

Median home value

$611,000$854,200

Median gross rent

$1,900$2,431

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Imperial Beach	Rancho San Diego
Under 5	7.1%	4.9%
5 to 17	14.6%	15.3%
18 to 24	9.8%	9.5%
25 to 34	17.9%	10.7%
35 to 44	14.7%	10.8%
45 to 54	12.5%	11.8%
55 to 64	11.3%	16.3%
65 to 74	7.8%	12.9%
75 and over	4.3%	7.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Imperial Beach	Rancho San Diego
White (non-Hispanic)	33.1%	74.5%
Black or African American	4.5%	0.9%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	6.1%	3.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.2%	1.0%
Some other race	0.6%	0.2%
Two or more races	4.6%	4.7%
Hispanic or Latino	50.8%	14.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Imperial Beach	Rancho San Diego
No high school diploma	14.7%	7.2%
High school graduate	29.0%	15.6%
Some college or associate's	32.6%	32.6%
Bachelor's degree	16.3%	25.8%
Graduate or professional degree	7.4%	18.7%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Imperial Beach	Rancho San Diego
Drove alone	71.6%	80.6%
Carpooled	9.5%	5.8%
Public transit	4.4%	0.0%
Walked	3.5%	1.8%
Bicycle	0.7%	0.2%
Worked from home	9.4%	10.0%
Other means	0.9%	1.5%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Imperial Beach	Rancho San Diego
1-unit, detached	39.4%	69.3%
1-unit, attached	10.9%	4.4%
2 to 4 units	12.6%	2.9%
5 to 19 units	28.8%	10.0%
20 or more units	7.3%	11.6%
Mobile home & other	1.1%	1.8%

Poverty & households

	Imperial Beach	Rancho San Diego
Poverty rate	15.2%	6.9%
Average household size	2.67	2.84
Mean commute (minutes)	28	30
Median year structure built	1972	1985