Imperial Beach vs Spring Valley

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

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

Spring Valley has the higher population (32,215 vs 25,897 in Imperial Beach). Spring Valley has the higher median household income ($104,808 vs $79,071 in Imperial Beach). Imperial Beach has the higher median home value ($811,000 vs $645,300 in Spring Valley).

Population, income & housing

	Imperial Beach	Spring Valley
Population	25,897	32,215
Median age	35.2 yrs	36.6 yrs
Median household income	$79,071	$104,808
Median home value	$811,000	$645,300
Median gross rent	$1,914	$2,114
Housing units	10,276	10,108
Homeownership rate	30.7%	62.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	23.7%	30.3%
Unemployment rate	7.7%	9.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Imperial Beach	Spring Valley
Population	27,315 → 25,897 (-5.2%)	31,650 → 32,215 (+1.8%)
Median household income	$53,690 → $79,071 (+47.3%)	$72,178 → $104,808 (+45.2%)
Median home value	$563,600 → $811,000 (+43.9%)	$450,900 → $645,300 (+43.1%)
Median gross rent	$1,459 → $1,914 (+31.2%)	$1,677 → $2,114 (+26.1%)

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

Spring Valley

Population

31,65032,215

Median household income

$72,178$104,808

Median home value

$450,900$645,300

Median gross rent

$1,677$2,114

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Imperial Beach	Spring Valley
Under 5	7.1%	6.1%
5 to 17	14.6%	17.7%
18 to 24	9.8%	9.5%
25 to 34	17.9%	14.8%
35 to 44	14.7%	14.2%
45 to 54	12.5%	13.0%
55 to 64	11.3%	12.5%
65 to 74	7.8%	8.1%
75 and over	4.3%	4.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Imperial Beach	Spring Valley
White (non-Hispanic)	33.1%	36.3%
Black or African American	4.5%	11.7%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	6.1%	5.7%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.2%	0.5%
Some other race	0.6%	0.3%
Two or more races	4.6%	5.1%
Hispanic or Latino	50.8%	40.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Imperial Beach	Spring Valley
No high school diploma	14.7%	9.9%
High school graduate	29.0%	19.8%
Some college or associate's	32.6%	40.0%
Bachelor's degree	16.3%	20.1%
Graduate or professional degree	7.4%	10.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Imperial Beach	Spring Valley
Drove alone	71.6%	77.3%
Carpooled	9.5%	8.7%
Public transit	4.4%	1.9%
Walked	3.5%	0.4%
Bicycle	0.7%	0.7%
Worked from home	9.4%	9.9%
Other means	0.9%	1.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Imperial Beach	Spring Valley
1-unit, detached	39.4%	58.1%
1-unit, attached	10.9%	10.8%
2 to 4 units	12.6%	4.6%
5 to 19 units	28.8%	11.2%
20 or more units	7.3%	5.0%
Mobile home & other	1.1%	10.4%

Poverty & households

	Imperial Beach	Spring Valley
Poverty rate	15.2%	12.0%
Average household size	2.67	3.26
Mean commute (minutes)	28	27
Median year structure built	1972	1977