Morro Bay vs Pismo Beach

A side-by-side comparison of Morro Bay and Pismo Beach: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Morro Bay has the higher population (10,717 vs 8,024 in Pismo Beach). Pismo Beach has the higher median household income ($112,913 vs $92,553 in Morro Bay). Pismo Beach has the higher median home value ($992,900 vs $864,900 in Morro Bay).

Population, income & housing

	Morro Bay	Pismo Beach
Population	10,717	8,024
Median age	52.9 yrs	55.5 yrs
Median household income	$92,553	$112,913
Median home value	$864,900	$992,900
Median gross rent	$1,820	$2,298
Housing units	6,271	6,060
Homeownership rate	60.5%	67.0%
Bachelor's degree or higher	46.4%	50.1%
Unemployment rate	8.4%	4.3%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Morro Bay	Pismo Beach
Population	10,578 → 10,717 (+1.3%)	8,180 → 8,024 (-1.9%)
Median household income	$68,262 → $92,553 (+35.6%)	$84,484 → $112,913 (+33.7%)
Median home value	$607,300 → $864,900 (+42.4%)	$768,600 → $992,900 (+29.2%)
Median gross rent	$1,560 → $1,820 (+16.7%)	$1,774 → $2,298 (+29.5%)

Morro Bay

Population

10,57810,717

Median household income

$68,262$92,553

Median home value

$607,300$864,900

Median gross rent

$1,560$1,820

Pismo Beach

Population

8,1808,024

Median household income

$84,484$112,913

Median home value

$768,600$992,900

Median gross rent

$1,774$2,298

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Morro Bay	Pismo Beach
Under 5	3.0%	2.5%
5 to 17	8.7%	8.5%
18 to 24	8.6%	3.3%
25 to 34	11.9%	13.1%
35 to 44	7.0%	11.9%
45 to 54	12.6%	10.4%
55 to 64	17.4%	18.4%
65 to 74	17.4%	17.7%
75 and over	13.5%	14.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Morro Bay	Pismo Beach
White (non-Hispanic)	77.1%	79.0%
Black or African American	0.3%	0.9%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.5%	0.1%
Asian	5.0%	3.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	2.1%
Some other race	2.0%	0.5%
Two or more races	2.5%	2.5%
Hispanic or Latino	12.7%	11.7%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Morro Bay	Pismo Beach
No high school diploma	6.1%	2.4%
High school graduate	12.6%	14.1%
Some college or associate's	34.9%	33.4%
Bachelor's degree	26.9%	29.3%
Graduate or professional degree	19.4%	20.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Morro Bay	Pismo Beach
Drove alone	73.7%	71.1%
Carpooled	7.1%	7.8%
Public transit	0.3%	0.0%
Walked	1.4%	2.7%
Bicycle	0.5%	0.9%
Worked from home	15.0%	16.9%
Other means	2.0%	0.6%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Morro Bay	Pismo Beach
1-unit, detached	71.2%	55.8%
1-unit, attached	5.4%	7.4%
2 to 4 units	10.4%	15.4%
5 to 19 units	3.5%	7.7%
20 or more units	1.6%	1.8%
Mobile home & other	8.0%	11.9%

Poverty & households

	Morro Bay	Pismo Beach
Poverty rate	9.9%	8.1%
Average household size	2.11	1.95
Mean commute (minutes)	21	20
Median year structure built	1974	1986