City safety & data profile

Costa MesaCA

Costa Mesa, CA is a 113K-resident city in Orange County with a median household income of $111,505.

Orange County, California. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Costa Mesa, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Costa Mesa has a population larger than 94% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $1,115,100, and 1 hospital serving the surrounding area.

Data updated 2026-09-03

113K
Population (place)
Top 6%
By size
$111,505
Median income (place)
$1,115,100
Median home (place)
9.1%
Poverty rate (place)
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The read on Costa Mesa

Costa Mesa posts a median household income higher than 78% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 1 hospital serves the Costa Mesa area.

Top 22%
by median income, US cities
1
hospital in & near Costa Mesa

Where Costa Mesa income ranks nationally

Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)

$111,505 Top 22% higher than 78% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Costa Mesa $0 $260,000 every profiled place, bucketed by value

Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year

Largest cities in CA

Population among 482 CA places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.

residents

What this shows Los Angeles is the largest CA city on this list; Alamo leads median income.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

Highest median incomes in CA

Median household income among the same 482-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.

median

What this shows Alamo posts the highest place-level median income in CA; Los Angeles is largest by headcount.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

The quick read

Reading Costa Mesa, CA beyond the headline numbers

Costa Mesa sits inside Orange County, California, at roughly 33.64°N, -117.92°W. Population 113,204, $111,505 median household income. Median home value $1,115,100, median rent $2,446. Poverty rate 9.1%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

1 hospital in/around Costa Mesa, 0 with an ER.

At 9.1%, poverty in Costa Mesa, CA runs below the midpoint of reporting cities -- enough to matter locally, not enough to dominate the city's profile.

The median home in Costa Mesa costs around 10.0 times what a median household earns in a year -- the most expensive quarter of reporting cities, and far enough ahead of local pay that ownership is largely closed to median earners.

22.2% of Costa Mesa workers report working from home, the highest quarter of reporting cities. Where that share runs this high, local income increasingly reflects employers located somewhere else.

Among the CDC measures on this page, high blood pressure departs furthest from its peer median: 25.8% in Costa Mesa, the lowest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Costa Mesa from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.

Population (place)
113,204
Costa Mesa · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$111,505
+25% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$1,115,100
+170% vs avg
Median Age (place)
36.7
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Orange County): Costa Mesa's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.

20132024
Population
3.2M+4%
Median Income
$116,289+54%
Median Home Value
$962,600+85%
Poverty Rate
9.5%-23%
Unemployment
5.4%-43%

Economics

Economics indicators for Costa Mesa, CA
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$2,446/mo
Poverty Rate
9.1% -27% vs avg
Unemployment 4.7%
Bachelor's Degree+ 45%
Work From Home 22.2%
Public Transit 1.6%

Population

White 51.8%
African American 1.9%
Asian 8.3%
Two or More Ethnicities 1.4%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

Short Sleep Duration
34.8%
High Blood Pressure
25.8%
Obesity
25.7%
Physical Inactivity
22.1%
Binge Drinking
18.1%
Frequent Mental Distress
17.9%
Frequent Physical Distress
12.2%
Lack of Health Insurance
9.8%
Current Smoking
9.7%
Current Asthma
9.6%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 64.9%
Annual Checkup 70.7%

Other Measures

Diabetes
9.3%
Coronary Heart Disease
4.7%
Stroke
2.5%

What alerts and safety updates affect Costa Mesa?

No area-tagged alerts are on record for Costa Mesa right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet CA-COSTA-MESA · Costa Mesa

Costa Mesa: no area-tagged alerts on record — state hubs carry the live CAP stream.

  • FEED-QUIET No tagged alerts
  • LEAD-NONE Feed idle
  • DESK-IDLE Awaiting feed

Counts reflect published articles tagged to Costa Mesa; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse California state hubs · Methodology

Read with this city profile

Tracking Safety Alerts in Your Area

How Areazine tags Costa Mesa in the CAP feed
All safety guides →

Frequently Asked Questions 6

What is the population of Costa Mesa, CA? ▼
Costa Mesa, CA has a population of 113,204 people, located in Orange County, California.
What is the median household income in Costa Mesa? ▼
The median household income in Costa Mesa, CA is $111,505 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 9.1%.
What is the median home value in Costa Mesa? ▼
The median home value in Costa Mesa, CA is $1,115,100. Median rent is $2,446/month.
What are the top health concerns in Costa Mesa? ▼
The top health indicators in Costa Mesa include Short Sleep Duration (34.8%), High Blood Pressure (25.8%), Obesity (25.7%). Data from CDC PLACES.
How many hospitals are in Costa Mesa? ▼
Costa Mesa has 1 hospital. 0 have emergency departments.
What is the median age in Costa Mesa? ▼
The median age in Costa Mesa, CA is 36.7 years. 45% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

Two ACS-derived peer sets for Costa Mesa, both outside California so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside CA (9.1% here).

South Fulton, GA 9.1% Norwalk, CT 9.1% Deer Park, TX 9.1% Wayne, PA 9.1%

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside CA ($111,505 here).

Mastic Beach, NY $111,493 Wheaton, MD $111,478 Aspen Hill, MD $111,575 Stamford, CT $111,586

Compare Costa Mesa with another city

Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.

Quick picks:

Nearby Cities 8

Newport Beach, CA 87K Fountain Valley, CA 57K UC Irvine, CA 16K Huntington Beach, CA 202K Irvine, CA 257K Turtle Rock, CA 12K Tustin Legacy, CA 21K Westpark, CA 23K
All cities in California → Compare Costa Mesa vs Newport Beach → All comparisons → Browse all cities

Using Costa Mesa's profile

Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.

  • Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Costa Mesa area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
  • Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
  • Compare Costa Mesa against California peers on any ranking lens. Explore California

Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city. County-level trends are labeled when shown.

Data Sources

All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Orange County) where that is the smallest published unit.

Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.