AreaProfile

92844Garden Grove, California

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 92844.

50
Area Score
Bottom 17% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3616th of 6,210 published ZIP areas51
GrowthTop 37% of 5,428 published ZIP areas57
Housing affordability6606th of 6,685 published ZIP areas25
ClimateTop 4% of 6,789 published ZIP areas100
Physical resilience6135th of 6,709 published ZIP areas11
AccessTop 9% of 6,791 published ZIP areas99
Economic stability4498th of 6,742 published ZIP areas50
The quick read

Housing costs more relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles, with rent taking 31% of median household income.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by earthquake, inland flooding and wildfire.

A major airport is 11 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
23,188
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$79,701
Top 38% nationally
Density
11,047/sq mi
2.1 sq mi of land
Median age
41.0
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Garden Grove
California
Metro area
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
Nearest major airport
LGB
11 mi · Long Beach (Daugherty Fld)
Median home value
$753,900
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.1% is lower than 65% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 1.8% over the past year, to 80,901 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$7,301$79,701Top 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,910$30,219Bottom 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate16.2%Top 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute31.0 minTop 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher21.6%Bottom 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment80,901Top 39%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.2%Top 47%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.8%Bottom 23%June 2026
Labor force84,347Top 39%June 2026
Labor force participation61.2%Top 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$77,270Top 21%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$55,850Top 28%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.5%Bottom 18%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.1%Bottom 35%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202480k65k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $79,701 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides385,530$34,320
Fast Food and Counter Workers160,270$42,110
Retail Salespersons130,650$37,700
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand120,720$42,390
Office Clerks, General112,270$48,100
Cashiers109,940$36,980

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Garden Grove, CA, the city containing this ZIP code.

There are 22.3 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
9
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
22.3
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Bolsa Grande HighGarden Grove Unified1,70121.0
John Murdy ElementaryGarden Grove Unified68923.8
Donald S. Jordan IntermediateGarden Grove Unified55124.0
Sunnyside ElementaryGarden Grove Unified50026.3
Anderson ElementaryWestminster44522.3
Meairs ElementaryWestminster38724.2
A. G. Cook ElementaryGarden Grove Unified34523.0
Merton E. Hill ElementaryGarden Grove Unified27821.4
Jordan Secondary Learning CenterGarden Grove Unified9712.1

81.7% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against California’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $2,092 takes 31% of median household income, above the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 9.5 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
31.5%
Above the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
9.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$2,092
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$753,900
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income9.46Top 2%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate40.5%Bottom 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3757,139Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$74$2,092Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$37,627$753,900Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income31.5%Top 4%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate3.9%Bottom 17%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
57/ 100
Top 37% of 5,428 published city profiles

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 19% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 2.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
420
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.5
Bottom 46% nationally
Year over year
+116%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
18.6%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Garden Grove, CA, the city containing this ZIP code.

Weather & climate

12 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 84°F and January a low of 46°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 11.9 inches.

30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station FULLERTON MUNI AP, 7.4 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.0"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation11.9"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low46°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high84°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months121991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing20°F1991-2020 Normals

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today.

Physical risk

11 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are earthquake, inland flooding and wildfire.

EarthquakeHigh
WildfireModerate
Inland floodingElevated
AvalancheModerate

Low or minimal exposure: landslide, heat wave, coastal flooding, tornado, hail, lightning, tsunami, strong wind, drought, winter weather.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. Reported crime is also easy to misread: agency participation varies year to year, and a city that draws a large daytime workforce carries incidents its residents did not generate.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

7 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 11 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Long Beach (Daugherty Fld)LGB11 mi10,000 ft
Los Angeles IntlLAX28 mi12,923 ft
Ontario IntlONT29 mi12,197 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them

Profile recalculated August 29, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

92844 vs Garden Grove

How this ZIP area compares with Garden Grove as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

92844
Garden Grove
Median household income
$79,701
vs
$92,174
Per capita income
$30,219
vs
$33,568
Population density
11,047/sq mi
vs
9,523/sq mi
Median home value
$753,900
vs
$814,100
Median gross rent
$2,092
vs
$2,012
Homeownership rate
40.5%
vs
53.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher
21.6%
vs
25.3%
Poverty rate
16.2%
vs
12.3%
Median age
41.0
vs
40.2

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.