ZIP 90720 vs ZIP 90716

This side-by-side compares ZIP 90720 (Los Alamitos, CA) and ZIP 90716 (Hawaiian Gardens, CA) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 90720 has a population of 21,751 at 1,371 people per square mile, while ZIP 90716 has 14,184 at 5,881 per square mile. That difference in population size and density alone reshapes how every other metric should be interpreted — a higher-income ZIP with 1,200 residents behaves very differently from one with 45,000.

On income and education, ZIP 90720 reports a median household income of $135,851 against $76,410 in ZIP 90716, with per-capita income of $68,402 vs $25,749. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 53.3% in 90720 and 16.8% in 90716. Poverty rate reads 6.8% vs 16.4%, and unemployment 6.5% vs 4.8% — these four fields alone drive most of the difference in the scorecard grades you will see for each ZIP.

Housing separates these two ZIPs further: median home value sits at $1,215,400 in 90720 versus $569,400 in 90716, with median rent of $2,465 and $1,696 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 64.9% vs 42.9%. When reading the comparison table below, focus on paired metrics rather than single winners — a ZIP with lower home values and lower income is not strictly "worse" if rent-to-income ratios and commute times land in the same zone. Every value is pulled from the exact same ACS table so the two columns are genuinely comparable.