ZIP 90740 vs ZIP 90743

This side-by-side compares ZIP 90740 (Seal Beach, CA) and ZIP 90743 (Surfside, CA) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 90740 has a population of 23,729 at 1,043 people per square mile, while ZIP 90743 has 456 at 2,125 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 90740 reports a median household income of $85,347 against $170,966 in ZIP 90743, with per-capita income of $68,037 vs $71,888. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 51.4% in 90740 and 50.4% in 90743. Poverty rate reads 6.7% vs 5.3%, and unemployment 4.7% vs 0.0% — 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 $484,100 in 90740 versus $1,662,500 in 90743, with median rent of $2,652 and $2,521 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 76.9% vs 54.9%. 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.