ZIP 90743 vs ZIP 90742

This side-by-side compares ZIP 90743 (Surfside, CA) and ZIP 90742 (Sunset Beach, CA) using the same Census ACS 5-Year table fields for both — no averages swapped in, no national proxies. ZIP 90743 has a population of 456 at 2,125 people per square mile, while ZIP 90742 has 831 at 1,741 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 90743 reports a median household income of $170,966 against $122,250 in ZIP 90742, with per-capita income of $71,888 vs $97,334. The share of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher is 50.4% in 90743 and 72.3% in 90742. Poverty rate reads 5.3% vs 0.0%, and unemployment 0.0% 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 $1,662,500 in 90743 versus — in 90742, with median rent of $2,521 and $2,410 per month respectively. Homeownership rate is 54.9% vs 37.5%. 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.