Data Laguna Beach
Interactive visualizations and open data for a small California art town
From an aging seaside population to a seven-mile marine reserve and an art colony a century old, the numbers tell the story of Laguna Beach.
🌊 Laguna Beach by the Numbers
A nine-square-mile town on the Southern California coast holds about 23,000 residents, more than 80 art galleries, and seven miles of protected ocean. Laguna Beach packs an outsized cultural footprint into a small stretch of cliffs and coves.
These figures sketch a place unlike its neighbors: older, wealthier, greener, and built around art. Here are eight numbers that define the town.
👥 An Aging Coast: Laguna Beach vs. California
Laguna Beach's median age is 53.9 years — roughly sixteen years older than California as a whole. Nearly a third of residents are 65 or older, while only about 15% are under 18.
Drag the slider to compare the town with Orange County and California. Where the state still forms a broad-based pyramid, Laguna Beach bulges at the top — a portrait of an affluent, older coastal community.
🎨 An Art Colony by the Sea
Laguna Beach has been an artists' colony for more than a century — the first gallery opened in 1918, and the Festival of Arts and its Pageant of the Masters have run each summer since the 1930s.
The arts are still the town's engine: dozens of galleries, hundreds of working artists, and summer festivals that draw hundreds of thousands of visitors to a town of 23,000.
📊 Open Data Sources
Government & City Data
Open datasets and statistics from city, county, state, and federal agencies
- City of Laguna Beach — Municipal services, agendas, budgets, and public records
- OC Open Data — Orange County datasets, GIS layers, and dashboards
- California Open Data — Statewide datasets across agencies and programs
- U.S. Census / ACS — Population, age, income, and housing for any place
- Data.gov — Federal open data catalog across all agencies
Coast, Ocean & Environment
Tides, marine reserves, air quality, and coastal monitoring
- NOAA Tides & Currents — Tide predictions, water levels, and station data
- California Coastal Commission — Coastal access, permits, and shoreline policy
- CDFW Marine Protected Areas — Laguna Beach's state marine reserve and conservation area
- AirNow — Real-time air quality index and forecasts
- USGS — Earthquakes, water, geology, and hazard data
Maps & Geography
Parcel maps, terrain, aerial imagery, and base layers
- OC GIS Portal — Orange County parcels, zoning, and map services
- California State Geoportal — Authoritative statewide GIS layers and imagery
- USGS National Map — Topography, elevation, and hydrography downloads
- OpenStreetMap — Community-built map data powering the site map
Local News & Civic
Reporting, public meetings, and civic accountability
- Laguna Beach Independent — The town's community newspaper and local coverage
- Voice of OC — Nonprofit investigative newsroom for Orange County
- City Council & Agendas — Meeting agendas, minutes, and live video
Arts, Nature & Research
Museums, conservation groups, and biodiversity records
- Laguna Art Museum — California art and the town's artistic heritage
- Laguna Ocean Foundation — Tidepool stewardship and rocky-reef monitoring
- Laguna Canyon Foundation — Wilderness park stewardship and trail data
- iNaturalist — Community species observations across the canyon and coast