Garden Grove is a city located in Orange County California. With a 2020 population of 170,542, it is the 31st largest city in California and the 156th largest city in the United States . Garden Grove is currently declining at a rate of -0.32% annually and its population has decreased by -0.20% since the most recent census, which recorded a population of 170,883 in 2010. Garden Grove reached it's highest population of 174,571 in 2016. Spanning over 18 miles, Garden Grove has a population density of 9,497 people per square mile.
The average household income in Garden Grove is $87,267 with a poverty rate of 14.01%. The median rental costs in recent years comes to $1,590 per month, and the median house value is $554,400. The median age in Garden Grove is 38.5 years, 37.7 years for males, and 39.5 years for females.
Garden Grove is located in Orange County, California about 35 miles southeast of Los Angeles. Garden Grove is one of 24 cities and communities in Greater Los Angeles with a population of more than 100,000, ranking 9th in the metro area in terms of population.
Diversity
Garden Grove is an Asian majority city and it's 7th among top cities of at least 100,000 people with the highest percentage of Asian-Americans. Nine of the 10 cities on the list are in California but the top city is Honolulu, HI. Vietnamese Americans are the largest group of Asian-Americans in Garden Grove at 27.7% of the population. This is the second largest Vietnamese American population in the United States after Westminster, CA. Many Vietnamese Americans in Garden Grove came to California as refugees in the 1980s.
Population Growth
Garden Grove has grown steadily since the 1930s and this growth is expected to continue over the next decade although at a much slower rate. Garden Grove is projected to have a population of about 177,800 in 2030, up from 174,500 in 2019.
The area of Garden Grove was first explored by Europeans in 1769 by Gaspar de Portolá and it was part of Rancho Los Nietos, a Spanish land grant offered to Manuel Nieto in 1784. The modern city of Garden Grove was founded in 1874 by Alonzo Cook and remained a small rural town until the railroad reached the area in 1905. This railroad link allowed the town to flourish.
Garden Grove suffered two major disasters during the beginning of the 20th century: flooding left the city under several feet of water in 1916 then an earthquake destroyed most of the older areas of the city in 1933. Garden Grove became one of Southern California's fastest growing cities in large part due to servicemen stationed in Orange County making a home in the region after WWII.