The suburbs of Irvine call to all types of people looking to escape city live. Some people would prefer to live in the cities and towns that surround Irvine to avoid all the hustle and bustle.
So the question arises, do the suburbs maintain a semblance of the larger-than-life appeal of their more famous neighbor?
Today, we’ll use science and data to determine which Irvine ‘burbs need a little tender loving care – the sore thumbs of the Irvine area if you will. Realistically, you can’t expect all the suburbs to live up to Irvine proper, although Newport Beach certainly tries.
Of course, not all suburbs of Irvine are created equally, which is precisely why we set out to find the best ones..
We examined the 73 biggest suburbs of Irvine to find out the worst places to live. And while you won’t necessarily find them on the worst places to live in California lists, these ten places are a little too far downwind of Irvine in terms of quality of life.
Here are the 10 worst suburbs around Irvine for 2023:
What’s the worst suburb of Irvine? Montclair ranks as the worst suburb of Irvine for 2023 based on the most recent Census and FBI data.
Read on to see how we determined the places around Irvine that need a pick-me-up. And remember, don’t blame the messenger.
Or, if you’re thinking of moving to elsewhere in California check out the best places in California overall or the worst.
And remember, there are some good places to live around Irvine too.
Article Table Of Contents
For more California reading, check out:
- Best Places To Live In California
- Cheapest Places To Live In California
- Most Dangerous Cities In California
The 10 Worst Irvine Suburbs To Live For 2023
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We’ll get the ball rolling with Montclair, the absolute worst place to live around Irvine according to the data.
And in the world of worst rankings, Montclair beat the competition pretty handily thanks to scoring in the bottom 15% in three major categories. Income is the 8th worst in the Irvine area, and to make matters worse, the city ranks 9th worst when it comes to home values.
But hey, at least it’s cheap to live there. But there’s a reason for that… it’s Montclair.
You won’t feel bad about not having a great income for the area, there aren’t a bunch of places to spend your money anyway.
2. Lakeland
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Population: 110,401
Rank Last Year: 2 (No Change)
Median Income: $52,972 (2nd lowest)
Unemployment Rate: 6.0% (24th highest)
Median Home Value: $171,700 (2nd lowest)
More on Lakeland:
Welcome to Lakeland. Home to KMart, Big Lots, and a lot of gas stations.
This city is 23.3 miles to Irvine. Income levels here are the 2nd lowest in the metro area, where families bring in about $52,972 a year, which doesn’t go a long ways even on a shoestring budget.
But on the bright side, there are a lot of fast food joints in the area.
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Population: 104,684
Rank Last Year: 3 (No Change)
Median Income: $83,430 (3lowest)
Unemployment Rate: 7.2% (11th highest)
Median Home Value: $416,300 (7th lowest)
More on Jurupa Valley: Data
Back up the highway we go for the third worst Irvine suburb you can live in. You might have expected to see Jurupa Valley on here. While the cost of living is low, your entertainment and work options are limited. And that’s an understatement.
In terms of numbers, it’s in the worst 15% for insurance, and the adult high school drop out rate is poor compared to other Irvine suburbs.
But at least there are nice parks to bring the kids during the day.
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If you live in Lynwood, most likely you struggle to make ends meet every month. It ranks as the 6th lowest Irvine suburb when it comes to residents making money.
Not only that, but this is the worst unemployed suburb you can live in if you choose to live near Irvine. Remember, we looked at 73 cities for this study.
Lynwood is about 30.0 miles to downtown.
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Lake Elsinore has the distinction of being a Irvine suburb. Which means that’s about all it has going for it.
All snarkiness aside, Lake Elsinore has the 4th lowest home values in the metro Irvine area, where the median price is $392,200. To put that into perspective, in Newport Beach, the median income is $181,591, which is the best in the area.
Lake Elsinore has an unemployment rate of 7.32% which ranks 8th worst.
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Pomona has 151,592 residents that probably know it’s a pretty crummy place to live when you look at the data. (Or, if you’ve ever been there, you don’t need to look at the data.)
Incomes are towards the bottom and the poverty rate sits at 16.360157401522628%.
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Ah, Ontario. You rank as the 7th worst place to live around Irvine.
It’s the place with the 22nd most out of work residents in the Irvine metro area (6.2%).
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Bell Gardens is a city about 29.5 miles from Irvine, but Irvine probably wishes it was further away. It ranks as the 8th worst burb for 2018.
You’d be hard pressed to find a worse place to live. Bell Gardens has the most uninsured people, worst incomes, and has the 28th highest unemployment rate (5.8%) in the entire Irvine metro area.
Homes only cost $423,700 for a reason. That’s cheap for Irvine standards.
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Population: 36,511
Rank Last Year: 9 (No Change)
Median Income: $81,622 (27th lowest)
Unemployment Rate: 7.1% (12th highest)
Median Home Value: $413,800 (6th lowest)
More on Wildomar: Data
If you absolutely have to live near Irvine, then Wildomar might be a place for you to consider as it’s only the 9th worst Irvine suburb.
About 7.08% of residents are out of work.
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Rounding out the ten worst Irvine suburbs to call home is Riverside.
Located 28.1 miles outside the city, Riversides is a real pit when you look at the data. Its residents have the 20th highest unemployment rate (6.4%), and poverty is far above the area average.
Methodology: Determining The Worst Suburbs Around Irvine for 2023
To figure out how bad a Irvine suburb is to live in, we only needed to know what kinds of things people like and then decide what suburbs have the least amount of those things.
We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. Using the most recent American Community Survey data from 2017-2021, this is the criteria we used:
- High unemployment rate
- Low median household incomes
- Low population density (no things to do)
- Low home values
- A lot of high school drop outs
- High poverty
- High rate of uninsured families
FYI: We defined a suburb as being within 30 miles of Irvine.
Additionally, we limited the analysis to places that have over 3,000 people. This left us with a grand total of 73 suburbs to evaluate around Irvine.
We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 73 in each category, where 1 was the “worst”.
Next, we averaged the rankings for each place to create a quality of life index.
And finally, we crowned the city with the worst quality of life index the “Worst Suburb near Irvine.” We’re lookin’ at you, Montclair.
Read on below to learn more about what it’s like to live in the worst of the worst. Or skip to the end to see the list of all the suburbs ranked from worst to best.
Summary: The areas around Irvine where the dream is more of a nightmare for 2023
Well there you have it — the worst of the ‘burbs surrounding Irvine with Montclair casting itself ahead of the pack.
As we mentioned earlier, the suburbs around Irvine aren’t all bad. Newport Beach takes the cake as the best place to live around Irvine.
- Newport Beach
- Yorba Linda
- Villa Park
For more California reading, check out:
- Best Places To Retire In California
- Richest Cities In California
- Safest Places In California
- Worst Places To Live In California
Detailed List Of The Worst Irvine Suburbs
Rank | City | Population |
---|---|---|
1 | Montclair | 37,871 |
2 | Lakeland | 110,401 |
3 | Jurupa Valley | 104,684 |
4 | Lynwood | 67,497 |
5 | Lake Elsinore | 68,822 |
6 | Pomona | 151,592 |
7 | Ontario | 175,223 |
8 | Bell Gardens | 39,870 |
9 | Wildomar | 36,511 |
10 | Riverside | 314,858 |
11 | Stanton | 38,167 |
12 | Hawaiian Gardens | 14,178 |
13 | Paramount | 53,904 |
14 | Bellflower | 79,070 |
15 | La Puente | 38,447 |
16 | Westminster | 91,267 |
17 | Long Beach | 466,565 |
18 | Santa Fe Springs | 18,817 |
19 | Santa Ana | 313,818 |
20 | Midway | 3,402 |
21 | Anaheim | 348,204 |
22 | Garden Grove | 172,708 |
23 | Chino | 90,279 |
24 | Pico Rivera | 62,383 |
25 | Carson | 95,104 |
26 | La Habra | 63,287 |
27 | Downey | 114,293 |
28 | Los Alamitos | 11,780 |
29 | Norwalk | 103,330 |
30 | Laguna Woods | 17,546 |
31 | Covina | 51,061 |
32 | Signal Hill | 11,780 |
33 | Artesia | 16,390 |
34 | Fullerton | 142,964 |
35 | Corona | 157,844 |
36 | West Covina | 109,396 |
37 | Whittier | 87,184 |
38 | Buena Park | 83,974 |
39 | Costa Mesa | 112,148 |
40 | Tustin | 79,895 |
41 | Orange | 139,195 |
42 | Chino Hills | 78,229 |
43 | San Juan Capistrano | 35,319 |
44 | San Dimas | 34,775 |
45 | Seal Beach | 25,216 |
46 | Laguna Hills | 31,409 |
47 | Norco | 26,176 |
48 | Diamond Bar | 55,339 |
49 | Brea | 46,912 |
50 | Fountain Valley | 57,139 |
51 | Lake Forest | 85,516 |
52 | Placentia | 51,951 |
53 | La Mirada | 47,957 |
54 | Lakewood | 82,419 |
55 | Huntington Beach | 198,735 |
56 | Canyon Lake | 11,071 |
57 | Cypress | 50,279 |
58 | Walnut | 28,641 |
59 | Cerritos | 49,630 |
60 | Laguna Niguel | 64,608 |
61 | El Cerrito | 25,898 |
62 | Laguna Beach | 23,121 |
63 | La Habra Heights | 5,651 |
64 | Dana Point | 33,327 |
65 | Eastvale | 68,539 |
66 | Mission Viejo | 93,932 |
67 | La Palma | 15,650 |
68 | Rancho Santa Margarita | 48,190 |
69 | San Clemente | 64,600 |
70 | Aliso Viejo | 51,943 |
71 | Villa Park | 5,864 |
72 | Yorba Linda | 68,319 |
73 | Newport Beach | 85,806 |