Long Beach 2026The independent atlas report on Long Beach, United States.

The math, before the spin.

Every number below comes from Numbeo Q1 2026, cross checked against the BLS Consumer Price Index March 2026 release and the California Department of Housing rental data Q4 2025.

A single person budgets $3,220 a month to live in Long Beach at the median Numbeo basket. Rent is the largest line item, with a furnished one bedroom in central Downtown along Pine Avenue, the East Village Arts District, Belmont Shore on 2nd Street, the Bluff Park historic district, or the Naples Island canals commanding $1,980 a month and an outer ring equivalent in Bixby Knolls, the Wrigley District, North Long Beach, or West Long Beach landing at $1,480. The California Department of Housing Q4 2025 release placed Long Beach metro rent at 5.2 percent year on year growth, structurally below the California average of 6.4 percent because the structural Long Beach AB 1482 rent cap (the historic 2019 California Tenant Protection Act caps annual rent increases at 5 percent plus CPI or 10 percent whichever is lower) and the Long Beach Just Cause Eviction Ordinance moderate the structural Los Angeles County rent inflation. Most international relocators and dollar earning remote workers use Wise for cross border transfers at the interbank rate.

Compared regionally, Long Beach sits 14 percent below Los Angeles on the full basket, 24 percent below San Francisco, and 12 percent above San Diego. The cheapest cities ranking excludes Long Beach because of the structural Southern California cost premium; the best cities near beaches ranking places Long Beach in the US top 30 for urban beach cities. The 25 minute Metrolink Pacific Surfliner train to Los Angeles Union Station runs $7 each way; the 1 hour drive on Interstate 405 and Interstate 710 to Downtown LA is the structural commuter route. The 25 minute drive to the Long Beach Airport LGB or the 40 minute drive to LAX makes the structural air travel case.

Twelve months at a glance.

The full year, pulled from the NOAA Long Beach Airport 1991 to 2020 climate normals.

The climate is classified as Mediterranean, Koppen Csa, with structural Pacific Ocean cool current moderation from the California Current and the seasonal southern California Bight high pressure system. The defining feature is the warm dry summer and the mild wet winter: monthly high reaches 28 Celsius in August with occasional 38 Celsius events when the Santa Ana offshore wind from the Mojave Desert dominates the structural southern California fall fire season (the historic October through December Santa Ana wind events deliver 60 to 120 kilometer per hour offshore gusts and the structural southern California wildfire ignition pattern), monthly low drops to 8 Celsius in January with frost rare and snow falling structurally once or twice a decade on the urban floor. Annual precipitation is 320 millimeters concentrated in November through April with the June through September Mediterranean drought; the structural ENSO El Nino Pacific oscillation drives the rainfall variability (the 1997 to 1998 El Nino delivered 640 millimeters, the structural 2017 to 2018 La Nina delivered 90 millimeters). Sunshine hours run 3,260 a year, the structural highest of any US city of 400,000 plus population after Phoenix and Las Vegas. The structural climate hazards are the October through December Santa Ana wind season with the historic 1961 Bel Air Fire, the 2017 Thomas Fire, and the 2025 Eaton and Palisades fires as the historic anchors, the structural mid summer marine layer June Gloom cloud cover, the structural Pacific tsunami warning network coverage (the 1964 Alaska tsunami delivered 1.4 meter run up at Long Beach harbor), and the structural southern California earthquake risk on the Newport Inglewood Fault that runs through the western Long Beach urban area (the historic 1933 Long Beach earthquake of 6.4 magnitude killed 115 in the structural single defining seismic event of the southern California 20th century). The single most comfortable months are March, April, May, October, and the November first half. The harshest stretch is the August through September late summer heat humidity window when the structural Pacific high pressure inversion delivers 90 percent humidity at 28 Celsius and the air quality drops as the structural Long Beach port and the I 710 corridor traffic emissions concentrate.

Six quarters, one verdict each.

A working map of where to live in Long Beach in 2026.

The full walk through is in the Long Beach neighborhoods longform, scheduled for Q3 2026. See also cost of living comparisons and the United States country page for the broader frame. Compare with Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco for the California alternatives.

For the kids, and the postgrads.

School and university density.

Private and charter schools

• St Anthony High School (the historic 1920 founded Catholic independent on the Olive Avenue, the leading Long Beach Catholic independent)
• Long Beach Polytechnic High School (the historic 1895 founded public secondary on the Atlantic Avenue, the structural single most distinguished US public secondary in California by the National Center for Education Statistics; alumni include Snoop Dogg, Cameron Diaz, Spencer Pratt, Tony Gwynn, and the historic Long Beach Polytechnic athletic powerhouse)
• Wilson Classical High School (the historic 1926 founded public secondary on the Tenth Street site)
• Cabrillo High School (the structural West Long Beach public secondary)
• Lakewood High School (the historic 1957 founded public secondary in nearby Lakewood, the structural southern Los Angeles County secondary anchor)
• Avalon School (the Catalina Island K through 12, the structural single most isolated US public secondary on Catalina Island 35 kilometers offshore)
• Renaissance High School for the Arts (the structural arts magnet secondary on the Long Beach Polytechnic campus)

Universities

• California State University Long Beach CSULB (founded 1949 as the Los Angeles Orange County State College, the structural largest California State University campus with 40,000 students on the Bellflower Boulevard site; structural strengths in engineering, business, the arts and the College of the Arts; ranked in the structural top 30 US public regional universities)
• Long Beach City College LBCC (the structural community college with 25,000 students across the Liberal Arts Campus and the Pacific Coast Campus)
• California Polytechnic State University Pomona at Long Beach (the structural Cal Poly Pomona southern California outreach)

The California State University Long Beach CSULB (founded 1949 as the Los Angeles Orange County State College, the structural largest California State University campus with 40,000 students; the historic 1973 California State University renaming and the structural 1985 Olympic Games venue) drives the city's research gravity with structural strengths in engineering (the College of Engineering is one of the structural top 30 US public engineering schools by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying NCEES pass rates), business (the College of Business is the structural largest California State University business school by enrollment), the arts (the College of the Arts is the structural single most prestigious California State University arts school), and the structural Sciences and Mathematics. CSULB is the structural top regional university in the southern California public university system and is the leading research university in Long Beach. The Long Beach City College LBCC (the structural community college with 25,000 students across the Liberal Arts Campus and the Pacific Coast Campus) anchors the structural community college layer. The school sector splits between the structural Long Beach Polytechnic High School (the historic 1895 founded public secondary, the structural single most distinguished US public secondary in California with the historic alumni including Snoop Dogg, Cameron Diaz, Spencer Pratt, Tony Gwynn, and the historic Long Beach Polytechnic athletic powerhouse), Wilson Classical, Cabrillo, and Lakewood; the structural St Anthony Catholic independent is the leading private option; the average independent school fee runs $18,400 to $32,800 a year. The United States country page covers the broader education context.

What makes the city itself.

Food signatures, nightlife rating, and the cultural through line.

The food signatures of Long Beach anchor on the structural Southern California Mexican American culinary tradition, the historic Cambodia Town concentration that produced the largest Cambodian American community in the United States, the post 2010 East Village Arts District craft food and craft beer renaissance, and the structural Pacific seafood: the historic Long Beach Mexican American restaurant inventory (Domenico's on the Pine Avenue, Cesar's Bistro, Lola's Mexican Cuisine on 4th Street, El Sauz, and the historic Acapulco Restaurant; the post 1965 Mexican American demographic transition made Long Beach the structural Latino plurality city in southern Los Angeles County), the structural Cambodia Town on Anaheim Street between Junipero and Atlantic (the historic 1984 founded Cambodian refugee resettlement quarter, the largest Cambodian American community in the United States with the structural Phnom Penh Noodle Shack, the Hak Heang Restaurant, the Sophy's Fine Thai Cambodian Cuisine, the New Paradise Restaurant, and the historic Sambas Restaurant), the East Village Arts District inventory (Padre, Roe Restaurant, the Federal Bar, the Pine Avenue Bar, Beachwood BBQ, Heroes Bar and Grill, and the historic Birds View on the Long Beach Towne Center), the historic Long Beach craft beer cluster (Beachwood BBQ and Brewing on Pine Avenue, the Smog City Long Beach taproom, the Long Beach Beer Lab, the Trademark Brewing, and the structural Long Beach craft beer renaissance since 2010), and the structural Pacific seafood (the Long Beach Lobster Festival in late September on the Pierpoint Landing, the structural California spiny lobster harvest from October through March on the Catalina Channel). Nightlife sits at a 7.4 rating, structurally elevated for a city of 462,000 because of the East Village Arts District, the Pine Avenue corridor, the Belmont Shore 2nd Street strip, and the structural CSULB student population of 40,000.

The cultural calendar runs through the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach in mid April (the historic 1975 founded IndyCar street race through Downtown Long Beach and along Shoreline Drive, the structural single longest running street race in North America after the Monaco Grand Prix; the GP of Long Beach runs through the Downtown Long Beach Convention Center area at the historic 1975 founded layout), the Long Beach Pride Festival in mid July (the historic 1984 founded LGBTQ pride event, the structural second largest US LGBTQ pride event after San Francisco), the Long Beach Jazz Festival in mid August at the Rainbow Lagoon Park, the Long Beach Marathon in early October (the historic 1982 founded marathon, the structural largest southern California marathon outside the LA Marathon), the Cambodia Town New Year on the Cambodian New Year in mid April (the structural largest Cambodian American cultural festival in the United States), and the structural CSULB 49ers home basketball matches at the Walter Pyramid (the historic 1994 opened 18 story blue glass and white aluminum pyramid arena on the CSULB campus, the structural single most recognized California State University athletic facility). The historic Queen Mary 1936 Cunard transatlantic ocean liner (the historic 1936 launched on the Clyde River Scotland under the Cunard White Star Line, the structural single most famous interwar Atlantic ocean liner; the Queen Mary served the 1936 to 1940 Cunard transatlantic route, was converted to the troopship Grey Ghost 1940 to 1946 during the Second World War carrying 800,000 troops including Winston Churchill and the historic 1942 New York to Glasgow voyage with 16,000 troops the structural single largest single passenger crossing in maritime history, returned to the 1947 to 1967 Cunard transatlantic route, and was sold to Long Beach in 1967 for $3.45 million USD as the structural Long Beach hotel and museum, moored at the Queens Way Bay since 17 December 1967; the Queen Mary received the structural 2017 NL Hotels lease and reopened in 2023 after the structural 2020 to 2023 stay closure), the historic Spruce Goose Howard Hughes 1947 flying boat (the historic single flight 2 November 1947 by Howard Hughes over the Long Beach harbor, the structural single largest aircraft ever built by wingspan at 97.5 meters; the Spruce Goose was housed at the Long Beach harbor from 1947 to 1992 before relocating to McMinnville Oregon at the Evergreen Aviation Museum), the Aquarium of the Pacific (the structural single largest aquarium in southern California, opened 1998 on the Queensway Bay site), the Long Beach Museum of Art (founded 1957 on the Bluff Park site, the historic 1912 Anderson Mansion), and the Naples Island canals (the historic 1903 founded canal community modeled on Venice Italy by Arthur Parsons; the structural 5 kilometer canal network with the Toscana Avenue waterfront homes is the structural single most photographed Long Beach residential quarter) define the visual signature of the city. The structural Long Beach Aerospace heritage anchored by the historic 1928 Douglas Aircraft Company manufacturing site (the historic DC 3, DC 8, and DC 10 production line at the Long Beach Airport site; the structural Douglas Aircraft Company merged with McDonnell Aircraft Corporation in 1967 to form McDonnell Douglas, then merged with Boeing in 1997), the Virgin Galactic engineering site (the structural Richard Branson commercial spaceflight company relocated to Long Beach in 2014), and the Vast Space orbital station company (founded 2021 by Jed McCaleb the historic Mt Gox and Ripple founder in Long Beach as the structural single most ambitious post 2020 US commercial space station company) anchor the contemporary technology memory. The historic 1933 Long Beach earthquake of 6.4 magnitude on the Newport Inglewood Fault (the structural single defining seismic event of the southern California 20th century, killing 115 across Long Beach, Compton, and the broader southern Los Angeles County area; the structural Field Act 1933 California school construction code reform is the legacy) anchors the historical memory. See Los Angeles vs San Diego, Los Angeles vs New York, and the moving from California guide for the broader frame.