Orange County, California

Orange County is a county in California, United States, about 33 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles. It had a population of 3,186,989 at the 2020 census, an estimated 3,149,507 by 2025, and covers 799 square miles (2,070 km2) of land centred near 33°40′N 117°47′W.

Santa Ana is the county seat; its postal code is 92701. The county holds 34 incorporated cities and roughly two dozen unincorporated place names with no city government of their own, and it runs on Pacific Time. Its FIPS code is 06059.

Towns & Villages in Orange County

Orange County has no unincorporated towns in the New England sense — every one of its 34 municipalities is legally a City, and Santa Ana carries the seat. Because the county is fully built out, the table below lists all 34 incorporated cities first, then a second table of the five unincorporated communities that the Census Bureau counts separately as CDPs (census-designated places — settlements with names and mail delivery but no city council). Populations are 2020 census counts; the ZIP shown is each place’s primary code, though most cities carry several.

Beyond the 34 cities, five unincorporated communities are large enough for their own census count:

North Tustin has no ZIP of its own — mail there runs through Tustin and Santa Ana codes. Roughly two dozen smaller unincorporated place names round out the county with no separate census count of their own: Midway City, Silverado, Modjeska Canyon, Robinson Ranch, Cowan Heights, Lemon Heights, Las Flores, Wagon Wheel, El Modena and Olive among them, each folded into a neighboring city’s mailing address. A few names on maps are not really separate places at all: El Toro was the area’s name before it incorporated as Lake Forest in 1991, Capistrano Beach is a Dana Point neighborhood annexed in 1989, and Corona del Mar and Newport Coast are both Newport Beach neighborhoods, not CDPs. Sunset Beach, once its own unincorporated CDP, was annexed into Huntington Beach in 2011.

ZIP Codes

Orange County carries roughly 100 ZIP codes across its 34 cities — too many to list individually. Santa Ana alone runs 92701–92707 plus 92711, 92712, 92735 and 92799; Anaheim spans 92801–92817, 92825, 92850 and 92899; Irvine covers 92602–92620 plus 92623 and 92697. Smaller cities typically hold one to three codes: Laguna Niguel is 92607 and 92677, Dana Point is 92629, Villa Park is a single code, 92861. The unincorporated communities generally borrow a neighboring city’s code — Rossmoor uses Los Alamitos’s 90720, and Coto de Caza shares 92679 with Trabuco Canyon.

Geography

The county splits into a flat coastal and inland plain in its western two-thirds and the Santa Ana Mountains along its eastern edge, where Santiago Peak rises to 5,689 feet, the county’s highest point. The San Joaquin Hills separate Newport Beach and Laguna Beach from the inland plain. The Santa Ana River, the largest river in Southern California, crosses the county from northeast to southwest and drains into the Pacific at Huntington Beach; Upper Newport Bay is the county’s largest coastal wetland. The county fronts 42 miles of Pacific coastline, from Seal Beach to San Clemente.

Orange County borders Los Angeles County to the north and northwest, San Bernardino County to the northeast, Riverside County to the east, San Diego County to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest.

Demographics

The county had 3,186,989 residents at the 2020 census and an estimated 3,149,507 by 2025, a slight decline. Anaheim (346,799) and Santa Ana (310,534) are the two largest cities, with Irvine (307,656) close behind. Median household income was $116,289 in 2020–2024, about 17.3% above the California median. With 799 square miles of land, the county averages roughly 3,989 residents per square mile, among the densest counties in the state outside Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Economy & Local Life

Tourism, healthcare, technology and finance drive the county’s economy, which produced $351.8 billion in GDP in 2024. Disneyland Resort in Anaheim is the county’s largest single-site employer at roughly 34,000 workers, and the University of California, Irvine employs about 34,300 across its campus and medical center. St. Joseph Health’s hospital network employs about 14,000 across the county. Other notable institutions include Chapman University in Orange, Angel Stadium and Honda Center in Anaheim, and the Orange County Fair, held every July in Costa Mesa.

History

Orange County split from Los Angeles County on August 1, 1889, becoming California’s 34th county. It had no orange groves at the time of its founding — the name was chosen to evoke a semi-tropical, Mediterranean image for East Coast land buyers. Citrus arrived soon after: by 1948 the county held 67,000 acres of orange groves, its peak, before postwar suburban growth replaced most of them with housing tracts. Mission San Juan Capistrano, founded by Spanish Franciscans in 1776, predates the county by more than a century and remains its oldest standing building. Disneyland opened in Anaheim in 1955 and turned the county into a national tourist destination, accelerating the freeway-driven suburbanization that defined the rest of the 20th century.

Getting There

Interstate 5 runs the length of the county from Los Angeles to San Diego; Interstate 405 branches off through the northwest coastal cities, and Interstate 605 clips the county’s northwest corner. State routes 91, 55, 57, 22 and the 73 toll road handle the rest of the county’s freeway traffic; no interstate crosses the county’s eastern half.

• Los Angeles — 33 miles northwest
• San Diego — 85 miles southeast
• Riverside — 30 miles east
• Long Beach — 15 miles northwest

John Wayne Airport (SNA), in Santa Ana, is the county’s only commercial airport, named for the Newport Beach actor in 1979. Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner and Metrolink both stop at Anaheim, Santa Ana, Irvine, San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente Pier stations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Orange County?
It sits in Southern California, on the Pacific coast between Los Angeles and San Diego counties.

What is the population of Orange County?
3,186,989 at the 2020 census, estimated at 3,149,507 by 2025.

How big is Orange County?
799 square miles of land (2,070 km2), plus 157 square miles of water.

What is the county seat of Orange County?
Santa Ana, population 310,534, postal code 92701.

How many cities are in Orange County?
34 incorporated cities, plus five unincorporated communities counted separately by the Census Bureau: Ladera Ranch, North Tustin, Coto de Caza, Rossmoor and Trabuco Canyon.

What ZIP codes cover Orange County?
Roughly 100, ranging from 90620 in Buena Park to 92899 in Anaheim; Santa Ana alone uses eleven.

Does Orange County have townships?
No. California counties have no civil townships — every settlement here is either an incorporated city or an unincorporated community.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in California. Bordering counties: Los Angeles County, San Bernardino County, Riverside County and San Diego County.