La Selva BeachCA
A town of 2,302.
Is La Selva Beach a good place to live?
The best of La Selva Beach’s subject grades are an A− for incomes and an A+ for the outdoors; the weakest is a D− for cost of living. La Selva Beach’s median rent is $3,379 a month, above both California’s towns ($1,896 a month) and U.S. towns ($1,185 a month). On cost of living, just 102 of California’s 1,058 towns do worse. FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 90% of U.S. communities, with drought at the top. La Selva Beach’s trail density is 2.3 miles per square mile, against 1.0 in California’s towns and 0.4 across U.S. towns. Only 78 of California’s 1,064 towns score higher on the outdoors. Manresa State Beach, at 141 acres with 2.6 miles of trail, is the biggest park or preserve. La Selva Beach has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade.
What makes La Selva Beach stand out
Where La Selva Beach beats most towns, and one thing worth knowing.
La Selva Beach has shrunk 11% from 2010 to 2020
2,843 counted in 2010 and 2,531 in 2020.
U.S. Census 2010 & 2020 counts
How La Selva Beach grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within California), ordered by how far La Selva Beach is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Levi's Stadium and 70 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around La Selva Beach. Close and well known come first.
Big draw34 mi Stadium & arenaLevi's Stadium
Big draw33 mi Theme parkCalifornia's Great America
22 mi Zoo & aquariumMonterey Bay Aquarium
28 mi Stadium & arenaSAP Center
23 mi MuseumMonterey Museum of Art
10 mi Theme parkSanta Cruz Beach BoardwalkPhoto credits
Levi's Stadium: Matthew Roth, CC BY-SA 2.0 · California's Great America: Oleg Alexandrov, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Monterey Bay Aquarium: Meij.kobayashi, Public domain · SAP Center: Dicklyon, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Monterey Museum of Art: Sgerbic, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk: Josta Photo, CC BY 2.0
Moving to La Selva Beach: who provides what
La Selva Beach is unincorporated, so Santa Cruz County and regional agencies provide most services.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in La Selva Beach.
Very high risk in La Selva Beach, with drought at the top
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
On state tests, La Selva Beach’s schools trail 67% of California districts
Its public schools are run by the Pajaro Valley Unified school district. One of its 2 schools is below, with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Renaissance High ContinuationLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 112 | – |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within CA on state tests and graduation
With 0.4 jobs for every working resident, most of La Selva Beach’s workers commute out
Most working residents leave La Selva Beach for work: only 1% work in town. La Selva Beach’s median household income is $161,000. Jobs based in La Selva Beach fell to 323 in 2023, 128 fewer than in 2013.
| La Selva Beach | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $161,000 | $95,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 1.3% | 6.6% | 8% |
| Average trip to work | 26 minutes | 28 minutes | 25 minutes |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Manresa State Beach | 2.6 mi | 141 |
| 2. Place De Mer Park | — | 3 |
| 3. Manresa State Beach - Soquel Creek Water District | — | 1 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
In La Selva Beach, expect mild winters and pleasant summers
La Selva Beach has warm winters and cool summers. The July high in La Selva Beach is 71°F.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Residents of La Selva Beach are healthier than 64% of U.S. towns
La Selva Beach beats the California average on 10 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 7. 26% of La Selva Beach adults have obesity.
| La Selva Beach | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 26% | 29% | 35% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 38% | 31% | 35% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 32% | 35% | 36% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 76% | 72% | 79% |
| What stands out | La Selva Beach | CA |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 9.5% | 14.9% |
| Fewer uninsured adults | 6.9% | 10.6% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 11.3% | 6.4% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
A home in La Selva Beach sells for about $1.34M at the median
78% of households own their home in La Selva Beach.
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Everything we know about La Selva Beach
Colleges nearby
3 within 15 miles of the center of La Selva Beach
About 8 of every 100 La Selva Beach residents are enrolled in college, about the same as California.
99% of working residents leave La Selva Beach for work
Where La Selva Beach’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
About La Selva Beach
Census-designated place in California, United States
La Selva Beach (La Selva, Spanish for "The Forest") is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Cruz County, California, United States. La Selva Beach sits at an elevation of 151 feet (46 m). The 2020 United States census reported La Selva Beach's population was 2,531. La Selva Beach is one of the several small communities located in and around Aptos. It neighbors Seascape to the north, Corralitos to the east, and Watsonville to the south. When founded, the small beach community was surrounded by dense conifer woods.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 5.3 sq mi
- Elevation
- 151 ft
La Selva Beach’s neighbors
2 towns share a border with La Selva Beach.
| Town | CA rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| La Selva Beach | — | — | D− | — | C | B |
| Rio del Mar | #326 | C+ | D− | — | C | A |
| Aptos Hills-Larkin Valley | — | — | D− | — | C | A− |
La Selva Beach and Aptos Hills-Larkin Valley have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. La Selva Beach, Rio del Mar and Aptos Hills-Larkin Valley report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare La Selva Beach with a neighbor →
Questions about La Selva Beach
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is La Selva Beach, CA expensive?
Yes. That is 11.9 years of the area's median household income ($111,093 across the Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA metro area). Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades D−.