CLIPBOARD : In the Midst of the Madding Crowd

That feeling of Orange County getting more and more crowded is not a figment of your imagination. Between 1980 and 1990, the number of people per square mile--the density rating--jumped from 2,422 to 3,053, a 26.1% increase.

Despite the increase, there are still some areas of the county where there are fewer than 1,000 people per square mile. This is, of course, a South County characteristic. The three lowest-density ratings are in Aliso Viejo, Trabuco Highlands and fashionable Coto de Caza. In contrast, the city of Santa Ana, with more than 10,000 people per square mile, has a density rate about 39 times higher than Coto.

By far the largest percentage increase occurred in Irvine. Although the city still has one of the lowest rates in the county, between 1980 and ’90 that rate jumped 75.8%. Here are the density rates for 1980 and 1990 and the percentage change for all the cities and some of the major unincorporated areas:

City 1980 1990 % Change Aliso Viejo N/A 775 -- Anaheim 5,259 6,017 +14.4 Brea 2,326 3,292 +41.5 Buena Park 6,230 6,483 +4.1 Costa Mesa 5,225 6,195 +18.6 Coto de Caza N/A 281 -- Cypress 6,515 6,447 -1.0 Dana Point N/A 4,799 -- El Toro N/A 5,331 -- Fountain Valley 5,738 6,023 +4.9 Fullerton 4,617 5,159 +11.7 Garden Grove 7,046 7,975 +13.2 Huntington Beach 6,269 6,871 +9.6 Irvine 1,483 2,607 +75.8 Laguna Beach 3,141 2,668 -15.1 Laguna Hills 3,574 4,343 +21.5 Laguna Niguel N/A 3,030 -- La Habra 6,959 7,004 +0.6 La Palma 8,555 8,471 -0.9 Los Alamitos 2,681 2,898 +8.1 Mission Viejo N/A 4,172 -- Newport Beach 4,285 4,755 +10.9 Orange 4,330 4,742 +9.5 Placentia 5,230 6,259 +19.7 Portola Hills N/A 1,475 -- Rancho Santa Margarita N/A 2,731 -- Rossmoor 6,536 6,317 -3.4 San Clemente 1,617 2,353 +45.5 San Juan Capistrano 1,470 1,839 +25.1 Santa Ana 7,435 10,845 +45.9 Seal Beach 2,201 2,142 -2.7 Stanton 8,786 9,757 +11.1 Trabuco Highlands N/A 561 -- Tustin 3,366 4,490 +33.4 Tustin Foothills 3,399 3,614 +6.3 Villa Park 3,244 3,001 -7.5 Westminster 6,526 7,780 +19.2 Yorba Linda 2,093 2,994 +43.0 COUNTYWIDE 2,422 3,053 +26.1

N/A: Information not available

Source: U.S. Census Bureau