Community Profile: La Quinta

The Neighborhood Data for Social Change (NDSC) platform is a project of the USC Price Center for Social Innovation. Lift To Rise is partnering with The Price Center in the development of the Neighborhood Data for Social Change (NDSC) platform for the Coachella Valley. Lift to Rise is a community-based partnership in the Coachella Valley with the primary goal of advancing a future where all Coachella Valley families are healthy, stable, and thriving. NDSC will publish an ongoing series of data stories that incorporate maps, data visualizations, photos, and rich narrative to highlight trends, opportunities, and challenges facing communities in the region.

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Community profiles provide insight and information to the nine cities and unincorporated places in the Coachella Valley. The profiles provide precise, relevant data at the community level in combination with interactive maps and visualizations to help community members learn about the most important issues facing their communities and to help policy makers make informed decisions for their constituents. Community profiles are updated annually with the latest data, with new profiles released on a regular basis.

The city of La Quinta lies at the foot of the Santa Rosa Mountains, located southeast of Indio in the Coachella Valley. The city has established itself as a popular resort city, dating back to the opening of La Quinta Resort and Club in 1926. The city was later named after the resort when it was incorporated in 1982. Today, the city is home to numerous golf courses, resorts and just under 40,000 residents. The median income is $79,889, well above the Coachella Valley average.

Compared to other places and cities in the Coachella Valley, La Quinta has a relatively high homeownership rate (72%) and low rent burden rate (41%). The city also has a relatively fewer immigrants (15% of the total population) and limited-English speaking households (4.5%).

To the left, a sculpture of a Cahuilla mother and child by artist Marie Barbera, erected in La Quinta in 2014.

Explore the visualizations below to learn more about demography, housing, health and social connectedness in the city of La Quinta and how the city compares to the state, county and other places in the Coachella Valley.

Demography

La Quinta is the sixth largest city in the Coachella Valley with a population of 40,704. The city stretches across 36 square miles.

The average household size in the city of La Quinta is 2.62 people, and 29% of the total 15,505 households in the city are made up of non-family households (individuals living alone or with non-relatives) - 12% less than the Coachella Valley average.

Age Distribution

The city of La Quinta has a median age of 47 years old, relatively older compared to the state median age (36 years old) and national median age (38 years old).

40% of the city is above the age of 55, slightly higher than the Coachella Valley average.

Race & Ethnicity

White residents in La Quinta make up the largest portion of the population (58%), followed by Latino residents (34%).

Immigration

15% of the population in La Quinta are immigrants, which is below average for the Coachella Valley and the state of California. Select a community to the right of the chart to see how the size of its immigrant population compares to the city of La Quinta.

55% of La Quinta's immigrants are citizens, compared to 40% of immigrants across the Coachella Valley.

Health

La Quinta has over 200 acres of parks and bike trials, equaling more than 5 acres per 1,000 residents. Studies show that access to parks can lead to lower rates of chronic diseases like childhood obesity by providing children with spaces to exercise and play. The presence of parks and green space also improves air quality, which has been shown to impact rates of asthma and cardiovascular disease. Learn more about these health indicators in La Quinta below.

Childhood Obesity*

Each year, local educational agencies administer the "Fitnessgram" Physical Fitness Test to 5th, 7th and 9th grade students who are evaluated on their body composition and physical fitness abilities. Students who are found to be outside of the "Healthy Fitness Zone" in the measure of Body Mass Index (BMI) are considered to have a body composition that is not sufficient for good health.

In 2018, 31% of students in La Quinta were not in the Healthy Fitness Zone for body composition, just under the Coachella Valley average of 34%.

Asthma & Cardiovascular Disease*

Between 2011 and 2013, La Quinta experienced approximately 30 asthma-related Emergency Room visits per 10,000 people, 12 less visits than the Coachella Valley average.

During the same time period, there were 7 cardiovascular-related Emergency Room visits per 10,000 people in La Quinta compared to the Coachella Valley average of 8 visits.

Housing/Real Estate

Housing Units

There are 25,143 housing units in the city of La Quinta, making up 10% of the total housing units in the Coachella Valley.

Median Rent Price

Median gross rent in La Quinta is $1,473 as of 2018 estimates, roughly $300 above the average for the Coachella Valley.

Rent Burden

41% of renters in La Quinta were considered rent burdened as of 2018 5-year estimates, meaning that they pay more than 30% of their incomes on rent and utilities. This is below the average rates in the Coachella Valley, California and the country.

Select a community to the right of the graph to see how rent burden rates compare to the city of La Quinta.

Overcrowded Households

4% of households in La Quinta have more than one person per one room of their housing unit, below average for the Coachella Valley's overcrowding rate of 6%.

Housing Stability

88% of households in La Quinta are living in the same housing unit as they were one year ago, on par with the Coachella Valley's housing stability rate of 88%.

Homeownership

72% of households are homeowners as homeownership rates in La Quinta have increased slightly over recent ACS estimates. This is 17% above the average for the state of California, and above the national and Coachella Valley averages.

Select a community to the right of the graph to see how home-ownership rates compare to the city of La Quinta.

Social Connectedness

Linguistic Isolation

4.5% of the households in La Quinta are limited-English speaking households or "linguistically isolated," where no one over the age of 14 reports speaking English "very well." This is relatively low compared to the Coachella Valley average, where 15% of households are linguistically isolated.

Sources Notes: All data in this community profile come from the 2018 5-year estimates of the American Community Survey with the following exceptions: childhood obesity (California Department of Education, 2018), asthma and cardiovascular disease (CalEnviroScreen 3.0). All income and rent data is shown in 2018 dollars for all years.

*These data sources do not provide data at the city level. The information is an average of the census tracts containing the city.

Cover Photo Credit: Noe Montes