California Beach Statistics of Interest

Pictured is Laguna Beach, home of approx. 25 neighborhood beaches with many only accessible by stairs.

Characteristics of Beach Access Sites
Fees 24%
Parking 87%
Restrooms 55%
Campgrounds 12%
Staircase to Beach 41%
Path to Beach 56%
Street-end Access 26%

Also see Beach Rescue Statistics

California has 840 miles of open ocean coastline but if you measure the actual beachfront sand and terrain you'll find around 1,120 miles of shoreline. We generally round off the number to 1,000 miles of beaches, because the maps services measure the roads parallel to the beaches as being less than 1,100 miles.

California's coastal population varies between 70 and 80 percent of people living in counties with beaches. That's an amazing statistic, considering just how large the state's land mass is.

California has the largest ocean economy in the United States in terms of employment and gross state product. The tourism industry, fishing industry, shipping ports and other businesses comprise an ocean-dependent economy of between $43 billion to $46 billion per year.

Among the dominant features of the California coastline are mountain ranges located either directly on or just inland of the coastline. The state has three coastal mountain ranges: the Coast Range (Oregon border to Santa Ynez River in Santa Barbara), transverse range (Santa Ynez Mountains to Los Angeles Basin), and peninsular range (Los Angeles Basin to the tip of the Baja peninsula). California's diverse coastline is composed of several different types of beaches and geological features:

• 28.4% of the coastline consists of pocket beaches
• 32.3% is sandy beach
• 39.3% is rocky shoreline.

For characterization purposes California's diverse coast can be grouped into three general geographic areas: north, central, and south.

The North Coast is characterized by rugged shoreline, with wind-swept beaches, dramatic headlands, wild rivers and towering redwoods.

The Central Coast offers extremely varied landscapes: from the urban centers of San Francisco, Monterey, and San Luis Obispo, to the large undeveloped rangelands found in between.

The South Coast, by far the most populous and most visited, is the home of the California beach scene typified by Malibu, Venice and Huntington Beach. While sandy beaches prevail in many areas, in other regions, such as parts of San Diego County and Orange County, the beaches have eroded away almost entirely.