Avila Beach, California
32 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1897 and the latest in 1998. It stands in the San Luis Obispo census division. It lies in ZIP code area 93424. It stands on San Luis Obispo Creek. The Survey maps it on the Pismo Beach quadrangle. 1,576 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 427 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1897 to 1998The same ground, surveyed 101 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Compare 1897 against another survey:
On record in Avila Beach
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 1 record
San Luis Obispo Light Stationlisted 1991
Population over time
2 figuresAvila Beach fell from 1,627 to 1,576 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 1,627 | |
| 2020 | 1,576 | -51 (-3%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
12 surveys from 32 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1897 USGS Arroyo Grande quadrangle1:62500, 5 printings
- 1900 USGS San Luis quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1942 USGS Arroyo Grande quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1947 USGS San Luis Obispo quadrangle1:250000
- 1948 USGS San Luis Obispo quadrangle1:250000
- 1952 USGS Arroyo Grande quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1956 USGS San Luis Obispo quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
- 1957 USGS San Luis Obispo quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS San Luis Obispo quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS Pismo Beach quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1981 USGS San Luis Obispo quadrangle1:100000, 3 printings
- 1998 USGS Pismo Beach quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
133 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 133 fires within 5 miles of Avila Beach between 1992 and 2020, burning about 585 acres in total. None started naturally. 7 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 62 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 38 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 7 |
| Debris and open burning | 7 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 7 |
| Smoking | 4 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 4 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 4 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 September 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | San Luis Obispo Unit | JOHNSON |
| 7 September 2001 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | San Luis Obispo Unit | CASLU04171 |
| 30 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | San Luis Obispo Unit | ONTARIO RD / SAN LUIS BAY |
| 3 September 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | San Luis Obispo Unit | TANK |
| 29 September 1997 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | San Luis Obispo Unit | MONTE |
| 27 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | San Luis Obispo Unit | 911 |
| 2 September 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | AVILA |
| 16 September 2009 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | San Luis Obispo Unit | SEE CANYON RD SLO_CO |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 10 workings within 5 miles of Avila Beach: 5 past producers, 3 occurrences, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Manganese, Diatomite, Magnesite. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barnaberg Mine | Magnesite | Producer | ||
| Barneberg Mine | Manganese, Iron, Gold, Silver, Mercury | Producer | ||
| Sousa Ranch Deposit | Chromium | Past Producer | ||
| Los Penascos Ranch Deposit | Diatomite | Occurrence | ||
| Pismo Heights Co. | Diatomite | Occurrence | ||
| Barneberg Mine | Manganese | Past Producer | 1918 | |
| Borrow Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Borrow Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Pacific Coast Coal Company | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Prefumo Canyon Prospects | Manganese | Occurrence |
Storms near this place
1 since 2023Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Avila Beach in 1 storm report in 2023: 1 flash flood. The reports record 1 death. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2023 | Flash Flood | Avila Beach | 1 killed | A 60 year old woman was swept away in her SUV by raging flood waters along Avila Beach Road. |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sycamore Springs | 1.0 miles | 32 | |
| Port San Luis | 1.3 miles | 27 | |
| Miles | 1.6 miles | 32 | |
| Sunset Palisades | 1.8 miles | 32 | |
| Shell Beach | 3.6 miles | 32 | |
| Pismo Beach | 5.4 miles | 32 | |
| Tiber | 6.0 miles | 34 | |
| Maxwellton (historical) | 6.3 miles | 34 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Avila Beach | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q3477456 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 255343. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.











