Imperial Beach, California
32 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1904 and the latest in 1996. It stands in the San Diego census division. It lies in ZIP code area 91932. It lies near Otay Valley. The Survey maps it on the Imperial Beach quadrangle. 26,137 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 20 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1904 to 1996The same ground, surveyed 92 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Compare 1904 against another survey:
Population over time
2 figuresImperial Beach fell from 26,324 to 26,137 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 | 26,324 | |
| 2020 | 26,137 | -187 (-1%) |
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.
- 1904 USGS San Diego quadrangle1:62500, 9 printings
- 1904 USGS Southern California Sheet No. 2 quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
- 1930 USGS San Diego quadrangle1:62500
- 1943 USGS San Ysidro quadrangle1:31680, 2 printings
- 1950 USGS San Diego quadrangle1:250000
- 1953 USGS San Ysidro quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1954 USGS San Diego quadrangle1:250000
- 1955 USGS San Diego quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS San Diego quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1967 USGS Imperial Beach quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1979 USGS San Diego quadrangle1:100000, 3 printings
- 1996 USGS Imperial Beach quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
224 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 224 fires within 5 miles of Imperial Beach between 1992 and 2020, burning about 608 acres in total. None started naturally. 34 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 | 128 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 34 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 29 |
| Smoking | 10 |
| Debris and open burning | 9 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 7 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 6 |
| Fireworks | 1 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 7 September 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 7 September 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | San Diego National Wildlife Refuge | SEACOAST 2 |
| 6 September 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 4 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | San Diego Unit | not named |
| 25 September 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 23 September 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 23 September 2008 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 1.0 acres | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 17 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 17 workings within 5 miles of Imperial Beach: 16 past producers, 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Salt, Gemstone, Bentonite. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chula Vista Evaporators | Salt | Past Producer | ||
| Imperial Beach | Gemstone | Occurrence | ||
| Otay Bentonite Deposit | Bentonite | Past Producer | Bentonite | |
| Beyer Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Beyer Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Border Highlands Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Border Highlands Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Border Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Dairymart Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Grey Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
7 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Imperial Beach in 7 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 funnel cloud, 1 storm surge/tide, 1 wildfire. The reports record 1 death and 1 injury. 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 2005 | Heavy Rain | Imperial Beach | 1 killed | no account filed |
| January 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Imperial Beach | 1 hurt, $1,000,000 | A severe squall produced a swath of 60-70 mph winds from Imperial Beach to Lawson Creek. At least 6 mesonet stations reported peak wind gusts in excess of 58 mph including a 68 mph gust at Lawson Creek and 64 mph gust at Boarder Field. Hundreds of trees were downed. Roof damage was also reported. One person was injured when a tree fell on their car in Lakeside. |
| December 1998 | Storm Surge/Tide | Imperial Beach | $1,000 | no account filed |
| March 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Imperial Beach | - | Public reported the top 10 feet of 40 foot palm tree snapped. |
| January 2023 | Flood | Imperial Beach | - | Four feet of flowing water was reported on Saturn Blvd from the Tijuana River. A stolen SUV was found in the water, though no one was seen near the vehicle; speculated that the vehicle had been stolen. |
| June 2002 | Wildfire | Imperial Beach | - | no account filed |
| December 1998 | Funnel Cloud | Imperial Beach | - | no account filed |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| South San Diego | 0.9 miles | 32 | |
| Coronado Heights (historical) | 1.4 miles | 27 | |
| Palm City | 1.5 miles | 32 | |
| Nestor | 1.6 miles | 32 | |
| Fruitdale | 1.6 miles | 32 | |
| Boal | 2.4 miles | 32 | |
| Harbor Side | 2.5 miles | 32 | |
| Otay | 2.7 miles | 32 |
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 Imperial Beach | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q917531 | 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 1660788. 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.











