Laguna Woods, California
37 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1901 and the latest in 1983. It stands in the South Coast census division. It lies in ZIP code area 92637. The Survey maps it on the San Juan Capistrano quadrangle. 17,644 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 381 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1901 to 1983The same ground, surveyed 82 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Population over time
3 figuresLaguna Woods grew from 16,507 to 17,644 between 2000 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 16,507 | |
| 2010 | 16,192 | -315 (-2%) |
| 2020 | 17,644 | +1,452 (+9%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
15 surveys from 37 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.
- 1901 USGS Southern California Sheet No. 1 quadrangle1:250000, 6 printings
- 1902 USGS Corona quadrangle1:125000, 7 printings
- 1904 USGS Southern California Sheet No. 1 quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1942 USGS Santiago Peak quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1947 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1948 USGS San Juan Capistrano quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1949 USGS San Juan Capistrano quadrangle1:24000
- 1949 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1960 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1965 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1968 USGS San Juan Capistrano quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1974 USGS San Juan Capistrano quadrangle1:24000
- 1983 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
175 since 2004Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 175 fires within 5 miles of Laguna Woods between 2004 and 2020, burning about 217 acres in total. 3 started naturally. 52 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 | 70 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 52 |
| Smoking | 20 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 14 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 13 |
| Natural | 3 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Debris and open burning | 1 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 September 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Orange County Fire Authority | not named |
| 28 September 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 27 September 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 25 September 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 20 September 2007 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 13 September 2009 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 12 September 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 5 August 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
2 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Laguna Woods: 1 past producer, 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Limestone, General, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Diatomite. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aliso Prospect | Diatomite | Occurrence | ||
| El Toro Deposit | Limestone, General, Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Laguna Hills | 0.7 miles | 37 | |
| Mission Viejo | 2.9 miles | 37 | |
| Aliso Viejo | 3.1 miles | 37 | |
| Serrano Place | 3.2 miles | 47 | |
| Lake Forest | 3.2 miles | 47 | |
| El Toro | 3.4 miles | 47 | |
| Galivan | 3.9 miles | 37 | |
| Top of the World | 4.5 miles | 44 |
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 Laguna Woods | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q983826 | 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 1848119. 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.














