El Paso, TX vs Long Beach, CA
Side-by-side fiscal comparison · U.S. Census Bureau data (2023)
Long Beach, CA spends 41% more per resident than El Paso, TX: $34,250 against $24,259. That gap is large enough to show up across most functional budget categories below.
Long Beach, CA edges El Paso, TX on the Fiscal Health Score by 6 points — 67/100 (grade B) to 61/100 (grade C). At a margin this narrow the grade is close enough that the factor-level detail matters more than the composite.
Neither city reports outstanding debt per resident in its current Census filing, which removes debt service as a point of difference between them. Their budgets diverge on where the largest per-resident dollars go: El Paso, TX leads with police at $1,159 per resident, while Long Beach, CA leads with parks and recreation at $698.
They also fund themselves differently: intergovernmental transfers is the largest single revenue source in El Paso, TX at 10% of total revenue, whereas Long Beach, CA relies most on other revenue at 12%.
Summary
Long Beach spends 29.2% more per capita than El Paso ($9,991/person difference). Long Beach, CA has the stronger Fiscal Health Score (B, 67/100).
Fiscal Health Score
Key Metrics
Per Capita Spending by Department
Revenue Breakdown (Per Capita)
| Sales Tax | $65 | $36 |
| Income Tax | $12 | $1,760 |
| Intergovernmental | $690 | $1,688 |
| Charges & Fees | $31 | $2,424 |
| Other | $550 | $8,836 |
Spending Breakdown (Per Capita)
| Police | $1,159 | $0 |
| Fire Protection | $233 | $0 |
| Highways & Roads | $83 | $0 |
| Public Welfare | $299 | $1,317 |
| Health | $0 | $477 |
| Hospitals | $11 | $2,751 |
| Parks & Recreation | $151 | $698 |
| Housing | $958 | $5,782 |
| Sewerage | $6 | $86 |
| Utilities | $224 | $3,889 |
| Interest on Debt | $40 | $2,718 |
| General Admin | $17,951 | $0 |
| Other | $3,145 | $16,533 |
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Source: Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances, 2026.