Because of its good schools, jobs, and housing, the city was chosen in 2008 by CNNMoney.com as the fourth best place to live in the United States. In June 2010, the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported that Irvine had the lowest violent crime rate among cities in the United States with populations of more than 100,000,  and in August 2008 the Census Bureau ranked Irvine as having the seventh highest median income among cities in the United States with populations of more than 65,000.

Irvine is home to the University of California, Irvine (UCI), Concordia University, Irvine Valley College, the Orange County Center of the University of Southern California (USC), and the satellite campuses of Alliant International University, California State University Fullerton (CSUF), University of La Verne and Pepperdine University. Irvine is home to a number of corporations, particularly in the technology and semiconductor sectors.

A view of the Jamboree Center in Irvine, one of the first urban developments in the city.

The layout of Irvine was designed by Los Angeles architect William Pereira and Irvine Company employee Raymond Watson, and is nominally divided into townships called villages. The townships are separated by six-lane streets. Each township contains houses of similar design, along with commercial centers, religious institutions and schools. Commercial districts are checker-boarded in a periphery around the central townships.

Pereira originally envisioned a circular plan with numerous man-made lakes and the university in the center. When the Irvine Company refused to relinquish valuable farmland in the flat central region of the ranch for this plan, the University site was moved to the base of the southern coastal hills. The design that ended up being used was based on the shape of a necklace (with the villages strung along two parallel main streets, which terminate at University of California, Irvine (UCI), the “pendant”). Residential areas are now bordered by two commercial districts, the Irvine Business Complex to the West and the Irvine Spectrum to the East. Traces of the original circular design are still visible in the layout of the UCI campus and the two man-made lakes at the center of Woodbridge, one of the central villages.

All streets have landscaping allowances. Rights-of-way for powerlines also serve as bicycle corridors, parks and greenbelts to tie together ecological preserves. The greenery is irrigated with reclaimed water. The homeowners’ associations which govern some village neighborhoods exercise varying degrees of control on the appearances of homes. In more restrictive areas, houses’ roofing, paint colors, and landscaping are regulated. Older parts of the Village of Northwood that were developed beginning in the early 1970s independent of the Irvine Company, have the distinction of being a larger village that is not under the purview of a homeowners’ association. As a result, homeowners in the older Northwood areas do not pay a monthly village association fee; and its neighborhoods are generally not as uniform in appearance as those in other villages such as Westpark and Woodbridge. However, the more tightly regulated villages generally offer more amenities such as members-only swimming pools, tennis courts, and parks. In addition to association dues, homeowners in villages developed in the 1980s and later may be levied a Mello-Roos assessment, which came about in the post-Proposition 13 era. For homeowners in these areas, the association dues coupled with the Mello-Roos assessment may add significantly to the cost of living in the city.

El Camino Glen College Park The Colony Deerfield (mixed styles) East Irvine El Camino Real (Spanish/Neo-Eclectic) Greentree Irvine Groves Irvine Spectrum (Contemporary/Moroccan) Harvard Square Heritage Fields Laguna Crossing (under construction) Northpark (French Country, Formal French, Italian Country, Formal Italian, Monterey and Spanish Colonial) Northpark Square (Spanish Mission) Northwood (Bungalow, Craftsman) Oak Creek (mixed styles) Old Towne Irvine Orangetree Orchard Hills (Rural Craftsman/Spanish/Tuscan) Park Lane Parkside Portola Springs (Spanish/Tuscan)   Demographics         Historical populations         Census Pop. %±         1970 10,081 —         1980 62,127 516.3%         1990 110,330 77.6%         2000 143,072 29.7%         2010 212,375 48.4%         * U.S. Decennial Census

Planning Area 40 (Future Village) Quail Hill (Spanish/Tuscan) Racquet Club The Ranch Rancho San Joaquin (Shed style) Rosegate (Spanish/Tuscan) Stonegate (Spanish) Shady Canyon (Tuscan Ranch) Turtle Ridge (Tuscan) Turtle Rock (mixed styles) University Hills [17] University Park (California Modern) University Town Center (mixed styles) Walnut (Prairie Style) West Irvine (California Modern) Westpark (Italian Riviera/Mediterranean) The Willows Windwood Woodbridge (Atlantic Coast) Woodbury (Tuscan/Spanish/French) Woodbury East (Spanish) Columbus Grove