Welcome to Salton City!
Salton City is a community along the shores of the Salton Sea in Imperial County in the California Desert. Despite being developed as a planned resort town with infrastructure meant to support 40,000 residents, fewer than 1,000 people lived in the area as of the 2000 census, leading some to refer to it as a modern ghost town. After a long period of population decline, the population of Salton City, the population has increased in the 21st century because of improvements to nearby highways and because the land is much cheaper than in the rest of California. It has about 4,800 residents as of 2017. The area remains a desolate place for visitors, however.
Salton City is a census-designated place (CDP) in Imperial County, California. It is the largest Imperial County development on the Salton Sea coast. It is part of the El Centro, California Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 3,763 at the 2010 census, up from 978 in 2000. The population estimate for 2020 was 5,611. Although planned and developed as a large resort community with an extensive road, water, sewer, and power grid capable of supporting 40,000 residents on 12,000 residential lots, demand for property in Salton City fell drastically short of the planners' expectations. According to the 2010 census, 81% of the surveyed lots in Salton City remain undeveloped, and 38% of the habitable residences in Salton City are unoccupied. Despite Salton City's higher population compared to nearby Salton Sea communities such as Bombay Beach and Desert Shores, the eerie, mostly-abandoned appearance of the area has led some to call it a modern ghost town.