Santa Barbara is a larger medium-sized coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of California. With a population of 87,533 people and 37 associated neighborhoods, Santa Barbara is the 91st largest community in California.
Santa Barbara home prices are not only among the most expensive in California, but Santa Barbara real estate also consistently ranks among the most expensive in America.
Also of interest is that Santa Barbara has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.
A relatively large number of people in Santa Barbara telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 14.79% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.
Another interesting thing about Santa Barbara, despite not being a huge city, is that there is a relatively high proportion of people living here who are young, single, and upwardly-mobile professionals. This makes it a good choice for other relocating single professionals. Here, these young singles will find many others like themselves, with opportunities for friendships, socializing, romance, and fun.
One of the nice things about Santa Barbara is that it is nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Because of this, visitors and locals will often go to these areas to take in the scenery or to enjoy waterfront activities.
Compared to the rest of the country, citizens of Santa Barbara spend much less time in their cars: on average, their commute to work is only 18.18 minutes. This also means that noise and pollution levels in the city are less than they would otherwise be.
If knowledge is power, Santa Barbara is a pretty powerful place. 50.63% of the adults in Santa Barbara have earned a 4-year college degree, masters degree, MD, law degree, or even PhD. Compare that to the national average of 21.84% for all cities and towns.
The per capita income in Santa Barbara in 2022 was $58,989, which is upper middle income relative to California, and wealthy relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $235,956 for a family of four. However, Santa Barbara contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Santa Barbara is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Santa Barbara home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Santa Barbara residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Santa Barbara also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 36.11% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Santa Barbara include German, English, Irish, Italian, and Scottish.
Santa Barbara also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 21.07%.
The most common language spoken in Santa Barbara is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and French.