Santa Cruz 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 61,800 people and 24 associated neighborhoods, Santa Cruz is the 145th largest community in California. Santa Cruz home prices are not only among the most expensive in California, but Santa Cruz real estate also consistently ranks among the most expensive in America.Santa Cruz is a decidedly white-collar city, with fully 89.93% of the workforce employed in white-collar jobs, well above the national average. Overall, Santa Cruz is a city of professionals, service providers, and managers. There are especially a lot of people living in Santa Cruz who work in management occupations (12.86%), teaching (10.06%), and food service (10.02%). Also of interest is that Santa Cruz has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US. Of important note, Santa Cruz is also a city of artists. Santa Cruz has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Santa Cruz’s character. Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 18.13% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. 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. In addition, Santa Cruz is a major college town that has a very high percentage of its residents over 18 years old who are college students. Naturally, collegiate life has a major influence on local Santa Cruz culture, lifestyle and entertainment options. Santa Cruz really pulses to the beat of the academic calendar. In Santa Cruz every fall, returning students reinvigorate the community, who you will notice are all over town, buying groceries, out with friends, and getting acquainted or re-acquainted with each other and Santa Cruz. One of the beneficial effects that colleges provide is that they tend to be lasting institutions that deliver direct economic benefits to the local economy in the form of such things as jobs for faculty and staff, and spending by students. Santa Cruz benefits directly from this. Santa Cruz is also nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Quite often, nautical areas such as these attract visitors and locals who come to enjoy the scenery and various waterfront activities. Although the majority of commuting trips in the city are by private automobile, Santa Cruz is somewhat unusual for a city of its size for having a substantial number of people who use public transportation. For a lot of people, the bus helps to get to and from their jobs every morning, which benefits everyone in the Santa Cruz area by reducing both traffic and air pollution.If knowledge is power, Santa Cruz is a pretty powerful place. 57.09% of the adults in Santa Cruz 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 Cruz in 2022 was $51,956, which is upper middle income relative to California, and wealthy relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $207,824 for a family of four. However, Santa Cruz contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Santa Cruz is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Santa Cruz home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Santa Cruz residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Santa Cruz also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 21.19% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Santa Cruz include Irish, German, English, Italian, and European. The most common language spoken in Santa Cruz is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Chinese.
