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 87,291 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.

One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 17.03% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. 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.

One thing that you will notice about Santa Barbara is that there is a good-sized population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile career starters. Many singles consider Santa Barbara a good place to live without being in a really big city, with opportunities for friendships and fun with others like themselves.

Santa Barbara 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.

One of the benefits of Santa Barbara is that there is very little traffic. The average commute to work is 17.83 minutes, which is substantially less than the national average. Not only does this mean that the drive to work is less aggravating, but noise and pollution levels are lower as a result.

Do you have a 4-year college degree or graduate degree? If so, you may feel right at home in Santa Barbara. 50.23% of adults here have a 4-year degree or graduate degree, whereas the national average for all cities and towns is just 21.84%.

The per capita income in Santa Barbara in 2022 was $62,921, which is wealthy relative to California and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $251,684 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 36.79% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Santa Barbara include German, English, Irish, Italian, and European.

Santa Barbara also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 20.43%.

The most common language spoken in Santa Barbara is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and German/Yiddish.