Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetCA-UNIVERSITY-OF-CALIFORNIA-SANTA-BARBARA-CA · University of California-Santa Barbara, CA 11,634 pop · income 56th pct
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around University of California-Santa Barbara
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest University of California-Santa Barbara on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Alcoa · lowest
60,049
Alcoa · lowest
60,049 median HH income
43.6% of the leader · rank #1
University of… · this city
75,000
University of… · this city
75,000 median HH income
54.4% of the leader · rank #2
Scranton · near
75,000
Scranton · near
75,000 median HH income
54.4% of the leader · rank #3
Southern Ute · near
75,000
Southern Ute · near
75,000 median HH income
54.4% of the leader · rank #4
Cheswold · near
75,000
Cheswold · near
75,000 median HH income
54.4% of the leader · rank #5
Medora · near
75,000
Medora · near
75,000 median HH income
54.4% of the leader · rank #6
Miami Shores · highest
137,873
Miami Shores · highest
137,873 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for University of California-Santa Barbara on ACS population and median household income
. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 11,634.
University of California-Santa Barbara - the verdict
University of California-Santa Barbara ranks in the 56th percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
56th
percentile, household income
82nd
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: University of California-Santa Barbara, CA
California's University of California-Santa Barbara is a small town, with 11,634 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $75,000 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 3.5%. Home values in University of California-Santa Barbara run a median of $452,600, and the median resident age is 19.9 years. About 76.5% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 39.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
California carries a cost-of-living premium: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts California at 110.7 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Well Above Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $2,053 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts California's average monthly utility costs around $275 (state average). Workers in University of California-Santa Barbara report an average commute of 12.5 minutes, with 20.1% driving alone and 17.7% working from home. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 88.7 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Very High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of University of California-Santa Barbara's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from work and mobility to comparison shortlist to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For University of California-Santa Barbara, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in University of California-Santa Barbara?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Walking is the largest reported mode at 23.7%. The reported mean trip to work is 12.5 minutes.
Which cities make useful reference points for University of California-Santa Barbara?
Within California, the closest population matches are Alum Rock (11,619 residents, $111,976 income); Lakeland (11,587 residents, $83,371 income); Signal Hill (11,563 residents, $102,303 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Alcoa, TN (11,635 residents); Guttenberg, NJ (11,638 residents); Seven Hills, OH (11,628 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching.
How far does income reach against housing in University of California-Santa Barbara?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 6.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.5%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
C
City profile score · University of California-Santa Barbara, CA
56/100
4 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Bachelor's+ share A+
76.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate B+
3.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income C-
$75,000
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Cost of living F
110.7 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
University of California-Santa Barbara profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 100/100 (A+) · 76.5%
Poverty rate: 75/100 (B+) · 3.5%
Household income: 54/100 (C-) · $75,000
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
How does University of California-Santa Barbara compare to other US cities?
Where University of California-Santa Barbara sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income56% higher than other cities
Home value82% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares University of California-Santa Barbara against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to California only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
California-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places University of California-Santa Barbara near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, University of California-Santa Barbara ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares University of California-Santa Barbara only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#851 of 1,338
36th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#777 of 1,343
42nd percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#991 of 1,450
31st percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#48 of 1,458
97th percentile in California
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within California only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
56th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How University of California-Santa Barbara's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$452,60018th percentilemore affordable than 18% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
University of California-Santa Barbara's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,122 of 15,516
More affordable than 9% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,971 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 6.0×, University of California-Santa Barbara sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,122 of 15,516 and #2,971 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median, a comparison flag, not a verdict on any household.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$75,000University of California-Santa Barbara, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context University of California-Santa Barbara, CA median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for University of California-Santa Barbara, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)76.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)39.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
11,634
Median Income
$75,000
Median Home Value
$452,600
Median Age
19.9
Poverty Rate
3.5%
Labor force participation
39.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
76.5%
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
12.5 minutes
Drive Alone
20.1%
Carpool
4.7%
Public Transit
6.8%
Walk
23.7%
Work from Home
17.7%
Other
27.0%
Based on 4,145 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
California statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $275
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across California at $275 (electricity about $150 , water and sewer about $70 ).
These are California statewide averages, not a meter reading for University of California-Santa Barbara. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
California's BEA cost-of-living index is 110.7 (Well Above Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around University of California-Santa Barbara is $2,053/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to California statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 88.7 / 100 (Very High).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a California statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county University of California-Santa Barbara sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How University of California-Santa Barbara compares to similar-size California cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
City
Population
Median Household Income
University of California-Santa Barbara (this city)
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.