Santa Cruz is a larger medium-sized coastal city (ie. on the ocean or tidally-influenced rivers) located in the state of California. With a population of 54,364 people and 17 constituent neighborhoods, Santa Cruz is the 146th largest community in California.

Unlike some cities where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Santa Cruz is neither predominently one or the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Santa Cruz is a city of professionals, sales and office workers, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Santa Cruz who work in office and administrative support jobs (12.34%), sales jobs (11.21%), and teaching (10.31%).

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.

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.

Not only is Santa Cruz a city with many college students, but it also retains many recent graduates who are looking to start new careers, creating a decent-sized population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile. 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.

In addition to being popular with young singles, Santa Cruz is also home to many people who can be described as "urban sophisticates." Urban sophisticates are educated, wealthy, executives and professionals, who have urbane tastes in books, food, and travel, whether they actually live in a big city, or choose to reside in a small town. In big or medium-sized cities, urban sophisticates tend to frequent art institutions such as opera, symphonies, ballet, live theatre, and museums.

The city is also nautical, which means that parts of Santa Cruz are somewhat historic and bounded by the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and tidal rivers. Such areas are often places that visitors and locals go for waterfront activities or taking in the scenery.

Santa Cruz Information and Demographics

The population of Santa Cruz is very well educated relative to most cities and towns in the nation, where the average community has 14.96% of its adult population holding a 4-year degree or higher: 44.39% of adults in Santa Cruz have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.

The per capita income in Santa Cruz in 2000 was $25,758, which is upper middle income relative to California, and wealthy relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $103,032 for a family of four.

Santa Cruz is a very ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Santa Cruz home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Santa Cruz is 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 17.29% of the city's residents. Important ancestries of people in Santa Cruz include German, Irish, Italian, English, European, and Scottish.

In addition, Santa Cruz has a lot of people living here who were born outside of the US (15.13%).

The most common language spoken in Santa Cruz is English. Some people also speak Spanish.