Santa Cruz Demographics

Population

Santa Cruz County has a population of about 266,776 with the following population spread:

  • Santa Cruz City: 58,982
  • Watsonville: 51,882
  • Scotts Valley: 11,764
  • Capitola: 10,073

Approximately half (135, 936) of the population lives in unincorporated Santa Cruz County.

Ethnicity

Ethnically, Santa Cruz is predominately White and Hispanic with the following break down:

  • White: 56.6%
  • Hispanic: 34.8%
  • Asian/Pacific Island: 4.9%
  • African American: 1.0%
  • American Indian: 0.6%
  • Multi-Race: 1.9%

Santa Cruz has a higher population of white citizens than the CA average with 56.6% compared to the state average of 42.5%. The percent of Hispanics in Santa Cruz is lower than the state, however, with Santa Cruz having 30.% Hispanic and the state containing 34.8%. These statistics are current as of Jan 2009.

Languages

Demographics are reflected in the Language spoken statistics where 70.6% of households speak English as their first language while only 29.4% speak a language other than English. These statistics are current as of 2008.

Ages

Santa Cruz has a total of 47,400 children between the ages of 0–14 with the 6–14 age group containing 28,390 of those children. The second largest group is the age group 0–2 with 9,531 children with the 3–5 group following at 9,479.

The complete Age group breakdown is as follows:

  • 15–24: 38,947
  • 25–44: 80,299
  • 45–65: 76,031
  • 65+: 23,743

Gender

Gender-wise, Santa Cruz County has slightly more females than males, with 50.1% females (133,475) and 49.9% males (133,300).

Education

Enrollment in schools and universities in Santa Cruz county are as follows:

  • K–12: 43,201
  • Cabrillo College: 14,794
  • UC Santa Cruz: 15,012

Households

There are 93,076 households in Santa Cruz county. 47.1% of those households are married couples and 61.7% of all households are family households. The average family size in Santa Cruz is 3.22 people.

Households in Santa Cruz are broken down as follows:

  • 58,471 are Family Households
  • 27,782 have children under 18
  • 45,154 are married couples with 20,074 of those having children under 18 years of age
  • 9,254 householders are single women in Santa Cruz County and 5,419 have children under 18
  • 35,283 households are non-family households
  • 24,289 have one person living alone
  • 8,001 are households with both individuals who are 65 or older
  • These households are spread out in 102,894 housing units. Only 9,339 are currently vacant. Of the 93,555 in use, 55,826 are owner-occupied and 37,729 are renter-occupied.
  • Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2005-2009 American Community Survey

Veterans

There are 14,965 civilian veterans living in Santa Cruz.

Source: Santa Cruz County Community Assessment Project, Year 15, 2009