Goleta vs Santa Barbara

A side-by-side comparison of Goleta and Santa Barbara: population, income, housing, and more.

Goleta and Santa Barbara are places in California. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Santa Barbara has the higher population (88,024 vs 32,693 in Goleta). Goleta has the higher median household income ($118,039 vs $101,672 in Santa Barbara). Santa Barbara has the higher median home value ($1,466,400 vs $1,002,500 in Goleta).

Population, income & housing

	Goleta	Santa Barbara
Population	32,693	88,024
Median age	35.5 yrs	39.4 yrs
Median household income	$118,039	$101,672
Median home value	$1,002,500	$1,466,400
Median gross rent	$2,385	$2,302
Housing units	12,727	39,015
Homeownership rate	51.2%	39.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	48.3%	50.2%
Unemployment rate	4.3%	4.7%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Goleta	Santa Barbara
Population	30,975 → 32,693 (+5.5%)	91,376 → 88,024 (-3.7%)
Median household income	$98,005 → $118,039 (+20.4%)	$76,606 → $101,672 (+32.7%)
Median home value	$797,700 → $1,002,500 (+25.7%)	$1,051,500 → $1,466,400 (+39.5%)
Median gross rent	$1,999 → $2,385 (+19.3%)	$1,786 → $2,302 (+28.9%)

Goleta

Population

30,97532,693

Median household income

$98,005$118,039

Median home value

$797,700$1,002,500

Median gross rent

$1,999$2,385

Santa Barbara

Population

91,37688,024

Median household income

$76,606$101,672

Median home value

$1,051,500$1,466,400

Median gross rent

$1,786$2,302

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Goleta	Santa Barbara
Under 5	6.1%	4.8%
5 to 17	13.7%	12.5%
18 to 24	13.9%	10.7%
25 to 34	15.8%	16.8%
35 to 44	11.8%	11.3%
45 to 54	10.4%	11.6%
55 to 64	13.4%	12.3%
65 to 74	8.7%	11.2%
75 and over	6.2%	8.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Goleta	Santa Barbara
White (non-Hispanic)	45.0%	53.4%
Black or African American	2.0%	1.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.2%
Asian	11.2%	3.7%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.1%
Some other race	0.2%	0.9%
Two or more races	4.9%	3.6%
Hispanic or Latino	36.7%	36.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Goleta	Santa Barbara
No high school diploma	10.3%	11.1%
High school graduate	13.3%	11.9%
Some college or associate's	28.2%	26.8%
Bachelor's degree	28.1%	29.7%
Graduate or professional degree	20.2%	20.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Goleta	Santa Barbara
Drove alone	61.7%	61.3%
Carpooled	10.5%	9.7%
Public transit	2.4%	2.3%
Walked	2.6%	4.2%
Bicycle	3.6%	3.2%
Worked from home	17.9%	17.0%
Other means	1.3%	2.3%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Goleta	Santa Barbara
1-unit, detached	43.6%	45.8%
1-unit, attached	11.0%	9.6%
2 to 4 units	7.5%	13.7%
5 to 19 units	18.8%	18.0%
20 or more units	13.2%	12.3%
Mobile home & other	5.9%	0.6%

Poverty & households

	Goleta	Santa Barbara
Poverty rate	10.6%	13.1%
Average household size	2.68	2.34
Mean commute (minutes)	19	17
Median year structure built	1974	1964