Isla Vista vs University of California-Santa Barbara

A side-by-side comparison of Isla Vista and University of California-Santa Barbara: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Isla Vista has the higher population (13,717 vs 11,634 in University of California-Santa Barbara). University of California-Santa Barbara has the higher median household income ($75,000 vs $24,428 in Isla Vista). Isla Vista has the higher median home value ($1,241,700 vs $452,600 in University of California-Santa Barbara).

Population, income & housing

	Isla Vista	University of California-Santa Barbara
Population	13,717	11,634
Median age	21.2 yrs	19.9 yrs
Median household income	$24,428	$75,000
Median home value	$1,241,700	$452,600
Median gross rent	$1,856	$1,512
Housing units	5,166	721
Homeownership rate	1.0%	17.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	40.8%	76.5%
Unemployment rate	17.1%	14.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Isla Vista	University of California-Santa Barbara
Population	27,707 → 13,717 (-50.5%)	11,671 → 11,634 (-0.3%)
Median household income	$24,545 → $24,428 (-0.5%)	$70,948 → $75,000 (+5.7%)
Median home value	$466,700 → $1,241,700 (+166.1%)	$436,500 → $452,600 (+3.7%)
Median gross rent	$1,503 → $1,856 (+23.5%)	$1,285 → $1,512 (+17.7%)

Isla Vista

Population

27,70713,717

Median household income

$24,545$24,428

Median home value

$466,700$1,241,700

Median gross rent

$1,503$1,856

University of California-Santa Barbara

Population

11,67111,634

Median household income

$70,948$75,000

Median home value

$436,500$452,600

Median gross rent

$1,285$1,512

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Isla Vista	University of California-Santa Barbara
Under 5	0.2%	1.0%
5 to 17	2.7%	2.9%
18 to 24	84.7%	79.5%
25 to 34	6.1%	12.8%
35 to 44	1.4%	0.9%
45 to 54	1.7%	0.5%
55 to 64	0.9%	1.8%
65 to 74	1.5%	0.4%
75 and over	0.9%	0.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Isla Vista	University of California-Santa Barbara
White (non-Hispanic)	53.2%	45.2%
Black or African American	4.8%	1.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.1%
Asian	14.9%	30.7%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.2%	0.4%
Some other race	0.3%	1.0%
Two or more races	3.3%	5.5%
Hispanic or Latino	23.3%	15.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Isla Vista	University of California-Santa Barbara
No high school diploma	9.4%	2.6%
High school graduate	19.0%	2.5%
Some college or associate's	30.9%	18.4%
Bachelor's degree	20.8%	30.8%
Graduate or professional degree	20.0%	45.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Isla Vista	University of California-Santa Barbara
Drove alone	50.6%	20.1%
Carpooled	4.6%	4.7%
Public transit	3.5%	6.8%
Walked	17.2%	23.7%
Bicycle	13.1%	26.0%
Worked from home	8.3%	17.7%
Other means	2.8%	1.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Isla Vista	University of California-Santa Barbara
1-unit, detached	5.1%	6.0%
1-unit, attached	3.7%	23.0%
2 to 4 units	19.9%	17.1%
5 to 19 units	37.5%	47.0%
20 or more units	33.8%	6.9%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	0.0%

Poverty & households

	Isla Vista	University of California-Santa Barbara
Poverty rate	69.3%	15.1%
Average household size	2.61	2.38
Mean commute (minutes)	16	15
Median year structure built	1975	1981