Census-designated place · Santa Barbara County, California

Montecito, California

Montecito is a census-designated place in Santa Barbara County, California, part of the Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA metro area. It has 9,031 residents. Montecito, California has a quality-of-life score of 76 out of 100 (high), ranking #3,770 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within California it ranks #139 of 1,062 cities and towns. It ranks best on comfortable days (high), median household income (high) and bachelor's degree or higher (high). It ranks worst on income inequality (Gini index) (high), home price to income ratio (high) and natural hazard risk (high).

76High

Quality-of-life score: #3,770 of 15,651 cities and towns
California: #139 of 1,062 in CA
Population: 9,031 (2020-2024)
Land area: 9 mi²
Density: 983.5 /mi²
FIPS code: 0648844

Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 75 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.

Open in the map

Scores by category

Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.

Safety49#7,920/15,637
Economy76#3,731/15,631
Housing7#13,970/14,977
Health89#1,754/15,609
Healthcare86#2,178/15,650
Environment81#2,999/15,453
Education29#11,158/15,649
Infrastructure99#170/15,650
Community48#8,206/15,651
Leisure & amenities93#1,088/15,651

Strengths · Weaknesses

Indicators where Montecito, California ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Santa Barbara County value” are the county’s: the source publishes no figure for this city or town, and the county holding most of its residents stands in.

Strengths

Comfortable days · high56.5%
100/100California 34.8%United States 26.8%2016-2025NOAA National Centers for Environmental InformationSanta Barbara County value
Median household income · high$231,005
99/100California $100,130United States $81,6042020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B19013
Bachelor's degree or higher · high76.3%
99/100California 37.1%United States 35.7%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B15003
Physical inactivity · low13.9%
97/100California 23.5%United States 26.5%2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteModel-based estimate
Adult obesity · low22.6%
97/100California 30.4%United States 38.2%2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteModel-based estimate
Mental health providers · high684 /100k
96/100California 487 /100kUnited States 348 /100k2025University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteSanta Barbara County value

Weaknesses

Income inequality (Gini index) · high0.543
1/100California 0.489United States 0.4832020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B19083
Home price to income ratio · high8.7×
2/100California 7.4×United States 4.1×2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B25077
Natural hazard risk · high93.3
7/100California 87.32025Federal Emergency Management AgencySanta Barbara County value
Students per teacher · high20.5×
7/100California 21.7×United States 15.2×2024National Center for Education StatisticsSanta Barbara County value
Math scores · low2.64
11/100California 2.79United States 3.032019University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteSanta Barbara County value
Median Air Quality Index · high52
12/100California 602025U.S. Environmental Protection AgencySanta Barbara County value

Trends

The largest changes over about five years, next to the country's over the same periods.

PopulationRising
8,245 (2015-2019) → 9,031 (2020-2024)
+9.5%5 yearsCensus table B01003US 328,329,953 → 340,003,797
Median household incomeImproving
$159,706 (2015-2019) → $231,005 (2020-2024)
+45%5 yearsCensus table B19013US $65,712 → $81,604
Home price to income ratioImproving
12.5× (2015-2019) → 8.7× (2020-2024)
−31%5 yearsCensus table B25077US 3.5× → 4.1×
Broadband subscriptionsImproving
90.0% (2015-2019) → 95.6% (2020-2024)
+5.6 pts5 yearsCensus table B28002US 82.7% → 91.0%
Unemployment rateImproving
8.8% (2015-2019) → 4.0% (2020-2024)
−4.8 pts5 yearsCensus table B23025US 3.7% → 4.0%
Bachelor's degree or higherImproving
72.0% (2015-2019) → 76.3% (2020-2024)
+4.3 pts5 yearsCensus table B15003US 32.1% → 35.7%

What changed in five years

How each measure moved between two periods about five years apart, read against whether more or less is better, the published margin of error and the same change in other places.

Over about five years, Montecito, California improved on 4 of 14 measures with a comparison and declined on 1. 8 moved within the margin of error and 1 barely changed.

Earlier (2015-2019)
Latest (2020-2024)
Lower standingHigher standing

Position is the place's standing among cities and towns: further right is better, whichever way the measure counts.

Improved4

Price / income−3.9×12.5× → 8.7×
Unemployment−4.8 points8.8% → 4.0%
Household income+45%$159,706 → $231,005
Broadband+5.6 points90.0% → 95.6%

Declined1

Uninsured+1.7 points1.3% → 3.1%

All 14 measures

Change of every measure of Montecito, California between two periods about five years apart
Measure	Before	After	Change	Reading	Favourable vs peers
Average commute time	20.0 min2015-2019	18.4 min2020-2024	−1.5 min	Within the margin of error	66%
Bachelor's degree or higher	72.0%2015-2019	76.3%2020-2024	+4.3 points	Within the margin of error	63%
Broadband subscriptions	90.0%2015-2019	95.6%2020-2024	+5.6 points	Improved	35%
Child poverty rate	8.7%2015-2019	11.1%2020-2024	+2.3 points	Within the margin of error	29%
Effective property tax rate	0.42%2015-2019	0.63%2020-2024	+0.2 points	Little change	3%
High school diploma or higher	97.7%2015-2019	98.4%2020-2024	+0.6 points	Within the margin of error	41%
Home price to income ratio	12.5×2015-2019	8.7×2020-2024	−3.9×	Improved	100%
Income inequality (Gini index)	0.5572015-2019	0.5432020-2024	−0.014	Within the margin of error	63%
Median household income	$159,7062015-2019	$231,0052020-2024	+45%	Improved	80%
Poverty rate	6.5%2015-2019	8.3%2020-2024	+1.7 points	Within the margin of error	28%
Rent as share of income	30.4%2015-2019	34.7%2020-2024	+4.3 points	Within the margin of error	25%
Rent-burdened households	51.2%2015-2019	52.5%2020-2024	+1.3 points	Within the margin of error	51%
Unemployment rate	8.8%2015-2019	4.0%2020-2024	−4.8 points	Improved	95%
Uninsured residents (under 65)	1.3%2015-2019	3.1%2020-2024	+1.7 points	Declined	27%

“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 14640 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.

Sources: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Values are the latest and the one five years earlier of the same publisher dataset; datasets that changed publisher in between are never compared.

Survey estimates (American Community Survey) compare the two most recent 5-year windows that do not share years, so the margin of error of the difference holds. The 2015-2019 window predates the pandemic and 2020-2024 includes it.
A change counts only when it is larger than 1.645 times the square root of the two standard errors squared, summed (a 90% margin). Measures published without a margin must change by at least 5% to count.
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 15651 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Standing is a percentile among the same places: 0 is the lowest value on the measure (or the worst when lower is better), 100 the best.

Cities and towns like Montecito, California five years ago that improved

The places whose measures looked most like those of Montecito, California in the earlier period, ranked by how many measures improved beyond the margin of error, minus how many declined. A comparison of published data, not a forecast and not advice.

For comparison, Montecito, California itself moved −2 points in standing on average over the same 10 measures (standings of all places average about zero).

How the ranking works

Similarity is the root-mean-square difference of standings in the earlier period over the measures most places have. Places are ranked by measures that improved beyond the margin of error minus those that declined (a count that estimation noise in small places cannot inflate), then by the mean change of standing over the measures a place has in both periods. Only places with more improvements than declines and a rise in standing are listed. Standings are relative, so a place can improve in absolute terms and still lose standing.

Who lives here

Age, race and education of residents, from the American Community Survey. Shares are of all residents (age), residents of every origin (race) or adults 25 and over (education).

Age and sex

9,031 residents (±666)

Men
Women

80 and over†
70–79
60–69

Income

How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.

Household income

3,390 households (±278)

Montecito, California
California share

Under $25k9.3%†314
$25k–50k5.8%†196
$50k–75k

Homes

Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.

Owners and renters

3,390 households (±278)

Montecito, California
California share

Own76%2,568
Rent24%822

No change since 2015–2019 is larger than the margin of error.

Table view

Getting to work

How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.

How people get to work

3,164 workers (±310)

Montecito, California
California share

Drive alone48%1,527
Carpool3.7%†116
Public transit1.3%†42

Jobs and pay

What the largest occupations here pay, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes pay by metro area, not by county or city. The metro area page lists its largest occupations and lets you look up any job.

Pay in the Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA

Local businesses

Employer businesses and sole proprietors by industry, per resident and against the state and the nation. Counts of businesses next to counts of people, not a measure of demand.

The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Santa Barbara County, the county holding most of Montecito's residents.

Santa Barbara County has 12,484 employer establishments, 282 for every 10,000 residents (1.14× the US rate of 248; 1.07× California's), with 160,460 paid employees at an average annual pay of $69,069. The Census Bureau also counts 35,359 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.

Establishments: 12,484; 35,359 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents: 282; US 248 · California 263
Paid employees: 160,460
Average annual pay: $69,069; US $68,342

Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Santa Barbara County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation

Ambulatory health care services	1,082	24.4	1.17×About typical	10,441	$77,595	1,856
Restaurants and other eating places	979	22.1	1.20×About typical	18,720	$29,079	113
Specialty trade contractors	871	19.7	1.27×More than typical	6,549	$64,625	1,470
Lessors of real estate	752	17	1.38×More than typical	2,677	$60,595	4,148
Services to buildings and dwellings	453	10.2	1.52×More than typical	3,508	$42,368	2,104
Limited-service restaurants	420	9.5	1.18×About typical	7,700	$25,575	54
Offices of physicians	416	9.4	1.45×More than typical	3,089	$119,665	414
Full-service restaurants	404	9.1	1.19×About typical	8,974	$32,731	36
Construction of buildings	387	8.7	1.16×About typical	2,362	$76,369	811
Management, scientific and technical consulting	350	7.9	1.18×About typical	1,319	$108,594	1,778
Building equipment contractors	335	7.6	1.26×More than typical	2,395	$74,384	341
Building finishing contractors	288	6.5	1.71×More than typical	2,228	$52,390	551

Rank places for an industry Open Santa Barbara County

County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)

Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 442,878 residents here, 336,755,052 in the United States. County Business Patterns counts establishments in 2023; the Nonemployer Statistics count businesses in 2024.
“More than typical” is a density at least 1.25 times the nation's per resident, “fewer” at most 0.8 times, with at least 10 establishments. It compares counts of businesses with counts of people: it says nothing about demand, incomes, size, quality or profit, and visitors and commuters are not residents.
The Census Bureau adds noise to employment and payroll to protect confidentiality, and withholds some figures: an industry with few establishments can show employees or pay as unavailable.
Industries overlap: a narrower industry (full-service restaurants) is part of a broader one (restaurants), so the rows do not add up.
Industries follow the North American Industry Classification System; the two surveys use different editions (NAICS 2017 and 2022), which this page matches industry by industry.

Federal contracts performed here

In FY2026, an estimated $27.8K of federal contract obligations were for work performed in Montecito, California: $3.08 per resident (US $1,994).

Obligations: $27.8K; +29% vs FY2025
Per resident: $3.08; US $1,994
Sole-source: 23%; US 30%
Single offer: 58%; US 8.8%

A signal is a reason to look closer, not evidence of wrongdoing: most sole-source awards are lawful and justified.

Top buying agencies

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office$16.3K58%
Department of the Navy$5,90921%
National Institute of Standards and Technology$3,12911%
Export-Import Bank of the United States$2,1177.6%
Smithsonian Institution$3951.4%

Top recipients

ROCK SOLID OPTIONS INC$18.4K66%
IRCAMERA LLC$6,47023%
SENSOR TECHNOLOGY ENGINEERING LLC$1,7216.2%
SANTA BARBARA INFRARED, INC.$8473.0%
BITWARDEN INC$3951.4%

Spending by fiscal year

142.4KFY2017
971.7KFY2018
463.1KFY2019
109.2KFY2020
-16.2KFY2021
97.3KFY2022
70.7KFY2023
42.3KFY2024

Top industries (NAICS)

Investigation and security services · 5616$18.4K66%
Navigational, measuring, electromedical, and control instruments manufacturing · 3345$3,97614%
Communications equipment manufacturing · 3342$3,34112%
Semiconductor and other electronic component manufacturing · 3344$1,7216.2%
Software publishers · 5132$3951.4%

Source: Federal contract transactions (Federal Procurement Data System) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov), data current to Oct 3, 2026, loaded Oct 3, 2026.

How this is estimated

Agencies report each contract action's place of performance as a county and a ZIP code. A ZIP code's money is split among the cities it covers by the share of its land inside each (Census 2020 ZIP code tabulation areas); the part outside city limits stays with the county.

The place of performance is what the contracting agency reports, often the contractor's office rather than where the work happens.
Shares are of land, not of people or businesses: a ZIP code that is mostly rural land but has its offices in town gives the town less than it should.
ZIP codes that are not mapped areas (post office boxes, the unique ZIP codes of large federal sites and companies) stay with their county, unless one city covers nearly all of it.
Counts of actions and awards include those only partly in Montecito, California, so they do not add up across cities.

Montecito, California's figures are part of those of Santa Barbara County, CA ($575.7M in FY2026), never added to them: 0.0% of that total.

Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: Montecito is mostly in Santa Barbara County.

See federal money in Santa Barbara County

Representation in Congress

Members serving today, with their record in the current Congress (party-unity votes cast with their caucus, roll calls missed). Not a grade.

Montecito, California is represented in the 119th Congress by these members.

House

Salud O. CarbajalD-CA-24 · 100% of residentsWith party 97%Missed 0.7%

Senate

Explore Congress The 2026 races

County

A city can lie in several counties. Some indicators are published for counties only: the page marks them.

Santa Barbara County67100% of residents

Metro area

The metro or micro area the city belongs to.

Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA76

Other cities and towns in Santa Barbara County

Largest first.

Similar cities and towns

Closest indicator profiles across the country (no model: score distances).

Data and sources

Latest published value of each indicator; periods differ by source. Values flagged by their publisher are marked.

PLACES: Local Data for Better HealthCenters for Disease Control and Prevention · release 2025
Local Area Unemployment StatisticsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · release 2025
American Community Survey 5-Year EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2017-2024
Population Estimates ProgramU.S. Census Bureau · release 2025
Small Area Health Insurance EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
Small Area Income and Poverty EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
County Health Rankings & RoadmapsUniversity of Wisconsin Population Health Institute · release 2022-2025+2026-03-supplement

JSON · /api/v1/places/0648844

Scores by category

Strengths · Weaknesses

Strengths

Weaknesses

Trends