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The Commemorative
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The Commemorative Quarter for California







Welcome to Santa Barbara ...

The coastal city of Santa Barbara is located in Santa Barbara County<1> and is the County Seat for Santa Barbara County.

While we don't have a date for the founding of Santa Barbara, you might consider that their post office opened  in 1850.

The city was incorporated April 9, 1850.

From the  Census Estimates for 2019, Santa Barbara has a population of 90,568 people<2> (see below for details).

Santa Barbara is 140 feet [43 m] above sea level.<3>.

Time Zone: Santa Barbara lies in the Pacific Time Zone (PST/PDT) and observes daylight saving time

Area Codes for Santa Barbara: 805 & 820<4>

The ZIP codes for Santa Barbara: 93101-93103, 93105-93111, 93120-93121, 93130, 93140, 93150, 93160, 93190<5>

Population Details ...

Taken from the 2019 Census Estimates, Santa Barbara had an population of 90,568 people. This is an increase of 2.44% since the 2010 Census (or a decrease of 1.9% since the 2000 Census).

At the time of the 2010 Census, Santa Barbara had a population of 88,410 people (which is 20.84% of the total population of Santa Barbara County). This makes Santa Barbara the county's 2nd most populous community.

The population of Santa Barbara represents 0.24% of the population of California (which has 37,253,956 people), making it the state's 82nd most populous community.

With a 2010 count of 88,410 people, the population of Santa Barbara decreased 4.24% from the 2000 Census (which had a count of 92,325 people).

More information can be found on the Census Page for Santa Barbara.

Websites for Santa Barbara ...

Official Website:   www.ci.santa-barbara.ca.us/

Junior League:   www.jlsantabarbara.org/

Communities near Santa Barbara ...

We have created a list of 10 communities that are near Santa Barbara.

To Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

We have a couple of sections for those tracing their genealogy.

We created a list of cemeteries that are in the area around Santa Barbara. Our list includes the location of those cemeteries and we provide an overhead view. See our Cemetery List for Santa Barbara.

Using the information from an 1895 Atlas, we've created a list of communities that were in the area of Santa Barbara. Our list includes information such as whether the 1895 community had a post office or railroad service. See our List of 1890's Communities around Santa Barbara.

We also have a detailed list of newspapers that have been published in the area around Santa Barbara. Our list includes 65 papers. See our Newspapers Page for Santa Barbara.

TripAdvisor Tourism Pages for Santa Barbara ...

Looking for more information about Santa Barbara? A wonderful source is the TripAdvisor website. We always start with the TripAdvisor Tourism page, where you can read an overview with links that will help you find lodging, restaurants and attractions.

In addition to the Tourism page for Santa Barbara, there are neighboring communities that also have Tourism pages. More information about those communities can be found on our TripAdvisor Page for Santa Barbara.

Adding Santa Barbara to Our Gazetteer ...

We originally found mention of Santa Barbara in both the FIPS-55 and the GNIS. For more information, see the FIPS and GNIS Codes sections on our Miscellaneous Page.

From our notes, the earliest published mention we've found for Santa Barbara was in the document titled List of Post Offices from Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<9>

X2X - From that list, the Santa Barbara post office opened in 1850.

We also found Santa Barbara in the book titled Table of U.S. Post Offices in the United States (Jan. 1851).

For more details, see References and Mentions for Santa Barbara.

The official website for Santa Barbara: www.ci.santa-barbara.ca.us/

The official website for Santa Barbara County: www.countyofsb.org/

The official website for State of California: https://www.ca.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>If you're interested in how the shape of California's counties, including Santa Barbara, have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.
<2>Population counts have been provided by the U.S. Census Bureau. For more detail, please visit our Census Page for Santa Barbara.
<3>The elevation is an estimate for the area around Santa Barbara - it will be higher in some places and lower in others.
<4>When there's a risk of an area code running out of phone numbers, an 'Overlay Area Code' is created that has the same geographic boundaries as the existing area code. In this case, the 805 code has been Overlayed with the 820 area code. New phone numbers in the Santa Barbara area will be assigned with one of these codes: 805 or 820. As a result, placing a call in the Santa Barbara area will require 10-digit dialing (where you enter both the area code and then the phone number).
<5>ZIP Codes have been created by the United States Postal Service (USPS) as a way of grouping addresses to make delivery more efficient. The boundaries of the ZIP Code can be changed, re-assigned, eliminated or overlapped with other ZIP Codes. So keep in mind that any given ZIP Code is only 'loosely' associated with a city (such as Santa Barbara). When looking for a ZIP Code, whether Santa Barbara or elsewhere, it's always best to check the website of the United States Postal Service (USPS).

Our list of ZIP Codes for Santa Barbara includes: 93101, 93102, 93105, 93106, 93107, 93108, 93109, 93110, 93120, 93130, 93140, 93150, 93160 & 93190.
<6>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<7>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<8>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<9>A copy of their list with background information can be found at:

      https://cblevins.github.io/us-post-offices/data-biography/









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025