2025 Compare Cities Rankings:
Athens-Clarke County, GA vs Santa Cruz, CA

#34 2005 Best Places to Live

#50 Most Competitive Public Colleges

#89 America's Most (and Least) Stressful Cities (117 Smallest Metro Areas)

#94 America's Best and Worst Cities for Crime (Smallest Metro Areas)

#112 Best Green Cities

#18 Most Competitive Public Colleges

#27 Best Green Cities

#41 America's Best and Worst Cities for Crime (Mid-Size Metro Areas)

#124 2005 Best Places to Live

Athens is really a jewel hidden in & of itself. This place had so much stuff; it's constantly changing. They have city transit. They're expanding the highway and  More

I absolutely love Athens, Ga. I grew up traveling the world, the first place that I have ever lived in for more than 5 years in a row was Athens, Ga. I cam here in 96  More

The "Old South" is alive and well, thing about Baptists is they look like real people. Also come late Spring several religious groups feel they have the right to knock  More

I lived in the Santa Cruz area for 20 years. UCSC alum. Our kids were born there. There are wonderful things about Santa Cruz, but also many serious problems that we  More

I have been here for four generations! My kids are the fifth. I guess that should tell you how wonderful it is here, at least for us. It's so cool to have world class  More

I was born over the hill in San Jose area, and as a kid I loved coming over to the boardwalk. Santa Cruz has always been and always will be a town of diversity,  More