2025 Compare Cities Rankings:
Peoria, IL vs Santa Cruz, CA

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

#51 2005 Best Places to Live

#260 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

In my opinion Peoria is a great city and for it’s size it has a lot of amenities a big city would have such as a ballpark, civic center, many educational options, great  More

Crime is rampant and you can't even visit parks anymore without fear of some gang drive-by.  More

I lived in Peoria for nearly three years for work and I miss it terribly. The Peoria metropolitan area is by far one of the most underrated in the country. I think what  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