2025 Compare Cities Rankings:
Poway, CA vs Santa Barbara, CA

#2 Drought-Riskiest Cities

#2 America's Most Playful Cities

#2 Best-Rested Cities 2011

#3 Sleep in the City Study

#3 Most Comfortable Summer Cities

#3 Most Competitive Public Colleges

#3 America’s Best (and Worst) Cities for Dating

#3 Top 10 Cities to Beat the Heat

#4 Best Cities for Teleworking - Large Metro Areas

#5 Most and Least Risky Places for Identity Theft

#7 Best and Worst Cities for Sleep

#7 Best Baseball Cities

#9 America’s Least Manly Cities

#12 Best Green Cities

#12 Healthiest Cities

#12 Failure To Lunch

#13 Cities on the Edge of Greatness

#14 America's Riskiest Online Cities

#16 Best Cities for Board Gamers

#18 Most Irritation Prone Cities

#21 Stressful Cities 2012

#22 America's Best and Worst Cities for Crime (Large Metro Areas)

#23 The Most Single Cities

#25 Best Airports to Make a Connection

#27 High Gas Prices - Which Cities are Hit the Hardest?

#28 Best Cities for Seniors 2005

#28 Best Block Party Places

#36 America's Top Hygge Cities

#37 Fiscally Fit Cities Report

#42 Wrinkle Ranking Cities Most at Risk for Skin Damage by 2040

#42 Second Annual “America’s Manliest Cities” Rankings

#43 America’s Manliest Cities

#43 America’s Manliest Sports Cities

#44 Most Energetic Cities

#44 Hypertension Hot Spots

#45 Most Romantic Cities for Boomers

#46 Gloomiest Places in America

#49 Sleepless Cities 2011

#49 Americas Manliest Cites 2011

#61 2005 High Gas Prices

#66 Most Popular Cities for the Holidays

#70 The Most (and Least) Gender Imbalanced Cities

#74 2005 Best Places to Live

#75 America's Most (and Least) Stressful Cities (100 Largest Metro Areas)

#99 America's Migraine Hot Spots

Poway is a great place to live. People are friendly, neighbors watch out for each other. Great trails, beautiful views. Love to hear the birds. Family oriented. Yes  More

Moved here 37 years ago and love the birds singing in the morning, minimal traffic noise, and convenience to Carmel Mountain Ranch for shopping. Easy access to the  More

I've lived here for 30 years. Back 30 years ago it was great. Small town, friendly people, etc. NOW Traffic is pretty bad but still better than most of SD county. I'm  More

I moved to Santa Barbara around 23 years ago to study at Brooks, which like most of the Santa Barbara that I knew—has been destroyed. Homelessness, drugs, gangs, high  More

I fell in love with Santa Barbara about thirty years ago and finally moved here a few years ago. Because of the price of homes, it is an expensive place to live. The  More

If you like high crime, paying a $4,500 a month mortgage and crazy high taxes, this is the place for you. It’s too bad because it wasn’t always like this. When I moved  More