2025 Compare Cities Rankings:
Santa Barbara, CA vs Mercer Island, WA

#1 America's Top Hygge Cities

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

#1 America's Riskiest Online Cities

#1 Gloomiest Places in America

#1 America's Best Cities for a Healthy Retirement

#2 Most and Least Risky Places for Identity Theft

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

#2 Best Cities for Seniors 2005

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

#4 Metro Areas with Fastest Rising Income 2020

#4 Healthiest Cities

#4 America’s Least Manly Cities

#5 America's Most Playful Cities

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

#6 Best States for LGBTQ Rights

#6 Best Cities for Board Gamers

#6 Cities on the Edge of Greatness

#8 Where to Live to Avoid a Natural Disaster (Lowest Risk)

#8 America’s Best Cities for Foodies

#8 Safest Cities for Families with Young Children

#8 Most Difficult Cities to Navigate

#8 Safest Places from Natural Disasters

#8 Fiscally Fit Cities Report

#9 Stressful Cities 2012

#10 Most Comfortable Summer Cities

#10 Best Cities for Teleworking - Extra Large Metro Areas

#10 Most Secure Places to Live in the U.S. (Large Metro Areas)

#10 Top 10 Cities to Beat the Heat

#11 Failure To Lunch

#12 The Most Single Cities

#16 Best Block Party Places

#16 Best Airports to Make a Connection

#19 Best US Cities for Seniors 2011

#22 Sleepless Cities 2011

#28 Best Baseball Cities

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

#30 Most Romantic Cities for Boomers

#32 Best Green Cities

#35 Most Irritation Prone Cities

#39 Most Competitive Public Colleges

#40 America’s Manliest Cities

#41 Hypertension Hot Spots

#41 Americas Manliest Cites 2011

#42 America’s Manliest Sports Cities

#44 Best and Worst Cities for Sleep

#44 Worst Cities for Respiratory Infections

#46 Most Energetic Cities

#55 2005 High Gas Prices

#58 Most Popular Cities for the Holidays

#59 2005 Best Places to Live

#59 America's Migraine Hot Spots

#66 The Most (and Least) Gender Imbalanced Cities

#66 Drought-Riskiest Cities

#151 Best Green Cities

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

Mercer Island is a wonderful family community. It feels much more "small town" than a city even though it has a population of 20,000+. People say hello and watch out  More

Mercer Island is a suburb of Seattle, located on an island in Lake Washington. The best thing about Mercer Island is its strategically central location relative to the  More

Mercer Island is a suburb of Seattle, located on an island in Lake Washington. The best thing about Mercer Island is its strategically central location relative to the  More