2025 Compare Cities Rankings:
Santa Cruz, CA vs Joshua Tree, CA

#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

#1 Sperlings Skincare Wrinkle Ranking

#4 Drought-Riskiest Cities

#7 Stressful Cities 2012

#10 Most Popular Cities for the Holidays

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

#14 Most and Least Risky Places for Identity Theft

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

#16 Best Cities for Teleworking - Extra Large Metro Areas

#19 Best and Worst Cities for Sleep

#19 Best Baseball Cities

#20 Healthiest Cities

#21 Sleepless Cities 2011

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

#28 Most Competitive Public Colleges

#29 Failure To Lunch

#32 America's Most Playful Cities

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

#39 Fiscally Fit Cities Report

#44 Most Comfortable Summer Cities

#47 Best Cities for Board Gamers

#47 Best Cities for Seniors 2005

#47 Metro Areas with Fastest Rising Income 2020

#47 America's Best Cities for a Healthy Retirement

#48 Gloomiest Places in America

#49 America's Top Hygge Cities

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

#66 2005 High Gas Prices

#84 The Most Single Cities

#89 The Most (and Least) Gender Imbalanced Cities

#170 2005 Best Places to Live

#305 Best Green Cities

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

1973 - 1987 Like any small town certain families have more pull. This was the case for what seem to even narrow more down to schools like Salazar & Dubose. It seemed  More

went to crossroads, a local restaurant in town, and ran across some folks who are relocating to joshua tree from south carolina. they were in town to go to the art  More

Just 45 minutes from Palm Springs, Joshua Tree is 10 to 15 degrees cooler than the low desert, and is the gateway to Joshua Tree National Park. The city itself it tiny,  More