2025 Compare Cities Rankings:
Santa Cruz, CA vs Yelm, WA

#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 Most Secure Places to Live in the U.S. (Mid-Size Metro Areas)

#4 Most Secure Places to Live 2011 (Mid-Size Cities)

#10 Safest Places from Natural Disasters

#16 2005 Best Places to Live

#36 Best Green Cities

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

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

Yelm is a very nice city to live in. Small enough to have that small town flavor but big enough not to be cramped. Has access to pretty much everywhere you want to go.  More

I've lived in Yelm 2 years now and LOVE IT! We moved here to get away of the crazyness and extreamly crampedness of the "suburbia"of Puyallup which is just outside of  More