Santa Cruz County
Santa Cruz County is in California just south of the Bay Area. The north half of Monterey Bay is part of the county. It is the state's second-smallest county by land area, with only San Francisco County occupying a smaller physical area.| Tap on a place to explore it |
Essential Destinations
Top destinations include Santa Cruz and Watsonville.
Santa Cruz
Photo: Don DeBold, CC BY 2.0.
Santa Cruz is a coastal city in Santa Cruz County, at the north end of Monterey Bay in California, about 40 miles south of San Jose and 75 miles south of San Francisco.
Watsonville
Photo: Wikimedia, Public domain.
Watsonville is a city in Santa Cruz County, California, in the Monterey Bay Area of the Central Coast of California. The population was 52,590 at the 2020 census. Predominantly Latino and Democratic, Watsonville is a self-designated sanctuary city.
Scotts Valley
Photo: Wikimedia, Public domain.
Scotts Valley is a small city in Santa Cruz County in the Santa Cruz Mountains between Santa Cruz and the Silicon Valley.
Destinations to Discover
Explore places such as Capitola and Aptos.
Capitola
Photo: Vince Migliore, CC BY 3.0.
Capitola is a small, charming town on the coast of Monterey Bay in California. It is approximately 6 miles east of downtown Santa Cruz.
Aptos
Photo: Prg, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Aptos is an unincorporated community in Santa Cruz County, California, United States. The town is made up of several small villages, which together form Aptos: Aptos Hills-Larkin Valley, Aptos Village, Cabrillo, Seacliff, Rio del Mar, and Seascape.
Felton
Photo: Wikimedia, Public domain.
Felton is a census-designated place in Santa Cruz County, California, United States. The population was 4,489 as of 2020 census and according to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 4.6 square miles, all of it land.
Boulder Creek
Photo: Wikimedia, Public domain.
Boulder Creek is an unincorporated place in the coastal Santa Cruz Mountains. It is a census-designated place in Santa Cruz County, California, with a population of 5,429 as of the 2020 census.
Big Basin Redwoods State Park
Photo: Bill Herndon, CC BY 2.0.
Big Basin Redwoods State Park is the oldest state park in California, and one of the best places to see old growth coastal redwood trees near the Bay Area.
Santa Cruz County
- Type: County with 262,000 residents
- Description: county in California, United States
- Also known as: “Branciforte County”, “Santa Cruz”, “Santa Cruz County, CA”, and “Santa Cruz County, California”
- Neighbors: Monterey County and San Benito County
- Categories: county of California and locality
- Location: Central Coast, California, United States, North America
- View on OpenStreetMap
Latitude of center
37.0501° or 37° 3′ 0″ northLongitude of center
-121.9906° or 121° 59′ 26″ westPopulation
262,000Elevation
289 feet (88 metres)OpenStreetMap ID
node 316944817OpenStreetMap feature
place=county
This page is based on OpenStreetMap, GeoNames, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikivoyage.
We’d love your help improving our open data sources. Thank you for contributing.
Satellite Map
Discover Santa Cruz County from above in high-definition satellite imagery.
In Other Languages
From Albanian to Western Panjabi—“Santa Cruz County” goes by many names.
- Albanian: “Santa Cruz County”
- Arabic: “سانتا كروز”
- Arabic: “مقاطعة سانتا كروز”
- Arabic: “مقاطعه سانتا كروز، كاليفورنيا”
- Armenian: “Սանտա Կրուս շրջան”
- Asturian: “condáu de Santa Cruz”
- Asturian: “Santa Cruz (condáu)”
- Azerbaijani: “Santa-Kruz qraflığı”
- Basque: “Santa Cruz konderria”
- Bavarian: “Santa Cruz County, Kalifornien”
- Bavarian: “Santa Cruz County”
- Belarusian: “акруга Санта-Круз”
- Belarusian: “Санта-Круз (акруга, Каліфорнія)”
- Belarusian: “Санта-Круз”
- Bishnupriya: “সান্তা ক্রুজ কাউন্টি, ক্যালিফোর্নিয়া”
- Bishnupriya: “সান্তা ক্রুজ কাউন্টি”
- Bulgarian: “Санта Круз”
- Bulgarian: “Санта Крус”
- Catalan: “Comtat de Santa Cruz”
- Cebuano: “Santa Cruz County”
- Central Kurdish: “ناوچەی سانتا کروز”
- Chechen: “Санта-Круз”
- Chinese: “Santa Cruz Kūn”
- Chinese: “圣克鲁斯县”
- Chinese: “圣塔克鲁兹县”
- Chinese: “聖克魯斯縣”
- Chinese: “聖塔克魯茲”
- Chinese: “聖塔克魯茲縣”
- Chinese: “聖塔克魯茲郡”
- Czech: “Santa Cruz County”
- Danish: “Santa Cruz County”
- Dutch: “Santa Cruz County”
- Egyptian Arabic: “سانتا كروز كاونتى”
- Esperanto: “kantono Sankta Kruco”
- Esperanto: “kantono Santa Cruz”
- Esperanto: “Kantono Santa Cruz”
- Estonian: “Santa Cruzi maakond”
- Finnish: “Santa Cruzin piirikunta”
- French: “comté de Santa Cruz”
- French: “Comté de Santa Cruz”
- French: “Santa Cruz”
- Galician: “condado de Santa Cruz”
- Georgian: “სანტა-კრუზის ოლქი”
- German: “Santa Cruz County”
- Gilaki: “سانتا کروز ٚ شأرستان”
- Gilaki: “سانتا کرۊز ٚ شأرستان”
- Greek: “κομητεία Σάντα Κρουζ”
- Greek: “Κομητεία Σάντα Κρουζ”
- Greek: “Σάντα Κρουζ”
- Hebrew: “מחוז סנטה קרוז”
- Hungarian: “Santa Cruz megye”
- Icelandic: “Santa Cruz County”
- Icelandic: “Santa Cruz-sýsla”
- Irish: “Contae Santa Cruz, California”
- Irish: “Contae Santa Cruz”
- Italian: “contea di Santa Cruz”
- Italian: “Contea di Santa Cruz”
- Italian: “Santa Cruz County”
- Japanese: “サンタ・クルーズ郡”
- Japanese: “サンタクルーズ郡”
- Korean: “샌타크루즈 군”
- Korean: “샌타크루즈군”
- Latin: “Santa Cruz Comitatus”
- Limburgan: “Santa Cruz County”
- Lithuanian: “Santa Kruzo apygarda”
- Low German: “Santa Cruz County”
- Malayalam: “സാന്താ ക്രൂസ് കൗണ്ടി”
- Marathi: “सांता क्रुझ काउंटी”
- Mazanderani: “سانتا کروز شهرستان (کالیفورنیا)”
- Mazanderani: “سانتا کروز شهرستان”
- Min Nan Chinese: “Santa Cruz Kūn”
- Northern Frisian: “Santa Cruz County”
- Norwegian Bokmål: “Santa Cruz County i California”
- Norwegian Bokmål: “Santa Cruz County”
- Norwegian: “Santa Cruz County”
- Pampanga: “Santa Cruz County, California”
- Pampanga: “Santa Cruz County”
- Persian: “شهرستان سانتا کروز، کالیفرنیا”
- Persian: “شهرستان سانتا کروز”
- Polish: “Hrabstwo Santa Cruz”
- Portuguese: “Condado de Santa Cruz”
- Russian: “Санта-Круз”
- Russian: “Санта-Крус”
- Sardinian: “contea de Santa Cruz”
- Scottish Gaelic: “Santa Cruz County”
- Serbian: “Okrug Santa Kruz”
- Serbian: “Santa Cruz County”
- Serbian: “Округ Санта Круз”
- Serbian: “Санта Круз”
- Serbo-Croatian: “Okrug Santa Cruz”
- Serbo-Croatian: “Santa Cruz County, California”
- Slovenian: “Okrožje Santa Cruz”
- Slovenian: “Santa Cruz County”
- Spanish: “condado de Santa Cruz”
- Spanish: “Condado de Santa Cruz”
- Spanish: “Santa Cruz County California”
- Spanish: “Santa Cruz County”
- Swedish: “Santa Cruz County, Kalifornien”
- Swedish: “Santa Cruz County”
- Tagalog: “Kondado ng Santa Cruz, California”
- Tagalog: “Santa Cruz County”
- Tatar: “Санта-Круз (округ, Калифорния)”
- Tatar: “Санта-Круз”
- Tumbuka: “Santa Cruz County, California”
- Tumbuka: “Santa Cruz County”
- Turkish: “Santa Cruz County, CA”
- Turkish: “Santa Cruz County, Calif.”
- Turkish: “Santa Cruz County, Kaliforniya”
- Turkish: “Santa Cruz County”
- Turkish: “Santa Cruz ilçesi, CA”
- Turkish: “Santa Cruz ilçesi, Calif.”
- Turkish: “Santa Cruz ilçesi, Kaliforniya”
- Turkish: “Santa Cruz ilçesi”
- Ukrainian: “Санта-Круз”
- Ukrainian: “Санта-Крус”
- Urdu: “سانتا کروز کاؤنٹی، کیلیفورنیا”
- Venetian: “contea de Santa Cruz”
- Vietnamese: “Quận Santa Cruz, Ca Li”
- Vietnamese: “Quận Santa Cruz, California”
- Vietnamese: “Quận Santa Cruz”
- Waray (Philippines): “Condado han Santa Cruz, California”
- Waray (Philippines): “Condado han Santa Cruz”
- Welsh: “Santa Cruz County, Califfornia”
- Welsh: “Santa Cruz County”
- Western Panjabi: “سانتا کروز کاؤنٹی”
- “Santa Cruz”
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About Mapcarta. Data © OpenStreetMap contributors and available under the Open Database License". Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, except for photos, directions, and the map. Description text is based on the Wikivoyage page “Santa Cruz County”. Photo: Wikimedia, CC0.