Orcutt, California

Area Profile

31,454 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Orcutt, in Santa Barbara County.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signals: opportunity, growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Housing affordability3299th of 4,223 published cities61
ClimateTop 8% of 4,223 published cities89
Physical resilience3632nd of 4,182 published cities20
AccessTop 40% of 4,226 published cities95
Economic stabilityTop 45% of 4,226 published cities62
The quick read

Rent takes 24% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 5.6 times that income.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by earthquake, inland flooding and drought.

A major airport is 3 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
31,454
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$111,416
Top 13% nationally
Density
2,906/sq mi
10.8 sq mi of land
Median age
39.9
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Santa Barbara County
California
Metro area
Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA
Nearest major airport
SMX
3 mi · Santa Maria Pub/Capt G Allan Hancock Fld
Median home value
$624,500
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

33% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 74% of measured US cities.

Household income is higher than at least 87% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$8,890$111,416Top 13%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,847$49,979Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate8.0%Bottom 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute23.4 minBottom 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher33.2%Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Labor force participation60.7%Top 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$71,660Top 41%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$51,690Top 45%2025 OEWS
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024111k101k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $111,416 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse11,020$36,230
Home Health and Personal Care Aides6,470$34,320
Fast Food and Counter Workers5,930$42,940
Retail Salespersons4,490$37,200
Cashiers4,170$36,600
Office Clerks, General3,630$55,620

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

There are 23.0 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
13
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
23.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Ernest Righetti HighSanta Maria Joint Union High2,41621.2
Orcutt Academy Charter · charterOrcutt Union Elementary81223.9
Joe Nightingale ElementaryOrcutt Union Elementary69526.7
Arellanes Junior HighSanta Maria-Bonita66818.6
Patterson Road ElementaryOrcutt Union Elementary66227.6
Pine Grove ElementaryOrcutt Union Elementary56927.1
Alice Shaw ElementaryOrcutt Union Elementary53025.2
Ralph Dunlap ElementaryOrcutt Union Elementary50227.9
Orcutt Junior HighOrcutt Union Elementary46423.2
Lakeview Junior HighOrcutt Union Elementary46324.4
Arellanes (Don Juan Bautista) ElementarySanta Maria-Bonita29817.5
Delta HighSanta Maria Joint Union High29120.8

64.1% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against California’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $2,193 takes 24% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.6 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
23.6%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$2,193
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$624,500
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income5.61Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate77.3%Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±41311,507Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$128$2,193Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$14,201$624,500Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income23.6%Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate3.3%Bottom 21%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →

No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

9 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 73°F and January a low of 41°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 13.3 inches.

30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station SANTA MARIA PUBLIC AP, 2.6 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND2.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation13.3"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low41°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high73°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months91991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing12°F1991-2020 Normals

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today.

Physical risk

20 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are earthquake, inland flooding and drought.

LandslideElevated
DroughtHigh
EarthquakeHigh
WildfireHigh
Inland floodingHigh
Heat waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: lightning, coastal flooding, tsunami, avalanche, hail, strong wind, tornado, cold wave, winter weather.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Santa Barbara County records 3.2 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 5.7 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 21.3 per 100,000 residents in Santa Barbara County.

Homicide
3.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
5.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
21.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
10.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Santa Barbara County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Orcutt rather than Orcutt itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 3 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Santa Maria Pub/Capt G Allan Hancock FldSMX3 mi8,004 ft
Meadows FldBFL86 mi10,849 ft
Van NuysVNY119 mi8,001 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Other cities in Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
Santa MariaSanta Barbara County110,46252vs Orcutt
Santa BarbaraSanta Barbara County87,77952vs Orcutt
LompocSanta Barbara County43,64653vs Orcutt
GoletaSanta Barbara County32,68560vs Orcutt
Eastern Goleta ValleySanta Barbara County28,295vs Orcutt
Isla VistaSanta Barbara County13,920vs Orcutt
CarpinteriaSanta Barbara County13,03648vs Orcutt
University of California-Santa BarbaraSanta Barbara County12,121vs Orcutt

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

Compare

Put Orcutt side by side with a similar place.

Orcutt vs PinoleOrcutt vs BeniciaOrcutt vs MartinezOrcutt vs Viera West

Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

ZIP codes in Orcutt

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
9345544,611$110,661