InterlakenCA
A town of 8,068.
Is Interlaken a good place to live?
Interlaken grades D overall, 625th of 841 graded towns in California. One bright spot: it has 6 miles of trail. Interlaken’s July high is 73°F, where California’s towns sit at 89°F and U.S. towns at 85°F. On hazard risk, just 94 of California’s 1,064 towns do worse. The typical home is worth about $831K, 7.5 years of the Santa Cruz metro’s $111K median household income.
96% of working residents leave Interlaken for work
Where Interlaken’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
How Interlaken grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within California), ordered by how far Interlaken is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Levi's Stadium and 63 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Interlaken. Close and well known come first.
Big draw34 mi Stadium & arenaLevi's Stadium
Big draw34 mi Theme parkCalifornia's Great America
24 mi Zoo & aquariumMonterey Bay Aquarium
28 mi Stadium & arenaSAP Center
25 mi MuseumMonterey Museum of Art
14 mi Theme parkSanta Cruz Beach BoardwalkPhoto credits
Levi's Stadium: Matthew Roth, CC BY-SA 2.0 · California's Great America: Oleg Alexandrov, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Monterey Bay Aquarium: Meij.kobayashi, Public domain · SAP Center: Dicklyon, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Monterey Museum of Art: Sgerbic, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk: Josta Photo, CC BY 2.0
Moving to Interlaken: who provides what
Interlaken is unincorporated, so Santa Cruz County and regional agencies provide most services.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in Interlaken.
Interlaken has a longer frost-free season than nearly all U.S. towns, but it trails even towns with similar incomes on health.
Interlaken faces a very high natural-hazard risk, led by earthquakes
Expected storm and flood damage is higher than in 99% of U.S. communities.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
On state tests, Interlaken’s schools trail 67% of California districts
Its public schools are run by the Pajaro Valley Unified school district. Two of its 4 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alianza CharterLargest public elementary schoolGrades K–8 | Grades K–8 | 626 | – |
| St. Francis High School Salesian College Prep PrivateLargest high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 212 | – |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within CA on state tests and graduation
With 0.5 jobs for every working resident, most of Interlaken’s workers commute out
Most working residents leave Interlaken for work: only 4% work in town. 15% of Interlaken residents live below the poverty line. Since 2013, Interlaken has added 100 jobs, to 1,428 in 2023.
| Interlaken | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Below the poverty line | 15% | 10% | 9.6% |
| Median household income | $109,000 | $95,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 4.2% | 6.6% | 8% |
| Average trip to work | 26 minutes | 28 minutes | 25 minutes |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Conserved land covers 3.7% of Interlaken
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Mesa Village Park | — | 2 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Interlaken has mild winters and pleasant summers
The Watsonville Wtr Wks weather station records that the frost-free season runs about 324 days, longer than in 96% of U.S. towns. July afternoons average 73.3°, cooler than in 99% of U.S. towns; January nights average 40.6°.
Interlaken has warm winters and cool summers, with very little rain. Interlaken’s January low is 41°F. Snow is almost unheard of.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Residents of Interlaken are less healthy than 51% of U.S. towns
Against the 7,271 U.S. towns with household incomes like Interlaken’s, it is less healthy than 82%, so it trails even them.
Interlaken beats the California average on 1 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 8. 68% of adults had a checkup this year in Interlaken.
| Interlaken | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 68% | 72% | 79% |
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 9% | 8.1% |
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 22% | 19% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 38% | 36% | 33% |
| What stands out | Interlaken | CA |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults who have had cancer | 5.6% | 6.4% |
| More uninsured adults | 17.7% | 10.6% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
The median home in Interlaken sells for about $963K
The median rent in Interlaken is $1,941 a month.
| Interlaken | California towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,941 a month | $1,895 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 66% | 64% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Everything we know about Interlaken
Colleges nearby
3 within 15 miles of the center of Interlaken
About 7 of every 100 Interlaken residents are enrolled in college, about the same as California.
About Interlaken
Census-designated place in California, United States
Interlaken is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Cruz County, California, United States. The population was 7,368 at the 2020 census.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 10 sq mi
- Elevation
- 128 ft
Interlaken’s neighbors
3 towns share a border with Interlaken.
| Town | CA rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Interlaken | #625 | D | D | — | C | B− |
| Watsonville | #720 | D− | D | C | C | C |
| Corralitos | — | — | D− | — | C | A− |
| Amesti | #654 | D | D | — | C | C+ |
Corralitos has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Interlaken, Corralitos and Amesti report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Interlaken with a neighbor →
Questions about Interlaken
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Interlaken, CA a good place to live?
Interlaken grades D overall, better than 9% of U.S. towns and #625 of 841 in California. It grades B− for health and C for schools. Hazard risk is its weak spot, with a D−.
Is Interlaken, CA expensive?
Yes. The typical home is worth about $831,000, 9% above the California typical home. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades D.