Is Santa Clara a good place to live?
Plenty in its favour, and one clear drawback. Overall, Santa Clara earns a B, which places it 35th of 142 in Oregon. On that grade it does better than 58% of U.S. towns. Where it does best is walkability (A): it is more walkable than 88% of U.S. towns. Schools are a strength too: its schools rank ahead of 74% of Oregon towns. The drawback is cost of living: the typical home is worth about $415K, 5.8 years of the Eugene metro’s $72K median household income.
Figures: schools, state test and graduation results · home values, Zillow · incomes, Census ACS, 2020–24.
How Santa Clara grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Oregon), ordered by how far Santa Clara is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
What makes Santa Clara stand out
Where Santa Clara beats most towns.
99% of working residents leave Santa Clara for work
Where Santa Clara’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
The data
Ordered by what stands out in Santa Clara.
More than half of Santa Clara’s working residents commute to Eugene
Santa Clara has 570 jobs for its 4,434 working residents: even if every job went to a resident, most would still commute out. Jobs based here grew from 373 in 2013 to 570.
Santa Clara’s mean commuting time comes in at 21 minutes. Most working residents leave Santa Clara for work: only 1% work in town. In Santa Clara, a fifth of workers work remotely from home. Between 2013 and 2023, jobs here rose by 197, to 570.
| Santa Clara | Oregon towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 20% | 14% | 11% |
| Working residents who work in town | 1.1% | 10% | 8% |
| Average trip to work | 21 minutes | 23 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $88,000 | $81,000 | $80,000 |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
High risk in Santa Clara, with inland flooding at the top
Expected losses in Santa Clara break down as 60% from inland flooding and 35% from earthquakes. In Santa Clara, the FEMA risk score is 70 of 100, where Oregon’s towns sit at 63 of 100 and U.S. towns at 44 of 100.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Santa Clara ranks healthier than 67% of the country’s towns
Among adults in Santa Clara, 12% smoke cigarettes. Of 26 CDC measures, Santa Clara beats the Oregon average on 1 and trails it on 2. In Santa Clara, 18% of adults get no exercise outside work, and 74% had a checkup this year.
| Santa Clara | Oregon towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 30% | 32% | 36% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 21% | 25% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 74% | 72% | 79% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 14% | 15% | 16% |
| What stands out | Santa Clara | OR |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer uninsured adults | 7% | 8.5% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 10.4% | 8.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
The climate in Santa Clara brings mild winters and pleasant summers
Summer afternoons peak near 83° in July, and January nights bottom out around 35°; snowfall runs to about 3 inches a winter.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Santa Clara skews older than Oregon
30% of adults 25 and older hold at least a bachelor’s degree, against 37% across Oregon. People 65 and older are nearly a quarter of residents (19% statewide); adults 18 to 34 are 18% of residents (23% statewide). Among residents in Santa Clara, 16% are under 18, below both Oregon’s towns (21%) and U.S. towns (22%). The town’s midpoint age stands at 47 years.
| Santa Clara | Oregon towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 18 | 16% | 21% | 22% |
| Median age | 47 years | 39.3 years | 40.5 years |
| Aged 65 or older | 24% | 18% | 18% |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 30% | 27% | 29% |
Ages · share of residents
Education · adults 25 and older
Women and men · all residents
51% women, 49% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±1.6 points. Across Oregon, 50.1% of residents are women.
| Santa Clara | OR | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 8.2% | 10.3% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 7.9% | 9.6% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 6% | 8.5% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 12.2% | 14% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 13% | 14.1% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 13.2% | 12.3% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 16.1% | 12.2% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 13.5% | 11.5% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 10.1% | 7.6% | 7% |
| No diploma | 4.8% | 8.2% | 10.4% |
| High school | 28.5% | 22.4% | 26% |
| Some college | 24.5% | 23.5% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 12.1% | 9.1% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 20.6% | 22.7% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 9.4% | 14.1% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates
0.7% of the land in Santa Clara is protected from building
In Santa Clara, the concentration of trails is 0.1 miles per square mile. Trails total 0.5 miles in 2 parks and preserves. Among 140 Oregon towns, just 10 have a lower share of conserved land than Santa Clara.
| Santa Clara | Oregon towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.1 miles per square mile | 0.8 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 0.7% | 4.4% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Bobolink Park | — | 3 |
| 2. Whiteley Landing County Park | — | 1 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
A home in Santa Clara sells for about $472K at the median
For households locally, the share who own their home is 80%. Santa Clara’s going rate for rent is $1,706 a month. Homes sold in Santa Clara spent a median 19 days on the market.
| Santa Clara | Oregon towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,706 a month | $1,413 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 80% | 65% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Everything we know about Santa Clara
Autzen Stadium and 12 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Santa Clara. Close and well known come first.
5 mi Stadium & arenaAutzen Stadium
6 mi Stadium & arenaHayward Field
32 mi Stadium & arenaReser Stadium
6 mi Stadium & arenaMatthew Knight Arena
6 mi MuseumJordan Schnitzer Museum of Art
7 mi City parkHendricks ParkPhoto credits
Autzen Stadium: Another Believer, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Hayward Field: Jsayre64, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Reser Stadium: Zapper258, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Matthew Knight Arena: Visitor7, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art: User:Akendall, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Hendricks Park: Chris Phan, CC BY-SA 2.0
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Moving to Santa Clara: who provides what
Santa Clara is unincorporated, so Lane 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 Oct 2, 2026.
Colleges nearby
4 within 15 miles of the center of Santa Clara
About 5 of every 100 Santa Clara residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Oregon.
About Santa Clara
Unincorporated community in the state of Oregon, United States
Santa Clara is a community located in Lane County, Oregon and a neighborhood of Eugene. Prior to a number of partial annexations by the city between 1990 and 2005, Santa Clara was an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Lane County. Its current population is approximately 13,000. According to U.S. Census Bureau figures, the racial composition of Santa Clara's population is 91 percent white, 0.8 percent black, 1.2 percent American Indian, 1.2 percent Asian, 0.2 percent Pacific Islander, 2.2 percent some other race, and 3.4 percent two or more races. Latinos, who may be of any race, form 4.7 percent of Santa Clara's population.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
Santa Clara’s neighbors
2 towns share a border with Santa Clara.
| Town | OR rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Clara | #35 | B | D | — | B+ | B+ |
| Eugene | #89 | C− | D− | D | B+ | B+ |
| River Road | #71 | C | D | — | B+ | B− |
Santa Clara and River Road report no FBI crime data of their own. Compare Santa Clara with a neighbor →
Questions about Santa Clara
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Santa Clara, OR a good place to live?
For most people who can afford it, yes. Santa Clara grades B overall, better than 58% of U.S. towns and #35 of 142 in Oregon. It grades B+ for health and B+ for schools. Cost of living is its weak spot, with a D.
Is Santa Clara, OR expensive?
Yes. The typical home is worth about $415,000, 16% below the Oregon 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.
Say something about Santa Clara.
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