An hour up the coast from Los Angeles, Oxnard is Ventura County's biggest city, a farming and beach town. About 200,000 people live here, most of them Latino, and strawberry fields still run right up to the edge of town. It feels less polished than nearby Ventura or Santa Barbara, and that is part of its appeal. The beaches, roughly seven miles of them, are the main attraction, along with Channel Islands Harbor, where boats leave for Channel Islands National Park. Heritage Square and the Carnegie Art Museum cover history and art, and the California Strawberry Festival in May is the local highlight. Farm stands are a good way to eat well cheaply.
The cost is the hard part. Housing runs far above the national average, even by California standards it is steep, and rents are high for the wages many residents earn. Crime is a concern in parts of central and south Oxnard, with car break-ins the main visitor risk. Earthquakes, rip currents and fall wildfire smoke are the natural hazards.
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- Known as
- Strawberry Capital of California; Gateway to Channel Islands National Park; Ventura County's largest city
- Founded
- 1867 settled (Hueneme area); 1903 incorporated (named for the Oxnard brothers, sugar beet factory founders)
- Languages
- English; Spanish (majority Hispanic or Latino population); Tagalog; Mixteco and other Indigenous Mexican languages among farmworkers
- Airports
- Oxnard Airport (OXR), about 3 miles from downtown, limited commercial service; Camarillo Airport (CMA), about 10 miles east, general aviation; Los Angeles International (LAX), about 60 miles southeast; Hollywood Burbank (BUR), about 50 miles east; Santa Barbara (SBA), about 35 miles northwest
- Tipping
- Restaurants 18-20%; bars $1-2 per drink; taxis and rideshare 15-20%; hotel housekeeping $3-5 per night; bellhops $2-5 per bag; tour guides 10-20%; counter service optional
About this data
Population is Census Vintage 2025 (July 1, 2025) via QuickFacts; land area 26.53 sq mi from Census; median value and rent from Census ACS via QuickFacts; Redfin price for June 2026. Metro figure 843,843 is a CityPopulation.de figure citing Census for the Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura MSA (vintage year not stated), shared with Thousand Oaks and Ventura; Oxnard is the largest city. Crime data are FBI 2024 via AreaVibes. Elevation, coordinates, founding, event months, hotel ranges, tipping, cost-of-living index, airport distances and 1BR rent are approximate or from general knowledge and not verified in this pass. Official URLs found via search or fetched; calendar not load-tested beyond the search result
