Rancho Santa Fe, California
43 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1893 and the latest in 1996. It stands in the San Diego census division. It lies in ZIP code area 92067. It lies near Osuna Valley. The Survey maps it on the Rancho Santa Fe quadrangle. 3,156 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 246 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1893 to 1996The same ground, surveyed 103 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Compare 1893 against another survey:
On record in Rancho Santa Fe
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 11 records
Pearl Baker Row Houselisted 1993
Samuel Bingham Houselisted 1991
Ellis Bishop Houselisted 1999
Norman and Florence B. Carmichael Houselisted 1991
Reginald M. and Constance Clotfelter Row Houselisted 1991
Rancho Santa Fe Land and Improvement Company Officelisted 1991
Lilian Jenette Rice Houselisted 1991
Claude and Florence Terwilliger Houselisted 1991- George A. C. Christiancy Houselisted 1991
- Juan Maria Osuna Adobelisted 2017
- Charles A. Shaffer Houselisted 1991
Population over time
2 figuresRancho Santa Fe grew from 3,117 to 3,156 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 3,117 | |
| 2020 | 3,156 | +39 (+1%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
16 surveys from 43 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1893 USGS Escondido quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1901 USGS Escondido quadrangle1:62500, 6 printings
- 1901 USGS San Luis Rey quadrangle1:125000, 8 printings
- 1904 USGS Southern California Sheet No. 2 quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
- 1942 USGS Escondido quadrangle1:62500
- 1947 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1948 USGS Rancho Santa Fe quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1949 USGS Rancho Santa Fe quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1949 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1960 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1965 USGS Santa Ana quadrangle1:250000
- 1968 USGS Rancho Santa Fe quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1982 USGS Oceanside quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1996 USGS Rancho Santa Fe quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
152 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 152 fires within 5 miles of Rancho Santa Fe between 1992 and 2020, burning about 2,124 acres in total. None started naturally. 12 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 76 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 44 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 12 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 7 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 5 |
| Smoking | 4 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
| Debris and open burning | 1 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 September 2004 | Equipment and vehicle use | 4.0 acres | San Diego Unit | HARMONY |
| 3 September 1997 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.5 acres | San Diego Unit | HORIZON |
| 26 September 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | San Diego Unit | HERRMANN |
| 24 September 2004 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2.0 acres | San Diego Unit | BERNARDO |
| 23 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | San Diego Unit | PALMA |
| 20 September 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | San Diego Unit | CAMINO SANTA FE / FOUR G |
| 2 September 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.5 acres | San Diego Unit | LA PALMA |
| 19 September 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | San Diego Unit | LINDO |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 27 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 27 workings within 5 miles of Rancho Santa Fe: 11 past producers, 6 prospects, 6 producers, 4 occurrences. 6 still produce. What was taken out: Gold, Copper, Clay, Aluminum. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Encinitas | Copper, Lead | Past Producer | Vein | |
| Carmean Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Greenstone Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Carmean Quarry | Stone | Producer | ||
| Coast Sand Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Greenstone Quarry | Stone | Producer | ||
| Harris Deposit | Talc-Soapstone, Gold | Past Producer | ||
| Pioneer Deposit | Talc-Soapstone | Past Producer | ||
| Pioneer Mine | Talc-Soapstone | Producer | Pyrophyllite | |
| Smith Construction Co. Deposit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
3 since 2019Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Rancho Santa Fe in 3 storm reports between 2019 and 2026: 1 lightning, 1 debris flow, 1 thunderstorm wind. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2019 | Lightning | Rancho Santa Fe | $2,000 | Broadcast media reported that lightning struck a fence and caused damage to it. 40 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes were observed during this event. |
| February 2026 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rancho Santa Fe | - | Member of the public reports medium-sized tree snapped in half and landed on their car. Picture provided via social media with wind estimates near 30-40 mph. |
| January 2023 | Debris Flow | Rancho Santa Fe | - | CalTrans report of a mudslide leading to rocks and dirt blocking eastbound lanes on Via de Santa Fe near Rancho Santa Fe. |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Olivenhain | 2.5 miles | 43 | |
| Eden Gardens | 3.7 miles | 22 | |
| Solana Beach | 4.1 miles | 22 | |
| Cardiff-by-the-Sea | 4.2 miles | 50 | |
| Elfin Forest | 4.2 miles | 43 | |
| Encinitas | 4.9 miles | 50 | |
| Del Mar | 5.3 miles | 22 | |
| Del Dios | 5.7 miles | 43 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Rancho Santa Fe | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q979425 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 247968. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.















