Santa Monica is a coastal city in western Los Angeles County, California, USA. It borders Santa Monica Bay (part of the Pacific Ocean) on the west, Pacific Palisades and Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles and Mar Vista on the east, and Venice on the south. As of the 2000 census, the city had a population of 84,084, but an early 2006 estimate has the population at 103,255. Santa Monica is named for Saint Monica of Hippo because the area on which the city is now located was first visited by Spaniards on her feast day. In the skateboard and surfing communities Santa Monica's Ocean Park neighborhood and adjacent parts of Venice are sometimes called Dogtown.

Because of its agreeable weather, Santa Monica had become a famed resort town by the early 20th century. The city has experienced a boom since the late 1980s through the revitalization of its downtown core, significant job growth, and increased tourism.

Santa Monica is known for its left-wing politics, including policies designed to address the needs of renters, consumers, and the homeless. Residents of the city are among the largest contributors in the nation to Democratic Party candidates. The city was well known for its strict rent control ordinance, enacted in 1978 and partially overridden by state law in 1999. Santa Monica is sometimes called the "Homeless Capital of the West" due to the presence of the third largest homeless population in Los Angeles County (after Downtown Los Angeles and Hollywood), a large number of whom are teenaged runaways; satirist Harry Shearer calls it "The home of the homeless."