Santa Cruz, officially the Municipality of Santa Cruz (; ; ), is a municipality in the province of Zambales, Philippines. According to the , it has a population of people.
Santa Cruz is from Olongapo, from Iba, and from Manila.
Santa Cruz is politically subdivided into 25 barangays, as indicated below. Each barangay consists of puroks and some have sitios.
In the 2024 census, the population of Santa Cruz was 66,647 people, with a density of .
The banking and financial sectors are well developed in this town. Several banks such as Philippine National Bank, Bank of Commerce, BDO Network Bank, and some rural banks are in place, as well as remittance centers including Palawan Pawnshop, Cebuana Luillher, Western Union and LBC Express including other local pawnshops. Convenience store, local department stores, grocery stores and pharmaceutical shops serve the public.
Two cinema houses (the Ebido and Mose) previously served the locals but due to the high availability of recording media from VHS tapes, CDs and DVDs, the cinema houses eventually closed in the 90s.
Cable television services, the PLDT Telephone/Fiber network (previously Digitel) and more recently Converge ICT have been supplemented by the internet.
There are two school districts which govern all educational institutions within the municipality. They oversee the management and operations of all private and public, from primary to secondary schools. These are Santa Cruz North Schools District Office, and Santa Cruz South Schools District Office.
The town has both public and private educational institutions, including those run by religious organizations, foundations and individuals.
Santa Cruz has plentiful primary education wherein every barangay has its own elementary schools and some have high school departments established.
St. Michael School is a private school that caters preparatory, elementary, and secondary education. Children of Zion Montessori School is a private school that caters preparatory up to elementary.
Santa Cruz Academy is a parochial secondary school operated and controlled by St. Michael the Archangel Parish of Santa Cruz. The Santa Cruz High School is operated by the local government alongside Lipay High School, Santa Cruz South High School, Don Marcelo Marty High School, San Fernando High School, Acoje Mines High School, Mena Memorial Higj School and Guisguis National High School.