Due to its strategic location, Santa Barbara was one of the early settlements in Pangasinan organized into pueblos by Spanish conquistadores in 1580.

This organization was aimed at expediting the pacification of the province and facilitating tribute collection to support the Spanish colonial administration.

During the Filipino Revolution against Spanish rule, Santa Barbara served as the headquarters of Daniel Maramba, a local native and commanding officer of the Katipunan forces in central Pangasinan.

[5] Santa Barbara lies on a plain terrain in the northern part of the Agno Valley, at the center of Pangasinan.

It is just west of the business center of Urdaneta City, with centuries-old mango trees lining the national highway to Santa Barbara.

9 kilometers (5.6 mi) further west is Dagupan along Lingayen Gulf, and to its south is the town of Malasiqui and beyond it the City of San Carlos.

Poverty Incidence of Santa Barbara Source: Philippine Statistics Authority[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] More than half of the families or roughly 60 percent are farmers who till the northern part of the rich Agno Valley.

Although a large part of Santa Barbara is fast getting urbanized, the main economic activity remains to farm.

The town's business and trading center in and around the public market features a variety of wholesale and retail and other services establishments from farm inputs to construction materials.

Also owing to its suburban location and easy access to three nearby cities, Urdaneta, San Carlos, and Dagupan, Santa Barbara has attracted subdivision developers, both for middle-class and low-cost markets.

As of mid-2008, it has attracted to its territory eight different housing projects including subdivisions developed by the company owned by Senate President Manny Villar and a pilot Gawad Kalinga housing project for the very poor embarked by the town government and its private sector partners.

The heritage Santa Barbara Parish of the Holy Family Church, built in 1716, is part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan, Vicariate III.