List of largest cities in California by population

The following is a list showing the 100 largest incorporated cities in the state of California ranked by population, based on California Department of Finance (CDF) estimates for January 1, 2009. and US census bureau (USC) estimates from July 2007. Census bureau populations are predominantly lower and not accounted for by date difference, mostly due to discrepancies over immigrants, which the California government claims causes financial burden.

Note: These estimates are for the actual incorporated areas of the listed cities, as opposed to metropolitan areas, urban areas, or counties, and will therefore differ from other available population listings. Also, the California State Department of Finance uses different methods for estimating population than the United States Census Bureau, and therefore estimates from the two organizations will differ as well.

Rank	City	Population (CDF 1-09)	Population (USC 7-07)	County	Image	Description
1	Los Angeles	4,065,585	3,834,340	Los Angeles		Los Angeles is one of the world's centers of culture, media, academics, business, and international trade. It is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and it is one of the most substantial economic engines of the United States. Los Angeles also leads the world in producing popular entertainment — such as motion picture, television, video games and recorded music — which forms the base of its international fame and global status.
2	San Diego	1,353,998	1,266,731	San Diego		Located on the border between Mexico and the United States, San Diego hosts miles of beaches and a number of U.S. Military facilities. San Diego's economy is largely composed of agriculture, biotechnology/biosciences, computer sciences, electronics manufacturing, defense-related manufacturing, financial and business services, ship-repair and construction, software development, telecommunications, and tourism.
3	San Jose	1,007,223	939,899	Santa Clara		San Jose is the tenth largest city in the United States, the largest city in Northern California and the largest in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was founded on November 29, 1777 as the first town in the Spanish colony of Nueva California, which later became Alta California. The city served as a farming community to support Spanish military installations at San Francisco and Monterey. When California gained statehood in 1850, San Jose served as its first capital. After more than 150 years as an agricultural center, San Jose experienced increased demand for housing from soldiers and other veterans returning from World War II, as well as aggressive expansion during the 1950s and 1960s by annexing more land area. By the 1990s, San Jose's location within the booming local technology industry earned the city the nickname Capital of Silicon Valley.
4	San Francisco	845,559	764,976	San Francisco		San Francisco is a popular international tourist destination renowned for its steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of Victorian and modern architecture, and famous landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island, the cable cars, Coit Tower, and Chinatown. The city is also known for its diverse, cosmopolitan population, including large and long-established Asian American and LGBT communities. It is the second most densely populated city in the United States, behind only New York City and from the time of the Gold Rush until the 1920s it was the largest city in California in terms of population. It was also one of the first cities in California to be incorporated.
5	Fresno	495,913	470,508	Fresno		Fresno is at the heart of the San Joaquin Valley, a leading agricultural area of the United States. Fresno is the closest major city to Yosemite National Park.
6	Long Beach	492,682	466,520	Los Angeles		The Port of Long Beach is one of the world's largest shipping ports. The city also has a large oil industry; oil is found both underground and offshore. Manufacturers include aircraft, automobile parts, electronic and audiovisual equipment, and home furnishings. It is also home to the headquarters for corporations such as Epson America, Molina Healthcare, and Scan Health Care. Long Beach has grown with the development of high-technology and aerospace industries in the area.
7	Sacramento	491,097	460,242	Sacramento		One of the first cities to be incorporated in California in 1850, Sacramento is the capital of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. The city is located along the Sacramento River and just south of the American River's confluence in California's expansive Central Valley. Sacramento is the core cultural and economic center of its four-county metropolitan area (El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, and Yolo counties) with a combined population of 3,103,956. The Sacramento Metropolitan Area is the largest in the Central Valley, and is the fourth-largest in California, behind the Greater Los Angeles Area, the San Francisco Bay Area, and the San Diego area. Greater Sacramento has been cited as one of the five "most livable" regions in America,and the city was cited by Time magazine as America's most integrated. From the Gold Rush until the end of the 19th century, Sacramento was the second largest city in the state, behind only San Francisco, and it was an important agricultural, commercial and transportation center. It is today the center of an important technology industry.
8	Oakland	425,068	401,489	Alameda		Oakland is a major West Coast port, and is home to several major corporations including Kaiser Permanente and Clorox, as well as corporate headquarters for nationwide businesses like Dreyer's and Cost Plus World Markets. Attractions include Jack London Square, the Oakland Museum of California, the Chabot Space and Science Center, Lake Merritt, the East Bay Regional Park District ridge line parks and preserves, and Chinatown.
9	Santa Ana	355,662	339,555	Orange	File:Santa Ana City Stadium.jpg	County Seat of Orange County. Home to the famous Bowers museum, Discovery Science Center, and John Wayne Airport.
10	Anaheim	348,467	333,249	Orange		Located in Orange County, California, Anaheim is the second most populous city in the county (after Santa Ana) and second largest in terms of land area; it is known for its theme parks, sports teams, and convention center.
11	Bakersfield	333,719	315,837	Kern		Bakersfield sits at the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, an especially petroleum-rich area of California.
12	Riverside	300,430	294,437	Riverside		Riverside is the most populous city of Southern California's Inland Empire region. Riverside is the birthplace of California's citrus industry. Its downtown is home to the Mission Inn, one of the two historic landmark hotels in California. The Mission Inn Festival of Lights is said to be the 3rd largest Christmas lights display in the nation.
13	Stockton	290,409	287,245	San Joaquin		Stockton is at the heart of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, and is sometimes considered the divider between the Sacramento Valley and the San Joaquin Valley. For much of the later 19th century, starting with the Gold Rush, Stockton was one of the largest cities in the state, for a while the third largest city. With a sea port on the San Joaquin River, it was an important agricultural and shipping center, roles which it continues to fulfill.
14	Chula Vista	233,108	217,478	San Diego
15	Fremont	215,636	201,334	Alameda		Fremont was created as a single city in 1956, from the unification of several unincorporated communities that had historically been small but grew rapidly in the years after World War II.
16	Irvine	212,793	201,160	Orange		Irvine is a planned city in Orange County, California, mainly developed by the Irvine Company since the 1960s. Irvine is home to the University of California, Irvine (UCI) and to a number of corporations, particularly in the technology sector. It is regarded for its good schools, jobs and housing by CNNMoney.com, for low crime by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Census Bureau ranks Irvine highly in median income.
17	Modesto	210,088	203,955	Stanislaus		Modesto is in the center of the San Joaquin Valley east of San Francisco and south of the capital Sacramento. The city is surrounded by fertile farmland. Its population is growing fast due to affordable housing in the area and is quickly becoming a bedroom community for commuters to Sacramento, Fresno, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
18	Glendale	207,303	196,979	Los Angeles		Glendale is the focal point of the Verdugo Mountains subregion, and is well-known for hosting a large Armenian-American community.
19	San Bernardino	204,483	199,285	San Bernardino		San Bernardino is the second largest city in the Inland Empire area of California, and the county seat of San Bernardino County, the largest county in geographic area in the 48 contiguous states.
20	Huntington Beach	202,480	192,885	Orange
21	Oxnard	197,067	184,725	Ventura		One of only a handful of cities in the state that is the largest in its county, but not the county seat.
22	Fontana	189,021	183,502	San Bernardino
23	Moreno Valley	186,301	188,936	Riverside
24	Oceanside	179,681	168,602	San Diego
25	Rancho Cucamonga	177,736	170,266	San Bernardino		One of the newer cities in the state, Rancho Cucamonga was until the late 1970s a small, unincorporated rural area that incorporated as a city only in 1977.
26	Santa Clarita	177,150	169,951	Los Angeles		Home to Six Flags Magic Mountain. Incorporated in 1987 as the union of several previously existing communities, including Canyon Country, Newhall, Saugus, and Valencia.
27	Garden Grove	174,715	165,610	Orange
28	Ontario	173,188	170,936	San Bernardino		Ontario is the third principal city of the Inland Empire area of California and home to the area's international airport and the region's largest shopping mall, Ontario Mills.
29	Pomona	163,408	152,631	Los Angeles		Home of the Los Angeles County Fair, the largest fair in the United States.
30	Santa Rosa	161,496	154,241	Sonoma	File:RRSq Statue.jpg	The center of one of the northernmost Mexican land grants, created as a town in the early 1850s, and officially incorporated as a city in 1868, Santa Rosa is the largest city in California's Wine Country and the Redwood Empire. The county seat of Sonoma County since 1854, it also grew as a center of agriculture, shipping, and industry. It is today still an important local center of business, technology industry, and other light industry, as well as tourism. It has the dubious fame of suffering the most destruction during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which destroyed the entire downtown. Notable residents have included famed horticulturalist Luther Burbank, and Peanuts cartoonist Charles M. Schulz. Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, and the surrounding Wine Country have served as the setting for many well-known films, including Alfred Hitchcock's personal favorite, Shadow of a Doubt.
31	Salinas	152,597	143,517	Monterey		Salinas is known for being an agricultural center as well as being the hometown of famed writer and Nobel prize laureate John Steinbeck.
32	Palmdale	151,346	140,882	Los Angeles		Largest city of the California deserts, commonly referred to as the Aerospace Capital of America. The city is the birthplace of the Space Shuttle, X-15, B-2 Spirit, F-117 Nighthawk, F-35 Lightning II, SR-71 Blackbird, Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, and many other aircraft that have been used in the United States Air Force, NASA and air forces and airlines around the world. It is the sixth largest city in Los Angeles County and one of the fastest growing cities in the United States.
33	Hayward	150,878	140,943	Alameda
34	Pasadena	150,185	143,400	Los Angeles		Premier City of the San Gabriel Valley subregion; home of the Rose Bowl and Rose Parade, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the California Institute of Technology.
35	Torrance	149,111	141,420	Los Angeles		Torrance, 21 square miles, is situated 11 miles south of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), 8 miles north of the Port of Los Angeles, 30 miles west of Disneyland and bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the west with 1.5 miles of beach. Incorporated in 1921, its the eighth largest city in Los Angeles County and the 35th largest city in California. Torrance averages 12.55 inches of rainfall per year.
36	Corona	148,597	150,308	Riverside
37	Lancaster	145,074	143,616	Los Angeles
38	Escondido	144,831	136,246	San Diego
39	Orange	141,634	134,299	Orange
40	Elk Grove	141,430	131,212	Sacramento		Elk Grove was a sleepy suburb of Sacramento until the housing boom of the 1990's and 2000's. Between the decades, the population has nearly tripled from around 50,000 to almost 150,000 inhabitants. The population has grown so much that Elk Grove has surpassed all of the other suburbs in size and inhabitants. About 15 miles from Downtown Sacramento, Elk Grove has emerged has a popular place for young families to live and commute to the job centers of the area.
41	Sunnyvale	138,826	131,140	Santa Clara
42	Fullerton	137,624	132,066	Orange
43	Thousand Oaks	128,564	123,349	Ventura
44	El Monte	126,308	122,272	Los Angeles
45	Simi Valley	125,814	120,464	Ventura	File:2466075-Things To Do-Simi Valley.jpg	Home of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
46	Concord	124,599	120,844	Contra Costa
47	Visalia	123,670	118,603	Tulare
48	Vallejo	121,055	115,552	Solano		Vallejo was from the 1850s until closure in the 1990s, home of the Mare Island U.S. Naval Shipyard, one of the most important naval shipyards in the country. It was also very briefly the capital of California in the early 1850s. It is the largest city in Solano County.
49	Inglewood	118,868	113,376	Los Angeles
50	Santa Clara	117,242	109,576	Santa Clara
51	Costa Mesa	116,479	108,978	Orange
52	Downey	113,469	108,109	Los Angeles
53	West Covina	112,648	106,388	Los Angeles
54	Roseville	112,343	108,579	Placer
55	Norwalk	109,567	103,720	Los Angeles
56	Victorville	109,441	107,221	San Bernardino
57	San Buenaventura (Ventura)	108,787	103,219	Ventura
58	Burbank	108,082	107,921	Los Angeles		Media Capital of the World
59	Berkeley	107,178	101,377	Alameda
60	Daly City	107,099	100,882	San Mateo
61	Fairfield	106,440	103,992	Solano		Fairfield is the county seat of Solano County, but not the largest city in the county, which is Vallejo.
62	Carlsbad	104,652		San Diego
63	Richmond	104,513	101,454	Contra Costa
64	South Gate	102,770		Los Angeles
65	Temecula	102,604		Riverside	File:Temecula big.jpg	The heart of Southern California Wine Country.
66	Antioch	100,957		Contra Costa
67	Murrieta	100,714		Riverside
68	Mission Viejo	100,242		Orange
69	Rialto	100,022		San Bernardino
70	Compton	99,431		Los Angeles
71	Carson	98,159		Los Angeles		Location of the Home Depot Center, housing both of the Major League Soccer teams for Los Angeles, namely: the Los Angeles Galaxy & Chivas USA.
72	El Cajon	98,133		San Diego
73	San Mateo	96,557		San Mateo
74	Vacaville	96,450		Solano
75	Vista	96,089		San Diego
76	Clovis	95,128		Fresno
77	Westminster	93,284		Orange
78	Santa Maria	92,542		Santa Barbara
79	Santa Monica	92,494		Los Angeles		Home of the world famous Santa Monica Pier.
80	Redding	90,898		Shasta		Located on the banks of the Sacramento River, Redding is the largest city in California north of Sacramento. It is the gateway to numerous recreation areas including Shasta Lake, the Trinity Alps, and Mount Shasta.
81	Santa Barbara	90,308		Santa Barbara
82	Hawthorne	89,979		Los Angeles
83	Alhambra	89,171		Los Angeles
84	Hesperia	88,184		San Bernardino
85	Chico	87,713		Butte		Chico is the retail hub of the mid-Sacramento Valley and is home to institutions such as Bidwell Park, California State University Chico, and Sierra Nevada Brewing Company.
86	Citrus Heights	87,565		Sacramento
87	Whittier	86,788		Los Angeles
88	Newport Beach	86,252		Orange
89	Livermore	84,409		Alameda
90	Chino	84,173		San Bernardino
91	Lakewood	83,508		Los Angeles
92	Buena Park	83,385		Orange		Home of Knott's Berry Farm.
93	San Marcos	83,149		San Diego
94	San Leandro	82,472		Alameda		Historically a town with dozens of huge cherry farms and a Spanish missionary ranch, San Leandro today is a rapidly growing city of worldwide industries and a suburb of Oakland. Founded in 1872, it is one of the oldest cities in California.
95	Indio	82,230		Riverside
96	Tracy	81,714		San Joaquin
97	Baldwin Park	81,445		Los Angeles
98	Merced	80,542		Merced
99	Chino Hills	78,725		San Bernardino
100	Lake Forest	78,344		Orange

See also

• California census statistical areas
• List of urbanized areas in California (by population)
• List of cities in California