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.[1] and US census bureau (USC) estimates from July 2007.[2] 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.[3] 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.[4] 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[citation needed]. | |
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. [5] | |
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 as 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 |
References
- ^ California Department of Finance (CDF) 2009 Population Estimate
- ^ US Census:Population Estimates:Cities and Towns
- ^ "The First City". California History Online. Retrieved 2008-03-15.
- ^ "California Admission Day - September 9, 1850". California State Parks. 2007. Retrieved 2008-03-15.
- ^ http://www.ci.torrance.ca.us/889.htm City of Torrance website, About Torrance