San Francisco

San Francisco, whose official name is the City and County of San Francisco, ranks as California’s fourth most populous city and the 17th in the United States, with 826,079 people counted in 2025. Among American cities that have at least 200,000 residents, it holds the top spot for per capita income, third place for population density, and sixth place for aggregate income, based on 2024 figures. The metropolitan statistical area surrounding the city contains roughly 4.6 million inhabitants, making it the 13th-largest such region in the country. The broader San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland combined statistical area, home to about 9.2 million people, is the fifth-largest in the United States.

Before Europeans arrived, the Yelamu Ohlone people lived in what is now San Francisco. On June 29, 1776, settlers from New Spain built the Presidio of San Francisco at the Golden Gate, and a few miles away they established Mission San Francisco de Asís; both were named for Francis of Assisi. The California gold rush of 1849 triggered explosive growth, and San Francisco became the largest city on the West Coast at that time. In 1856, it was consolidated into a single city-county government.

The 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed three-quarters of the city, but it was rebuilt quickly, hosting the Panama–Pacific International Exposition just nine years later. During World War II, it served as a major port for naval personnel shipping out to the Pacific theater. After the war, a mix of returning servicemen, large-scale immigration, shifting social attitudes, the beatnik and hippie countercultures, the sexual revolution, opposition to the Vietnam War, and other forces gave rise to the Summer of Love and the gay rights movement, solidifying San Francisco’s reputation as a hub of liberal activism.

The San Francisco Bay Area is one of the most economically productive large urban regions in the United States and the world, with a GDP of $1.332 trillion in 2024—higher than all but 17 countries. The OECD-defined metropolitan area, which has 6.7 million residents, ranked fifth by GDP ($874 billion) and second by GDP per capita ($131,082) among all OECD metropolitan areas. In 2024, San Francisco proper had a GDP of $268 billion and a GDP per capita of $324,000. This economic output is driven by its leading universities and sectors such as high-tech, healthcare, finance, insurance, real estate, and professional services. The city is headquarters to numerous companies, many in technology, including Salesforce, Uber, Airbnb, Levi’s, Gap, OpenAI, Chime, Genentech, Anthropic, Databricks, Dropbox, and Lyft.

In 2022, San Francisco attracted more than 1.7 million international visitors and roughly 20 million domestic ones. It is famous for its steep, rolling hills and eclectic architectural mix across diverse neighborhoods, including Chinatown and the Mission District; its mild climate; and landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, and Alcatraz. The city hosts educational and cultural institutions such as the University of California, San Francisco, the University of San Francisco, San Francisco State University, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Legion of Honor, the de Young Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Ballet, the San Francisco Opera, the SFJAZZ Center, and the California Academy of Sciences.

Two major league sports teams—the San Francisco Giants and the Golden State Warriors—play their home games within city limits. San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is among the world’s busiest, and a light rail and bus network, together with BART and Caltrain, connects nearly every part of San Francisco to the wider region.

Etymology The name San Francisco, Spanish for “Saint Francis,” comes from Mission San Francisco de Asís, which was named in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi. The mission received its name in 1776, when the Spanish founded it under the leadership of Padre Francisco Palóu. The city has officially been called San Francisco since 1847, when Washington Allon Bartlett, then serving as the city’s alcalde, changed it from Yerba Buena (“good herb” in Spanish), the name of the first civilian settlement in San Francisco. Earlier in the city’s history, the uninhabited area on the northeastern side of San Francisco was named after the herb that grew abundantly there. The name “Yerba Buena” still appears in locations within the city, such as Yerba Buena Island.

When using a nickname or abbreviation, local residents most commonly refer to San Francisco as “the City” or “SF.” Although the nickname “Frisco” has a local pedigree dating at least to 1850 and has been used by some residents in every generation since, both “Frisco” and the more recent “San Fran” tend to provoke sharp divisions among locals.

California Cantonese who came during the gold rush called California and specifically San Francisco “Gold Mountain” (金山). When gold was discovered in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, that place was named “New Gold Mountain” (新金山), and California and San Francisco became “Old Gold Mountain” (舊金山).

History Indigenous history The earliest archaeological evidence of human habitation in the area dates to 3000 BCE. The Ohlone name for San Francisco was Ahwaste, meaning “place at the bay.” The Yelamu group of the Ramaytush people lived in a few small villages when an overland Spanish exploration party arrived on November 2, 1769—the first documented European visit to San Francisco Bay. The arrival of Spanish colonists and the establishment of the mission system marked the beginning of the assimilation of the Ramaytush people and the decline of their language and culture.

Spanish era (1769–1821) The Spanish Empire claimed San Francisco and established the Presidio of San Francisco in 1776. Mission San Francisco de Asís was founded by Padre Francisco Palóu on October 9, 1776.