San Francisco

Officially the City and County of San Francisco, the fourth-most populous city in California and the 17th-most populous in the United States, with 826,079 residents in 2025. Among U.S. cities with a population of 200,000 or more it ranks first by per capita income and third by population density. Before European settlement the peninsula was inhabited by the Yelamu Ohlone; on 29 June 1776 settlers from New Spain established the Presidio of San Francisco at the Golden Gate and the Mission San Francisco de Asis a few miles away, both named for Francis of Assisi. The California gold rush of 1849 brought rapid change. Some 4.6 million people live in the metropolitan area.