Bakersfield Map
Bakersfield sits at the closed southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, where mountains wrap around three sides of the plain, and counted about 417,000 residents in 2024.
Where is Bakersfield?
Bakersfield is in the southern Central Valley of California, at the point where the valley floor runs out against the Tehachapi Mountains and the Transverse Ranges. The only easy way south is over the Grapevine on Interstate 5. Los Angeles is about 110 miles that way; Fresno is roughly 110 miles north up Highway 99, and Las Vegas some 285 miles east across the desert.
Bakersfield at a glance
| State | California |
| County | Kern County |
| Population | 417,468 (2024 Census estimate) |
| Rank among US cities | No. 47 of the 100 largest |
| Time zone | Pacific Time |
| Region | West (Pacific division) |
No. 47 on the 2024 list is a margin of 11,111 people: that is how far Bakersfield trails Minneapolis, while Tulsa is 2,314 further back. Within California it comes ninth of fifteen, behind eight others, from Los Angeles down to Oakland. Against California's 39.43 million residents, though, that is only about 1.1%. It holds about 45% of Kern County's 922,529 residents.
Bakersfield in California
Kern County reaches from the valley floor east into the Mojave and produces more oil than any other county in California, alongside a very large agricultural output — the California county map shows how big it is. Bakersfield is the county seat and the largest city in the southern valley, with Fresno and Stockton holding the middle and north. The California state page explains how differently this interior reads from the coast.
The Kern River and a valley with no outlet
The Kern River leaves the southern Sierra Nevada through a steep canyon just northeast of the city and then simply stops: historically it spread into Buena Vista and Kern lakes on the valley floor, with no outlet to the sea except in exceptional flood years. Those lakebeds are farmland now, and the water is diverted before it gets there. Oil was found in the same basin from the 1890s, and the pumpjacks on the low hills west of town sit on some of the largest fields in the lower 48. Winter tule fog and hundred-degree summer heat are both routine on this stretch of the valley floor.
Cities near Bakersfield
Related pages: Fresno, Stockton, Los Angeles, Long Beach and Riverside. The US map with cities shows the valley chain end to end.