US Map / Cities / Fresno

Fresno Map

Fresno stands in the middle of the San Joaquin Valley, closer to the geographic center of California than any other large city, with about 550,000 residents in 2024.

Where is Fresno?

Fresno is in the central California interior, on flat valley floor with the Coast Ranges 60 miles west and the Sierra Nevada foothills 30 miles east. Nothing about the site is dramatic; the city is where it is because the railroad came through in 1872 and the land around it could be irrigated. It is about 110 miles north of Bakersfield, roughly 185 miles southeast of San Francisco, and some 220 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

Fresno at a glance

Another 3,908 residents would lift Fresno past Tucson into No. 33; 14,307 fewer would put it behind Sacramento at No. 35. Within California it comes fifth of fifteen, behind four others, from Los Angeles down to San Francisco. Against California's 39.43 million residents, though, that is only about 1.4%. It holds about 54% of Fresno County's 1,024,125 residents.

Fresno in California

Fresno County stretches from the valley floor up to the Sierra crest, and it is consistently among the highest-value farming counties in the country — the California county map shows how the valley counties are stacked in two rows on either side of the axis. Bakersfield holds the southern end of the same valley and Sacramento the northern end, while the coastal cities sit over the hills. The California state page lays out the state's four Californias.

Valley floor, Sierra front and three national parks

The San Joaquin Valley is the southern half of California's Central Valley, a flat alluvial trough filled with sediment washed off the mountains. Its rivers — the San Joaquin and the Kings — leave the Sierra Nevada just east of the city and are almost entirely diverted for irrigation before they get far. That mountain front puts Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia national parks all within a couple of hours of Fresno, so a great deal of park traffic passes through the city. Summer heat on the valley floor is intense and winter tule fog can sit over it for days.

Cities near Fresno

Up and down the valley: Bakersfield, Stockton, Sacramento, San Jose and Los Angeles. The US map with cities shows how many of the hundred largest are in California.