Oakland Map
Oakland faces San Francisco across the bay and handles the container traffic the older city could not — about 444,000 residents in 2024 on the flat land below the East Bay hills.
Where is Oakland?
Oakland is on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in California, about 12 miles from San Francisco across the water and joined to it by the Bay Bridge. San Jose is roughly 40 miles south around the foot of the bay, and Sacramento some 80 miles northeast through the Carquinez Strait gap.
Oakland at a glance
| State | California |
| County | Alameda County |
| Population | 443,554 (2024 Census estimate) |
| Rank among US cities | No. 45 of the 100 largest |
| Time zone | Pacific Time |
| Region | West (Pacific division) |
Oakland sits at No. 45 in the 2024 estimates, 7,347 people behind Long Beach and 14,975 ahead of Minneapolis. Within California it comes eighth of fifteen, behind seven others, from Los Angeles down to Long Beach. Against California's 39.43 million residents, though, that is only about 1.1%. It holds about 27% of Alameda County's 1,649,060 residents.
Oakland in California
Oakland is the seat of Alameda County, which also contains Berkeley, Fremont and Hayward and forms the populous core of the East Bay on the California county map. The Bay Area is split across nine counties and has no single dominant city: San Jose is the largest by population, San Francisco the densest, and Oakland the one with the working port and the rail yards. The California state page sets the region beside the rest of the state.
Hills, a fault and a container port
The Hayward Fault runs along the base of the East Bay hills and directly through the built-up part of the city — one of the most closely watched faults in the country. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake struck on the San Andreas some 60 miles south, and still brought down the Cypress Street viaduct in West Oakland and a section of the Bay Bridge, whose eastern span was rebuilt from scratch afterwards. Above the fault the hills climb to about 1,700 feet, high enough to catch fog and hold a stand of coast redwoods within the city limits. Below, the flats are largely filled bayshore, which is where the port was built: deep-water berths and container cranes on made ground, close to the transcontinental rail line that has ended at this side of the bay since 1869.
Cities near Oakland
Around the bay: San Francisco, San Jose, Stockton, Sacramento and Fresno. The Pacific coast page follows the shoreline north and south.