San Jose Map
San Jose fills the flat floor of the Santa Clara Valley at the southern tip of San Francisco Bay, and its roughly 997,000 residents in 2024 make it the Bay Area's largest.
Where is San Jose?
San Jose is in west-central California, about 50 miles southeast of San Francisco at the closed end of the bay. Hills rise on both sides — the Santa Cruz Mountains to the west, the Diablo Range to the east — and the valley floor between them is where the city sits. Oakland is roughly 40 miles north around the bay, and Fresno about 150 miles southeast over the Pacheco Pass.
San Jose at a glance
| State | California |
| County | Santa Clara County |
| Population | 997,368 (2024 Census estimate) |
| Rank among US cities | No. 12 of the 100 largest |
| Time zone | Pacific Time |
| Region | West (Pacific division) |
San Jose sits at No. 12 in the 2024 estimates, 10,738 people behind Fort Worth and 3,780 ahead of Austin. Within California it comes third of fifteen, behind Los Angeles and San Diego. Against California's 39.43 million residents, though, that is only about 2.5%. It holds about 52% of Santa Clara County's 1,926,325 residents.
San Jose in California
San Jose is the seat of Santa Clara County, and unlike San Francisco it had room to annex: the city covers far more ground than either of its northern neighbors. The California county map shows the three bayside counties that make up the core of the region. Sacramento, about 120 miles northeast, is the nearest large inland city. More at the California state page.
A valley floor and two mountain walls
The Santa Clara Valley is a structural trough between two fault-bounded ranges, and the San Andreas Fault runs along its western edge through the Santa Cruz Mountains. Before the valley was built over it was orchard country, watered by creeks draining out of both ranges into the southern arm of the bay; heavy groundwater pumping in the twentieth century sank parts of the valley floor to below sea level, which is why levees now protect the bay shore. Over the western ridge the land drops straight to the Pacific at Santa Cruz.
Cities near San Jose
Around the bay lie San Francisco, Oakland and Stockton; south and east are Fresno and Sacramento. The Pacific division page covers the coastal states together.