Largest Cities in California: Ranked by Population

The largest city in California in our data is Los Angeles, CA, with an estimated 12,750,807 people, followed by San Francisco, CA (3,592,294) and San Diego, CA (3,220,118). This list ranks the top 50 places among the 652 California communities with at least 5,000 residents.

What are the top 50 in California?

How big are the largest cities in California?

Of the 652 places with pages, 91 have more than 100,000 residents, 223 have between 25,000 and 100,000, and 338 have fewer than 25,000. The median place has about 23,628 people. The ten largest places account for about 48% of the combined population of all pages, which shows how spread out the state's population is across communities. Los Angeles County contributes 7 of the top 50.

Which counties do the top 50 belong to?

The 50 places on this list are spread across 21 counties of California. Los Angeles County has 7 (Los Angeles, Long Beach, Lancaster, Santa Clarita, Glendale, Palmdale, Pomona); Riverside County has 6 (Riverside, Murrieta, Indio, Moreno Valley, Hemet, Corona); Orange County has 6 (Mission Viejo, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Irvine, Huntington Beach, Garden Grove). Counties with several entries are usually centers of a metropolitan area, where one large city is surrounded by many suburbs that each pass the 5,000-resident threshold.

How does California compare with the rest of the country?

The median California place with a page has about 23,628 residents, compared with about 13,459 nationwide, so the state's typical community is larger than the national typical place. Los Angeles, CA ranks 2nd among all US places by estimated population in our data. The state has 1,470 communities in total, of which 652 reach 5,000 residents. See the national ranking of the largest cities for comparison.

Quick answers about California cities

• Which is the largest city in California? Los Angeles (12,750,807 people).
• How many California cities have more than 100,000 people? 91 in our data.
• How many have 25,000 to 100,000? 223.
• What is the typical size? About 23,628 residents for a place with a page.

How is this ranking made?

The data comes from the SimpleMaps US Cities Database, which gives each place an estimated population and a density in people per square kilometer. We convert density to people per square mile and rank the places with at least 5,000 residents. Boundaries matter: a city that includes large parks or farmland scores lower on density than a compact city of the same size, and population estimates can include areas that share a city's ZIP codes. Read why population figures differ and how density is calculated before you quote a number.

Where to go next

Rankings use dataset estimates, not official counts.