South San Francisco is a larger medium-sized coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of California. With a population of 63,484 people and 15 associated neighborhoods, South San Francisco is the 140th largest community in California.

South San Francisco home prices are not only among the most expensive in California, but South San Francisco real estate also consistently ranks among the most expensive in America.

Also of interest is that South San Francisco has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 12.91% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.

South San Francisco is also nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Such areas are often places that visitors and locals go for waterfront activities or taking in the scenery.

Although the majority of commuting trips in the city are by private automobile, South San Francisco is somewhat unusual for a city of its size for having a substantial number of people who use public transportation. For a lot of people, the bus helps to get to and from their jobs every morning, which benefits everyone in the South San Francisco area by reducing both traffic and air pollution.

The education level of South San Francisco citizens is very high relative to the national average among all cities (21.84%): 39.38% of adults in South San Francisco have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.

The per capita income in South San Francisco in 2018 was $58,031, which is upper middle income relative to California, and wealthy relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $232,124 for a family of four. However, South San Francisco contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

South San Francisco is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call South San Francisco home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of South San Francisco residents report their race to be Asian, followed by White. South San Francisco also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 29.15% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in South San Francisco include Irish, Italian, English, German, and European.

Foreign born people are also an important part of South San Francisco's cultural character, accounting for 38.90% of the city’s population.

The most common language spoken in South San Francisco is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Tagalog.