menu
Data on this report is based on areas within the legal city boundary, outlined in black on the map. Any additional neighborhoods shown on the map are associated with the city by name and are included for reference only.

South San Francisco, CA
Real Estate & Demographic Data






South San Francisco profile


Living in South San Francisco



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.

Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 12.91% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. 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.

One of the nice things about South San Francisco is that it is nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Because of this, visitors and locals will often go to these areas to take in the scenery or to enjoy waterfront activities.

Like elsewhere in America, most people in South San Francisco use a private automobile to get to work. But notably, a substantial number of South San Francisco‘s citizens do make use of public transit in their daily commute, primarily riding the bus. This helps more people get to work with less air pollution, and require fewer highways to get them there.

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.

South San Francisco also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 38.90%.

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