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 63,123 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: 16.53% 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.

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.

For the size of the city, public transportation in South San Francisco is quite heavily used. Mostly, people who use it for their daily commute are taking the bus. For South San Francisco, the benefits are reduced air pollution and congestion on the highways.

The citizens of South San Francisco are among the most well-educated in the nation: 40.14% of adults in South San Francisco have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree, whereas the average US city has 21.84% holding at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in South San Francisco in 2022 was $61,431, which is upper middle income relative to California, and wealthy relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $245,724 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 30.78% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in South San Francisco include Irish, Italian, English, German, and French.

Foreign born people are also an important part of South San Francisco's cultural character, accounting for 40.20% 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.