Bay area
| The Bay Area | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nine-county region | ||||
|
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 San Francisco Bay Area within California |
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| Country | United States | |||
| State | California | |||
| Major cities | ||||
| Area | ||||
| • Metro | 6,712 sq mi (17,384 km2) | |||
| Highest elevation at Mount Hamilton |
4,360 ft (1,330 m) | |||
| Lowest elevation at Alviso |
-10 ft (−3 m) | |||
| Population (July 1, 2015) | ||||
| • Nine-county region | 7.65 million | |||
| • Density | 933/sq mi (360/km2) | |||
| • CSA | 8.71 million | |||
| • CSA density | 860/sq mi (330/km2) | |||
| Time zone | Pacific (UTC−8) | |||
| • Summer (DST) | PDT (UTC−7) | |||
The San Francisco Bay Area (referred to locally as the Bay Area) is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses the major cities and metropolitan areas of San Jose, San Francisco, and Oakland, along with smaller urban and rural areas. The Bay Area's nine counties are Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma. Home to approximately 7.65 million people, the nine-county Bay Area contains many cities, towns, airports, and associated regional, state, and national parks, connected by a network of roads, highways, railroads, bridges, tunnels and commuter rail. The combined statistical area of the region is the second-largest in California (after the Greater Los Angeles area), the fifth-largest in the United States, and the 43rd-largest urban area in the world.
The United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) does not use the nine-county definition of the Bay Area. The OMB has designated a more extensive 12-county Combined Statistical Area (CSA) titled the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area which also includes the three counties of San Joaquin, Santa Cruz, and San Benito that do not border the San Francisco or San Pablo Bays, but are economically tied to the nine counties that do. The southernmost portion of Sacramento County has direct access to Suisun Bay, which lies immediately to the east of San Pablo Bay, but is not counted as one of the counties of the Bay Area.
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