Santa Clara County

Santa Clara County, California
County
County of Santa Clara
Images, from top down, left to right: A view looking west across Silicon Valley, Lick Observatory, Winchester Mystery House, a view of Stanford University from across the Oval, El Toro Hill in Morgan Hill, an aerial view of Hangar One at Moffett Federal Airfield in 2012
Flag Seal
Location in the state of California
Coordinates: 37°22′N 121°58′W / 37.36°N 121.97°W / 37.36; -121.97Coordinates: 37°22′N 121°58′W / 37.36°N 121.97°W / 37.36; -121.97
Country	United States of America
State	California
Region	San Francisco Bay Area
Incorporated	February 18, 1850
Named for	Mission Santa Clara de Asís, St. Clare of Assisi
County seat	San Jose
Largest city	San Jose
Area
• Total	1,304 sq mi (3,380 km2)
• Land	1,290 sq mi (3,300 km2)
• Water	14 sq mi (40 km2)
Highest elevation	4,216 ft (1,285 m)
Population (April 1, 2010)
• Total	1,781,642
• Estimate (2015)	1,918,044
• Density	1,400/sq mi (530/km2)
Time zone	Pacific (UTC-8)
• Summer (DST)	Pacific Daylight Time (UTC-7)
Area codes	408/669, 650
FIPS code	06-085
GNIS feature ID	277307
Website	www.sccgov.org

Santa Clara County, California, officially the County of Santa Clara, is a county in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,781,642. The county seat is San Jose, the tenth-most populous city in the United States.

Santa Clara County is part of the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area. Located at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay, the highly urbanized Santa Clara Valley within Santa Clara County is also known as Silicon Valley. Santa Clara is the most populous county in the San Francisco Bay Area region, and one of the most affluent counties in the United States.

Santa Clara County is named after Mission Santa Clara, which was established in 1777, and is also named for Saint Clare of Assisi.

Santa Clara County was one of the original counties of California, formed in 1850 at the time of statehood. The original inhabitants included the Ohlone, residing on Coyote Creek and Calaveras Creek. Part of the county's territory was given to Alameda County in 1853.