The
San Francisco Bay Area, also known as the
Bay Area, is a geographically diverse metropolitan region traditionally defined as the nine counties which surround the
San Francisco Bay in
Northern California. The region extends northward to
Healdsburg, about 145 miles (233 km) from
Gilroy near the Bay Area's southern extreme.
Antioch lies to the east, about 50 miles (80 km) from the
Pacific Ocean. Unlike a typical metropolitan area, the Bay Area contains several distinct urban and suburban centers.
San Francisco is the traditional financial and cultural center of the Bay Area, though
San Jose has since 1990 been the region's most populous
city.
Oakland is the region's third-largest population center.
The nine counties are frequently subdivided into several distinct groupings. The
North Bay includes the counties of
Marin,
Sonoma,
Napa, and
Solano; the
East Bay encompasses
Alameda and
Contra Costa counties; the
Peninsula refers to much of
San Mateo County; and
Silicon Valley, somewhat coterminous with the
South Bay, occupies
Santa Clara County. The City and County of San Francisco, referred to simply as
The City, is considered another region in its own right. The San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland
combined statistical area also includes
Santa Cruz and
San Benito County, with parts of
Mendocino,
Lake,
Yolo,
San Joaquin and
Monterey Counties sometimes also considered part of a greater San Francisco Bay Area.
The Bay Area is home to more than seven million people, features an economy with a thriving high technology sector, world-class universities, and one of the bigger ports on the West Coast. Military bases, airports, cultural institutions and various local and national parks are sprawled over the area and connected by a network of
highways, and
mass transit systems.
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