San Diego, California

Current Weather

The 2000 Census showed that San Diego had a population of 1,223,400 people^<1>. This represents 3.6% of the total population of California, making it the state's 2nd most populous community.

The following table shows the recent changes in population. For the years after 2000, the population counts are estimated.

Below is a list of similarily sized communities (while rank is based on the 2000 Census, the population shown is estimated for 2008):

Rank in 2000	Community	Direction	Distance<2>	2008 Population	Change Since 2000
1	Los Angeles	NW	111 mi [178.6 km]	3,833,995	3.77% increase
-2-	San Diego			1,279,329	4.57% increase
3	San Jose	NW	407 mi [655 km]	948,279	5.96% increase
4	San Francisco	NW	470 mi [756 km]	808,976	4.15% increase
5	Long Beach	NW	89 mi [143.2 km]	463,789	0.49% increase
6	Fresno	NW	312 mi [502 km]	476,050	11.32% increase
7	Sacramento	NW	465 mi [748 km]	463,794	13.95% increase

San Diego had 469,689 Housing Units^<3> at the time of the 2000 Census.

The 2000 Census shows that San Diego has a total area of 372 square miles [963 km²]^<4>. Of this total, 324.3 square miles [840 km²]47.69 square miles [123.5 km²]).

Using the above population and land area values, San Diego had a 2000 population density of 3,771 people per square mile [1,456 people/km²], making it the state's 192nd most densely populated area.

San Diego County

The coastal city of San Diego is located in San Diego County and is the county seat.

The county had a population of 2,825,395 people at the 2000 Census. With it's population of 1,223,400 people, San Diego contained 43.3% of the San Diego County total.

In addition, where the community of San Diego has a population density of 3,771 people per square mile [1,456 people/km²], San Diego County averages 672 people per square mile [259.7 people/km²].

For more information, please visit our Census Page for San Diego County.

Population Rings

To help identify the number of people who live in San Diego and the surrounding area, we have drawn concentric rings centered on San Diego. We counted the number of communities within each ring and summed their populations.^<5>

US Census QuickFacts

The Census Bureau has created documents containing demographic information called QuickFacts. Although they don't create QuickFacts for all communities, they do have one for San Diego. Not only does the QuickFact have details about San Diego, it also contains a comparison between San Diego and the state of California.

Click here for the San Diego QuickFact (QF-0666000).

The following communities are nearby San Diego and also have Census QuickFacts:

	Community	Census QuickFact	Direction	Distance	2008 Population	Change Since 2000
	La Mesa	QF-0640004	SE	7 mi [11.27 km]	54,673	0.14% decrease
	Santee	QF-0670224	E	9 mi [14.48 km]	53,860	1.67% increase
	El Cajon	QF-0621712	E	10 mi [16.09 km]	92,718	2.27% decrease
	National City	QF-0650398	S	10 mi [16.09 km]	58,680	8.15% increase
	Poway	QF-0658520	NE	13 mi [20.92 km]	48,858	1.69% increase
	Chula Vista	QF-0613392	SE	14 mi [22.53 km]	219,318	26.37% increase
	Encinitas	QF-0622678	NW	17 mi [27.36 km]	60,372	4.06% increase
	Carlsbad	QF-0611194	NW	22 mi [35.41 km]	96,374	23.17% increase

For more about neighboring communities, please visit our Neighborhood Page for San Diego.

A Census Quickfact is available for San Diego County (QF-06073).

Below are QuickFacts for the counties that border San Diego County.

	County	Census QuickFact	Direction	2008 Population	Change Since 2000
	Imperial	QF-06025	E	163,972	15.14% increase
	Orange	QF-06059	NW	3,010,759	5.38% increase
	Riverside	QF-06065	N	2,100,516	34.71% increase

Miscellaneous Information

The Federal government has assigned identifying codes to each community, county and state. The following FIPS codes apply to San Diego:

San Diego is located in Census Region #4 (the West Region) and in Division #9 (the Pacific Division).

For more information about various Federal Codes, please visit our Misc. Page for San Diego.

The Commemorative Quarter for California<6>

Search for Local Businesses

Google's 'Search-by-Location' is a very useful tool for people who might be planning visits to this area. We have prepared the following searches to help you find businesses, travel and vacation activities that are in (or close to) San Diego. It's likely that the search results won't include all of the businesses that are in this area, but the results should give you a good foundation for further searches.

For what it's worth: In addition to helping you submit your own search, clicking 'Other...' will frequently (but not always) show you some popular searches for this area.

If you find an error or your business wasn't included in the results, please contact Google to help them resolve the issue (we simply link to 'Search-by-Location' and have no control over their results).

Other Roadside Stops

Off-the-Road Links

Footnotes