San Jose, California San Jose, California San Jose (; Spanish for 'Saint Joseph'; ), officially the City of San José, is an economic, cultural and political center of Silicon Valley, and the largest city in Northern California (both in population and area). With an estimated 2017 population of 1,035,317, it is the third-most populous city in California (after Los Angeles and San Diego) and the tenth-most populous in United States. Located in the center of the Santa Clara Valley, on the southern shore of San Francisco Bay, San Jose covers an area of . San Jose is the county seat of Santa Clara
San Jose, California "City of San Jose". Similarly, the city's website appears to use a mixture of both; for example, the "City of San José" in the text uses the mark but the "City of San Jose" logo image does not. San Jose's position in Silicon Valley triggered further economic and population growth. Results from the 1990 U.S. Census indicated that San Jose surpassed San Francisco as the most populous city in the Bay Area for the first time. This growth led to the highest housing-cost increase in the nation, 936% between 1976 and 2001. Efforts to increase density continued into the 1990s