San Mateo County ( ), officially the County of San Mateo, is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

located in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 764,442. Redwood City is the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

, the third-most populated city in the county after Daly City and San Mateo. San Mateo County is included in the San Francisco–Oakland–Berkeley, CA MSA ( metropolitan statistical area),

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

, and is part of the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

, the nine counties bordering

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...

. As of 2020, it has a median household income of $128,091, the fourth-highest household income of any county in the nation behind

Loudoun County, Virginia Loudoun County () is in the northern part of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. In 2020, the census returned a population of 420,959, making it Virginia's third-most populous county. The county seat is Leesburg. Loudoun County ...

Falls Church, Virginia Falls Church City is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 14,658. Falls Church is ...

, and

Santa Clara County, California Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring Sa ...

. The county covers most of the San Francisco Peninsula. The county is predominantly suburban and is home to many corporate campuses.

History

San Mateo County was formed in 1856 upon the division of San Francisco County, one of the state's 18 original counties established at California statehood in 1850. Until 1856,

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

's city limits extended west to Divisadero Street and Castro Street, and south to 20th Street. In 1856, the California state government divided the county. A straight line was then drawn across the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula just north of

San Bruno Mountain San Bruno Mountain is a fault block, fault-block Horst (geology), horst in northern San Mateo County, California. Rising to a quarter-mile high peak directly out of San Francisco Bay, it also includes a smaller ridge in San Francisco. Viewed f ...

. Everything south of the line became the new San Mateo County while everything north of the line became the new consolidated City and County of San Francisco. San Mateo County was officially organized on April 18, 1857, under a bill introduced by Senator T.G. Phelps. The 1857 bill defined the southern boundary of San Mateo County as following the south branch of San Francisquito Creek to its source in the

Santa Cruz Mountains The Santa Cruz Mountains ( Mutsun Ohlone: Mak-sah-re-jah, "Sharp Ridged Mountain of the Eagle" or "People of the Eagle Mountain") are a mountain range in central and Northern California, United States, constituting a part of the Pacific Coast R ...

and thence due west to the Pacific Ocean, and named Redwood City as the county seat. San Mateo County then annexed part of northern Santa Cruz County in March 1868, including Pescadero and Pigeon Point. Although the formation bill named Redwood City the county seat, a May 1856 election marked by "unblushing frauds perpetuated on an unorganized and wholly unprotected community by thugs and ballot stuffers from San Francisco" named Belmont the county seat.Alexander & Hamm (1916), p. 24. The election results were declared illegal and the county government was moved to Redwood City, with land being donated from the original Pulgas Grant for the county government on February 27, 1858. Redwood City's status as county seat was upheld in two successive elections in May 1861 and December 9, 1873, defeating San Mateo and Belmont. Another election in May 1874 named San Mateo the county seat, but the state supreme court overturned that election on February 24, 1875, and the county seat has remained at Redwood City ever since. San Mateo County bears the Spanish name for Saint Matthew. As a place name, San Mateo appears as early as 1776 in the diaries of Anza and Font. Several local geographic features were also designated San Mateo on early maps including variously: a settlement, an arroyo, a headland jutting into the Pacific ( Point Montara), and a large land holding ( Rancho San Mateo). Until about 1850, the name appeared as ''San Matheo''.

Japanese Americans in San Mateo

The Japanese first arrived in San Mateo County and were part of a group guided by Ambassador Tomomi Iwakura in 1872. A number of male Japanese students came to San Mateo to learn English and many other helpful skills to bring back to Japan. These students were also some of the first Japanese to join American students in the Belmont School for Boys. These students had to work for their housing and food before classes and in the evenings. Many of the first Japanese immigrants were able to find jobs as gardeners and landscapers in San Mateo. Most of them had a good educational background from their homelands, but their lack of knowledge of the English language made it difficult for them to find other jobs in the beginning.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (40%) is water. It is the third-smallest county in California by land area. A number of bayside watercourses drain the eastern part of the county including San Bruno Creek and Colma Creek. Streams draining the western county include Frenchmans Creek, Pilarcitos Creek, Naples Creek, Arroyo de en Medio, and Denniston Creek. These streams originate along the northern spur of the

that run through the county. The northern and eastern parts of the county are very heavy densely populated with largely urban and suburban areas, with many of its cities as edge-cities for the Bay Area, while the deep south and the west-central parts of the county are less densely populated with more rural environment and coastal beaches areas. Portola Redwoods State Park in March 2020

Portola Redwoods State Park in March 2020

Features

San Mateo County straddles the San Francisco Peninsula, with the

running its entire length. The county encompasses a variety of habitats, including estuarine, marine, oak woodland, redwood forest, coastal scrub and oak savannah. There are numerous species of

wildlife Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animals and uncultivated plant species which can exist in their natural habitat, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introdu ...

present, especially along the

estuarine shoreline,

, Fitzgerald Marine Reserve and the forests on the Montara Mountain block. Several creeks discharge to the San Francisco Bay, including San Mateo Creek and Laurel Creek, and several coastal streams discharge to the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

, such as Frenchmans Creek and San Vicente Creek. Año Nuevo State Marine Conservation Area and Greyhound Rock State Marine Conservation Area are two adjoining

marine protected area A marine protected area (MPA) is a protected area of the world's seas, oceans, estuaries or in the US, the Great Lakes. These marine areas can come in many forms ranging from wildlife refuges to research facilities. MPAs restrict human activity ...

s off the coast of San Mateo County. Like underwater parks, these marine protected areas help conserve ocean wildlife and marine ecosystems.

Flora and fauna

The county is home to several

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

including the San Francisco garter snake and the San Bruno elfin butterfly, both of which are endemic to San Mateo County. The endangered Ridgway's Rail is also found on the shores of San Francisco Bay, in the cities of Belmont and San Mateo. The endangered wildflower Hickman's potentilla is found near the Pacific Ocean on the lower slopes of Montara Mountain. The endangered wildflowers White-rayed pentachaeta, '' Pentachaeta bellidiflora'', San Mateo Woolly Sunflower, '' Eriophyllum latilobum'', Marin Dwarf Flax, '' Hesperolinon congestum'' and the San Mateo Thornmint, '' Acanthomintha duttonii'', are found in the vicinity of the Crystal Springs Reservoir. In May 2014, a California condor was spotted near Pescadero, a coastal community south of San Francisco—it was the first California condor spotted in San Mateo County since 1904. The condor, tagged with the number "597", and also known as "Lupine", is one of 439 condors living in the wild or captivity in California, Baja California and Arizona. The three-year-old female flew more than north from Pinnacles National Park, in San Benito County, on May 30, and landed on a private, forested property near Pescadero, on the San Mateo County Coast, where it was photographed by a motion-activated wildlife camera. Harold Heath, professor emeritus, of

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

was responsible for the 1904 sighting, west of the university campus. Pumas (''Puma concolor''), also known as cougars or mountain lions, roam the county.

Tule elk The tule elk (''Cervus canadensis nannodes'') is a subspecies of elk found only in California, ranging from the grasslands and marshlands of the Central Valley to the grassy hills on the coast. The subspecies name derives from the tule (), ...

(''Cervus canadensis nannodes'') were native to San Mateo County and among the "favored foods" of the Ohlone people based on ethnohistoric and archeological evidence there. The discovery of two elk specimens made news in 1962, one a royal elk (royal elk bulls have six tines per antler) from a peat bog excavated in Pacifica's historic Laguna Alta, and now in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology collection. These may date from the time of Spanish settlement. Laguna Alta lay just south of the Interstate 280 and Skyline Boulevard intersection, east of Mussel Rock. The

California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, that is among the largest List of natural history museums, museums of natural history in the world, housing over ...

also has an elk skull fragment collected one mile inland from the mouth of Purisima Creek in 1951. Additional coastal elk remains dating from the Middle and Late Periods in Northern California were found in at least five more late

Holocene The Holocene () is the current geologic time scale, geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene to ...

archeological sites in San Mateo County: SMA-115 ( Montara State Beach site), SMA-118 ( Bean Hollow State Beach site), SMA-244 ( Butano Ridge site), SMA-97 ( Año Nuevo Creek site) and SMA-218 (Año Nuevo State Reserve site). On the eastern side of the San Francisco Peninsula, elk remains were also unearthed at multiple archaeological sites along San Francisquito Creek.

National protected areas

* Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge (part) *

Golden Gate National Recreation Area The Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) is a U.S. National Recreation Area protecting of ecologically and historically significant landscapes surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area. Much of the park is land formerly used by the Unite ...

(part)

Marine protected area

* Montara State Marine Reserve & Pillar Point State Marine Conservation Area

County parks

The County of San Mateo Parks Department operates 22 parks, trails, and historic sites spread throughout the county; the first, Memorial Park, was dedicated on July 4, 1924. The County Superintendent of Schools, Roy Cloud, had visited a one-room schoolhouse in Harrison Canyon as part of his duties; at the time, it was thickly forested with old-growth redwoods and he was alarmed when he learned they were scheduled to be logged. He petitioned the County Board of Supervisors to purchase the land instead. The Recreation Commission was not created until 1932, and the park was improved as part of the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...

efforts starting in 1935. ;Notes Prior to the rebuilding of the San Mateo Bridge that began in 1996, the county had also operated Werder Pier for fishermen; it had been the western segment of the original 1929

vertical-lift bridge A vertical-lift bridge or just lift bridge is a type of movable bridge in which a span rises vertically while remaining parallel with the deck. The vertical lift offers several benefits over other movable bridges such as the bascule and swi ...

. In addition to the county-operated parks, San Mateo County voters created the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District in 1972, administered by the Peninsula Open Space Trust, which owns several protected spaces within San Mateo County (as well as within Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties). San Mateo County protected spaces administered by POST include: * Coal Creek Open Space Preserve * El Corte de Madera Creek * La Honda Creek Open Space Preserve * Long Ridge Open Space Preserve (partially within Santa Clara County) * Los Trancos Open Space Preserve (partially within Santa Clara County) * Pulgas Ridge Open Space Preserve * Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve * Ravenswood Open Space Preserve * Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve * Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve * Teague Hill Open Space Preserve * Thornewood Open Space Preserve * Windy Hill Open Space Preserve

State parks

* Año Nuevo State Park * Butano State Park * Castle Rock State Park * Heritage Grove * Portola Redwoods State Park * Quarry Park * Burleigh H. Murray Ranch * Pigeon Point Light Station Historic State Park * Point Montara Light Station State Park * San Bruno Mountain State Park

State beaches

* Año Nuevo State Reserve * Bean Hollow State Beach * Big Basin State Beach * Gray Whale Cove State Beach * Half Moon Bay State Beach * Montara State Beach * Pacifica State Beach * Pebble Beach * Pescadero State Beach * Pomponio State Beach * San Gregorio State Beach * Thornton State Beach

Demographics

2020 census

2012

As of 2012, San Mateo County had one of the largest Tongan communities outside of

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

, with an estimated 13,000 Tongan Americans.

2011

Places by population, race, and income

2010

The 2010 United States census reported that San Mateo County had a population of 718,451. The racial makeup of San Mateo County was 383,535 (53.4%)

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 20,436 (2.8%)

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 3,306 (0.5%) Native American, 178,118 (24.8%) Asian (9.8% Filipino, 9.0% Chinese, 1.9% Indian, 1.2% Japanese, 0.8% Korean, 0.5% Vietnamese, 0.3% Burmese, 0.1% Pakistani), 10,317 (1.4%)

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

(0.6% Tongan, 0.3% Samoan, 0.2% Fijian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian), 84,529 (11.8%) from other races, and 38,210 (5.3%) from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 182,502 persons (25.4%); 15.7% of San Mateo County is Mexican, 2.7% Salvadoran, 1.2% Guatemalan, 1.2% Nicaraguan, 0.7% Peruvian, 0.6% Puerto Rican, 0.2% Colombian, and 0.2% Cuban.

2000

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2009, there were 714,936 people, 258,648 households, and 174,582 families residing in the county. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 284,471 housing units at an average density of . 7.4% were of

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

, 7.1% Irish, 7.0% German and 5.3% English ancestry according to Census 2000. 46.9% spoke English, 28.4% Spanish, 6.2% Tagalog, 4.0% Chinese or

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

and 1.1%

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

, and other language 4.2%, as their first language from estimate census 2009. There were 258,648 households, out of which 30% had children under the age of 18, 48.6% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 14.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.7% were non-families. 31.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.79 and the average family size was 4.44. In the county, the population was spread out, with 28.6% under the age of 18, 15.9% from 18 to 24, 25.8% from 25 to 44, 21% from 45 to 64, and 9.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females there were 97.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.1 males. The median income for a household in the county was $69,306, and the median income for a family was $77,737. Males had a median income of $48,342 versus $45,383 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the county was $36,045. About 6.42% of families and 9.51% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 10.01% of those under age 18 and 8.52% of those age 65 or over.

Government

San Mateo County has a five-member Board of Supervisors, representing five geographic districts. The Board of Supervisors were formerly elected

at-large At large (''before a noun'': at-large) is a description for members of a governing body who are elected or appointed to represent a whole membership or population (notably a city, county, state, province, nation, club or association), rather tha ...

(by voters across the entire county) until November 2012. On November 6, 2012, Measure B passed to amend the San Mateo County Charter so that each member of the Board of Supervisors would be elected by voters in his or her district. * District 1 is represented by Dave Pine. * District 2 is represented by Noelia Corzo. * District 3 is represented by Ray Mueller. * District 4 is represented by Warren Slocum. * District 5 is represented by David Canepa. The other county elected officials are: San Mateo County is split between California's 15th and 16th congressional districts, represented by and , respectively. In the

California State Assembly The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature (the upper house being the California State Senate). The Assembly convenes, along with the State Senate, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento, Califor ...

, San Mateo County is split between three legislative districts: * , * , and * . In the

California State Senate The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature (the lower house being the California State Assembly). The state senate convenes, along with the state assembly, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. ...

, San Mateo is split between the 11th and 13th districts, represented by and , respectively.

Politics

Presidential election results and voter registration

Cities by population and voter registration

Overview

The California Secretary of State, as of February 2019, reports that San Mateo County has 404,958 registered voters. Of those voters, 202,341 (50%) are registered Democratic, 60,045 (14.3%) are registered Republican, 15,834 (3.9%) are registered with other political parties, and 126,738 (31.3%) declined to state a political party preference. Every city, town, and unincorporated area of San Mateo County has more registered Democrats than Republicans. On November 4, 2008, San Mateo County voted 61.8% against

Proposition 8 Proposition 8, known informally as Prop 8, was a California ballot proposition and a state constitutional amendment intended to ban same-sex marriage. It passed in the November 2008 California state elections and was later overturned by the ...

, which amended the California Constitution to ban same-sex marriages.

Crime

The following table includes the number of incidents reported and the rate per 1,000 persons for each type of offense.

Cities by population and crime rates

Economy

A July 2013 ''Wall Street Journal'' article identified the

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

initial public offering (IPO) as the cause of a change in the U.S.' national economic statistics, as San Mateo County—the home of the company—became the top wage-earning county in the country after the fourth quarter of 2012. The article revealed that the

Bureau of Labor Statistics The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a unit of the United States Department of Labor. It is the principal fact-finding agency for the government of the United States, U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics, labor economics and ...

reported that the average weekly wage in the county was $3,240, which is 107% higher than the previous year: "That's the equivalent of $168,000 a year, and more than 50% higher than the next highest county, New York County (better known as Manhattan), which came in at $2,107 a week, or roughly $110,000 a year." As of the fourth quarter of 2021, the median value of homes in San Mateo County was $1,247,070, an increase of 11% from the prior year. It ranked fourth in the U.S. for counties with highest median home value, behind

Nantucket Nantucket () is an island in the state of Massachusetts in the United States, about south of the Cape Cod peninsula. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck Island, Tuckernuck and Muskeget Island, Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and Co ...

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, and Santa Clara. Additionally, San Mateo County hosts the headquarters of

Visa Inc Visa Inc. () is an American multinational payment card services corporation headquartered in San Francisco, California. It facilitates electronic funds transfers throughout the world, most commonly through Visa-branded credit cards, debit c ...

Sony Interactive Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE) is an American video game and digital entertainment company that is a major subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Sony, Sony Group Corporation. It primarily operates the PlayStation brand of video game co ...

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

Genentech Genentech, Inc. is an American biotechnology corporation headquartered in South San Francisco, California. It operates as an independent subsidiary of holding company Roche. Genentech Research and Early Development operates as an independent cent ...

GoPro GoPro, Inc. (marketed as GoPro and sometimes stylized as GoPRO) is an American technology company founded in 2002 by Nick Woodman. It manufactures action cameras and develops its own mobile apps and video editing software, video-editing software ...

, and

Gilead Sciences Gilead Sciences, Inc. () is an American biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Foster City, California, that focuses on researching and developing antiviral drugs used in the treatment of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, influenza, and CO ...

, as well as a hub of venture capital firms in Menlo Park and several other technology-related companies. In 2016, Peninsula Clean Energy began providing electricity to 20 percent of residential customers, all municipalities, and all small- to mid-size businesses in the county, as a Community Choice Aggregation program, an alternative to

Pacific Gas and Electric The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is an American investor-owned utility (IOU). The company is headquartered at Kaiser Center, in Oakland, California. PG&E provides natural gas and electricity to 5.2 million households in the norther ...

Education

The people of San Mateo County may use the services of San Mateo County Libraries along with the

Peninsula Library System The Peninsula Library System (PLS) is a consortium of public and community college libraries in San Mateo County, California, San Mateo County, California, United States, which serves the part of the San Francisco Bay Area known as "San Francisco ...

and its dozens of branches, bookmobile and Library-a-Go-Go machine at the Millbrae BART/Caltrain station. The county is divided into several public school districts and is also served by the local Catholic diocese and many other private parochial and secular schools. The San Mateo County Board of Education oversees early education, special education, and the court and community schools program in the county, as well as serves as an appeal board for the adjudication of expulsion appeals, interdistrict attendance appeals, and charter schools. Some students in San Mateo County's public schools attend outdoor education in La Honda. San Mateo Outdoor Education is a residential school that teaches major concepts of

ecology Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...

via exploration of forest, pond, garden, tidepool,

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

, and sandy shore

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

s. The center's mascot is the banana slug, a large yellow

gastropod Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and fro ...

. The school uses songs from the famous Banana Slug String Band.

K-12 school districts

Private schools

Offering secondary (6–12) education: * Crystal Springs Uplands School (K–12) * Junípero Serra High School (9–12, M) * Menlo School (6–12) * Mercy High School (9–12, F) * Notre Dame High School (9–12, F) * The Nueva School (K–12) * Pacific Bay Christian School (K–12) *

Sacred Heart The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus () is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus Christ is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This devotion to Christ is p ...

(K–12) * Silicon Valley International (K–12) * Stanbridge Academy (K–12) * Woodside Priory School (6–12)

Higher education

There are three

community college A community college is a type of undergraduate higher education institution, generally leading to an associate degree, certificate, or diploma. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an open enr ...

s in San Mateo County, all of which belong to the San Mateo County Community College District: * Cañada College (Redwood City) * College of San Mateo (San Mateo) * Skyline College (San Bruno)

Transportation

Major highways

* Interstate 280 * Interstate 380 *

U.S. Route 101 U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a major north–south highway that traverses the states of California, Oregon, and Washington on the West Coast of the United States. It is part of the United States Numbered Highway Syst ...

( Bayshore Freeway) * California 1

State Route 1 * California 9

State Route 9 * California 35

State Route 35 (Skyline Boulevard) * California 82

State Route 82 ( El Camino Real) * California 84

State Route 84 (Woodside Road/Bayfront Expressway/ Dumbarton Bridge) * California 92

State Route 92 ( San Mateo Bridge) * California 109

State Route 109 * California 114

State Route 114 (Willow Road)

Public transportation

Rail

Caltrain Caltrain (reporting mark JPBX) is a commuter rail line in California, serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley (Silicon Valley). The southern terminus is in San Jose, California, San Jose at the Tamien station with weekday r ...

, the commuter rail system, connects ten cities in the county with San Francisco (to the north) and San Jose / Gilroy (to the south), running between the Highway 101 and El Camino Real corridors for most of the way. There are 13 stations in San Mateo County, of which 12 have daily service; the ten cities with stations stretch from

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

on the north to Menlo Park on the south. ;Caltrain stations in San Mateo County, from north to south: * Bayshore * South San Francisco * San Bruno * Millbrae * ''Broadway'' (weekends) * Burlingame * San Mateo * Hayward Park * Hillsdale * Belmont * San Carlos * Redwood City * Menlo Park

Bay Area Rapid Transit Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves 50 stations along six routes and of track, including eBART, a spur line running to Antioch, and Oakland Airport Connecto ...

(BART) trains serve

San Francisco International Airport San Francisco International Airport is the primary international airport for the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. Owned and operated by the City and County of San Francisco, the airport has a San Francisco mailing ...

(SFO) and the northern portion of the county, paralleling El Camino Real / Mission Boulevard at six stations between Daly City and Millbrae, including the station at SFO. ;BART stations in San Mateo County, from north to south: * Daly City * Colma * South San Francisco * San Bruno *

* Millbrae The only direct connection between Caltrain and BART is at Millbrae station.

Bus

SamTrans (San Mateo County Transit District) provides local bus service within San Mateo County with some routes connecting to the Palo Alto Transit Center in Santa Clara County and Salesforce Transit Center in San Francisco. Approximately of all SamTrans bus routes travel along El Camino Real, and route ECR, the primary bus route on El Camino, carries approximately 25% of SamTrans ridership. Each Caltrain and BART station has connections to SamTrans routes. In addition, Daly City station is served by SF Muni bus routes. There are many free shuttles that operate from Caltrain, BART, and Ferry stations along fixed routes to local employers during weekday commuting hours (6–10 am and 3–7 pm). Overnight rail service is substituted by All Nighter bus service, split between SamTrans routes 397 (replacing Caltrain between San Francisco and Palo Alto via SFO) and ECR Owl (replacing BART between Daly City and SFO).

Airports

is geographically located in San Mateo County, east of Highway 101 near San Bruno and Millbrae, but it is owned and operated by the City and County of

. San Mateo County owns two general aviation airports: Half Moon Bay Airport and San Carlos Airport.

Marine transport

The only deepwater port in South

is the Port of Redwood City, situated along Redwood Creek, originally created as a lumber embarcadero in 1850. The San Mateo Harbor Harbor District manages the Pillar Point Harbor (on the Pacific coast side) and Oyster Point Marina (on San Francisco Bay). The San Francisco Bay Ferry operates routes connecting the South San Francisco Ferry Terminal in Oyster Point to the Oakland Ferry Terminal in Jack London Square (

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

) and the Alameda Ferry Terminal in Alameda. A free shuttle is provided to connect ferry passengers to the South San Francisco Caltrain station, via several business parks on Oyster Point.

Notable structures

There are a number of well-known structures within San Mateo County: * Carolands Mansion, Hillsborough * Cow Palace, Daly City * Uplands Mansion, Hillsborough * Crystal Springs Reservoir, unincorporated central part of county * CuriOdyssey, San Mateo * Filoli Mansion, Woodside * The Flintstone House, Hillsborough * Notre Dame de Namur University, Belmont, which incorporates Ralston Hall * Pigeon Point Lighthouse, Pescadero * Point Montara Lighthouse, Montara * Pulgas Water Temple, Woodside * Sanchez Adobe, Pacifica * San Mateo County History Museum, Redwood City *

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, originally named the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Menlo Park, California, Menlo Park, Ca ...

, Menlo Park

Communities

Cities

* Belmont *

* Burlingame * Daly City * East Palo Alto * Foster City *

Half Moon Bay Half Moon Bay is a coastal city in San Mateo County, California, San Mateo County, California, United States, approximately south of San Francisco. Its population was 11,795 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Immediately north of Half Mo ...

* Menlo Park * Millbrae * Pacifica * Redwood City (county seat) * San Bruno * San Carlos * San Mateo * South San Francisco

Towns

* Atherton * Colma * Hillsborough * Portola Valley * Woodside

Census-designated places

* Broadmoor * El Granada * Emerald Lake Hills * Highlands-Baywood Park * Ladera * La Honda * Loma Mar * Montara * Moss Beach * North Fair Oaks * Pescadero * West Menlo Park

Unincorporated communities

*Burlingame Hills *Devonshire * Kings Mountain * Los Trancos Woods * Menlo Oaks *Palomar Park * Princeton-by-the-Sea * San Gregorio * Sky Londa

Population ranking

The population ranking of the following table is based on the 2020 United States census of San Mateo County. † ''county seat''

Notes

References

External links

*
Visitors Guide from the Visitors BureauSan Mateo County Library – 12 branches throughout the County and a bookmobilePeninsula Library System – serving all of San Mateo CountySuperior Court RecordsSamCERA (San Mateo County Employees' Retirement Association)Brisbane Baylands ProjectDiseño del Rancho Cañada de Guadalupe, la Visitacion y Rodeo Viejo : San Mateo Co., Ca
at the Bancroft Library {{Authority control California counties Counties in the San Francisco Bay Area 1856 establishments in California Populated places established in 1856 Majority-minority counties in California