San Mateo County, California
(
Official Website
)
San Mateo County officially the County of San Mateo, is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 764,442. Redwood City is the county seat, 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, and is part of the San Francisco Bay Area, the nine counties bordering San Francisco Bay. 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, Falls Church, Virginia, and Santa Clara County, California.
The county covers most of the San Francisco Peninsula. The county is predominantly suburban and is home to many corporate campuses.
History
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 language 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
Geography
Features
Año Nuevo State Marine Conservation Area and Greyhound Rock State Marine Conservation Area are two adjoining marine protected areas off the coast of San Mateo County. Like underwater parks, these marine protected areas help conserve ocean wildlife and marine ecosystems.
Flora and fauna
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 was responsible for the 1904 sighting, west of the university campus.
Puma concolor ( Puma concolor), also known as cougars or mountain lions, roam the county.
Tule elk ( 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 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 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.
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.
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:
There were 258,648 households, out of which 30% had children under the age of 18, 48.6% were Marriage 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 for the county was $36,045. About 6.42% of families and 9.51% of the population were below the poverty line, including 10.01% of those under age 18 and 8.52% of those age 65 or over.
In the California State Assembly, San Mateo County is split between three legislative districts:
In the California State Senate, San Mateo is split between the 11th and 13th districts, represented by and , respectively.
On November 4, 2008, San Mateo County voted 61.8% against Proposition 8, which amended the California Constitution to ban same-sex marriages.
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, Manhattan, and Santa Clara.
Additionally, San Mateo County hosts the headquarters of Visa Inc, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Electronic Arts, YouTube, Genentech, GoPro, and Gilead Sciences, 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 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 via exploration of forest, pond, garden, tidepool, wetland, and sandy shore . The center's mascot is the banana slug, a large yellow gastropod. The school uses songs from the famous Banana Slug String Band.
BART (BART) trains serve San Francisco International Airport (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.
The only direct connection between Caltrain and BART is at Millbrae station.
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).
San Mateo County owns two general aviation airports: Half Moon Bay Airport and San Carlos Airport.
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) 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.
† county seat
National protected areas
Marine protected area
County parks
+San Mateo County Parks
State parks
State beaches
Demographics
2020 census
+ San Mateo County, California – Racial and ethnic composition
!Race / Ethnicity ( NH = Non-Hispanic)
!Pop 1980
!Pop 1990
!Pop 2000
!Pop 2010
!style="background-color: #ffffb3;"Pop 2020
!% 1980
!% 1990
!% 2000
!% 2010
!style="background-color: #ffffb3;" % 2020 White alone (NH) 415,984 392,131 352,355 303,609 36.09% Black or African American alone (NH) 34,730 34,000 23,778 18,763 1.92% Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH) 2,481 2,349 1,546 1,125 0.13% Asian Americans alone (NH) 56,305 105,559 140,313 175,934 29.80% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH) x included in the Asian category in the 1980 Census x included in the Asian category in the 1990 Census 9,112 9,884 1.16% Other race alone (NH) 4,490 957 2,217 2,709 0.76% Mixed race or Multiracial (NH) x not an option in the 1980 Census x not an option in the 1990 Census 23,132 23,925 5.10% Hispanic or Latino (any race) 73,339 114,627 154,708 182,502 25.04% Total 587,329 649,623 707,161 718,451 100.00%
2012
2011
Places by population, race, and income
5.1% 12.2% 25.1% 22.5% 11.9% 40.0% 24.2% 62.1% 9.3% 4.6% 6.4% 29.8% 5.9% 2.1% 3.7% 6.9% 0.0% 18.1% 13.7% 11.2% 27.2% 74.3% 17.1% 48.6% 6.2% 37.3% 28.0% 9.0% 25.0% 33.7% 5.6% 6.6% $250,001 $130,208 $104,798 $113,491 $109,592 $84,605 $83,722 $49,974 $168,015 $176,250 $131,421 $120,357 $174,464 $240,568 $225,375 $161,250 Data unavailable $156,473 $101,710 $141,224 $134,491 $50,480 $105,198 $143,413 $246,111 $88,525 $83,432 $156,085 $107,023 $84,027 $183,355 $243,563
2010
718,451 - 100.0% 680,241 - 94.7% 535,949 - 74.6% 303,609 - 42.3% 18,763 - 2.6% 1,125 - 0.2% 175,934 - 24.5% 9,884 - 1.4% 2,709 - 0.4% 23,925 - 3.3% 182,502 - 25.4% Hispanic
or Latino
(of any race) San Mateo County 182,502 Hispanic
or Latino
(of any race)Atherton 268 Belmont 2,977 Brisbane 712 Burlingame 3,966 Colma 708 Daly City 23,929 East Palo Alto 18,147 Foster City 1,995 Half Moon Bay 3,563 Hillsborough 373 Menlo Park 5,902 Millbrae 2,555 Pacifica 6,243 Portola Valley 175 Redwood City 29,810 San Bruno 12,016 San Carlos 2,855 San Mateo 25,815 South San Francisco 21,645 Woodside 243 Hispanic
or Latino
(of any race)Broadmoor 981 El Granada 813 Emerald Lake Hills 288 Highlands-Baywood Park 306 Ladera 69 La Honda 33 Loma Mar 12 Montara 324 Moss Beach 903 North Fair Oaks 10,731 Pescadero 402 West Menlo Park 201 Hispanic
or Latino
(of any race)All others not CDPs (combined) 3,542
2000
Government
The other county elected officials are:
San Mateo County is split between California's 15th and 16th congressional districts, represented by and , respectively.
+
!Elected Office
!Name Assessor–County Clerk–Recorder Mark Church Controller Juan Raizoga Coroner Robert Foucrault District Attorney Stephen M. Wagstaffe Sheriff Christina Corpus Treasurer–Tax Collector Sandie Arnott
Politics
Presidential election results and voter registration
Cities by population and voter registration
+ Cities by population and voter registration
! City
! data-sort-type="number" Population
! data-sort-type="number" Registered voters
! data-sort-type="number"Democratic
! data-sort-type="number" Republican
! data-sort-type="number" D–R spread
! data-sort-type="number" Other
! data-sort-type="number" No party preference 30.3% 31.6% 32.4% 31.3% 29.8% 35.3% 32.1% 36.2% 28.4% 32.3% 29.4% 35.7% 28.6% 27.5% 30.5% 30.7% 28.9% 30.5% 32.1% 28.5%
Overview
Crime
Cities by population and crime rates
17.56 15.46 32.46 14.54 24.03 156.66 17.45 20.41 11.05 7.78 19.11 15.19 22.94 22.88 18.89 20.32
Economy
Education
K-12 school districts
Private schools
Higher education
Transportation
Major highways
Public transportation
Rail
Bus
Airports
Marine transport
Notable structures
Communities
Cities
Towns
Census-designated places
Unincorporated communities
Population ranking
1 San Mateo City 105,661 2 Daly City City 104,901 3 † Redwood City City 84,292 4 South San Francisco City 66,105 5 San Bruno City 43,908 6 Pacifica City 38,640 7 Foster City City 33,805 8 Menlo Park City 33,780 9 Burlingame City 31,386 10 San Carlos City 30,722 11 East Palo Alto City 30,034 12 Belmont City 28,335 13 Millbrae City 23,216 14 North Fair Oaks CDP 14,027 15 Half Moon Bay City 11,795 16 Hillsborough Town 11,387 17 Atherton Town 7,188 18 El Granada CDP 5,481 19 Woodside Town 5,309 20 Brisbane City 4,851 21 Portola Valley Town 4,456 22 Broadmoor CDP 4,411 23 Emerald Lake Hills CDP 4,406 24 Highlands-Baywood Park CDP 4,027 25 West Menlo Park CDP 3,930 26 Moss Beach CDP 3,214 27 Montara CDP 2,833 28 Ladera CDP 1,557 29 Colma Town 1,507 30 La Honda CDP 979 31 Pescadero CDP 595 32 Loma Mar CDP 134
See also
Notes
External links
|
|
