Biggest Cities in California

Can you name the 20 most populous cities in California?

Source: 2023 Census Estimates

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Last updated: May 18, 2024

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First submitted	March 19, 2012
Times taken	124,053
Average score	55.0%
Rating	4.33

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Population	City
3,820,914	Los Angeles
1,388,320	San Diego
969,655	San Jose
808,988	San Francisco
545,716	Fresno
526,384	Sacramento
449,468	Long Beach
436,504	Oakland
413,381	Bakersfield
340,512	Anaheim
319,543	Stockton
318,858	Riverside
314,621	Irvine
310,539	Santa Ana
274,333	Chula Vista
226,208	Fremont
224,028	Santa Clarita
223,728	San Bernardino
218,915	Modesto
215,465	Fontana

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100 Recent Comments

Level 32

Apr 5, 2012

7 and I'm from California :( I'm ashamed.

Level 59

May 12, 2021

It's completely okay (つ≧▽≦)つ. You are not alone to not know a lot about where you live and there's nothing to be ashamed about it.

Level 48

Jul 19, 2021

I just realized that you are now 15 or 16.

+12

Level 38

Apr 12, 2022

they meant they got 7 i think

Level 20

Nov 13, 2012

This is tough if you're not from SoCal.

Level 81

Apr 13, 2013

No Richmond? Is that considered part of Oakland? Lived in or near a few of these towns myself... wonderful place to live, excluding Los Angeles, though LA has its own appeal to some.

Level 77

Jun 10, 2014

Are you kidding? Richmond is definitely not part of Oakland. Though both have rough reputations.

Level 81

Jul 21, 2014

Why would I be kidding? They're right next to each other without any clear distinction.

Level 65

Jul 17, 2023

City limits: Am I a joke to you?

Level 65

Oct 3, 2024

They're not even in the same county, and they don't share a border. (Berkeley and Albany are between them.)

Level 66

Jul 21, 2014

El Cerrito, Albany, Emeryville and Berkeley are all incorporated cities that lie between Richmond and Oakland. Few non-Bay Area residents and former residents may have heard of the first three, but Berkeley is hard to miss and is larger than Richmond.

Level 81

Jul 21, 2014

It's all one continuous urban area. I've heard of all of those places. I used to live in Richmond/San Pablo.

Level 75

Jul 15, 2022

Bit late to the game, but 'tis true. I've only heard of Emeryville because I'm a train buff and one of my life ambitions is to go on the California Zephyr.

Level 59

Apr 17, 2024

you can see the ocean from the ikea in emeryville

Level 57

Dec 14, 2019

I do agree after living in nearby Berkeley for a few years it is a wonderful place to live. In response to your question/comment Richmond isn't right next to Oakland and the population of Richmond is smaller than Berkeley around 110,000. Based off the numbers they didn't add Richmond or any of the others cities and towns in between it and Oakland, since Oakland has a population above 500,000.

Level 54

Jun 11, 2013

100%, and I've never been less than about 1000 miles away from it!

Level 13

Jun 11, 2013

i suck....i only got 5 but will not use that i am from east coast as an excuse

Level 16

Sep 1, 2013

Should except san bernadino

Level 92

Oct 22, 2013

This + 1.

Level 92

Jul 21, 2014

Forgot the r again!

Level 81

Jul 22, 2014

I consistently remember it now. Forgot it the first time I took this quiz.

Level ∞

May 26, 2016

Will work now sans r

Level 67

May 29, 2020

*accept

Level 79

Jan 29, 2021

'except' 😁

Level 55

May 6, 2014

17/20 and I cheated like the rest of you.

Level 75

Jul 7, 2014

Can't believe I missed San Jose. My daughter lived there for several years.

Level 43

Jul 14, 2014

I am 12 years old and live in Fremont. got 20/20

+21

Level 22

Jul 26, 2014

Because we asked you how old you were...

+16

Level 59

Jul 23, 2020

now you are 18 o_o

+12

Level 73

Sep 22, 2020

They grow up so fast...

Level 30

May 6, 2021

now he's 19

Level 62

May 2, 2022

Now 20

Level 70

Feb 28, 2024

Now 21 or 22

Level 12

Jul 20, 2014

I got all of them but Fontana and I'm surprised that Huntington Beach isn't one of them

Level 19

Jul 23, 2014

Ha! I got 20/20 with more than 3 minutes to spare!

Level 19

Jul 23, 2014

Plus, I live in LA.

Level 18

Jul 24, 2014

i got 20/20 and I live in Christchurch New Zealand

Level 36

Dec 21, 2014

That's sad.

Level 67

May 29, 2020

I assumed you meant something else but I realized that this comment is from 6 years ago.

Level 23

Dec 17, 2014

live in the UK and got 9/20. You guys that are from america and got less are just dumb.

Level 36

Dec 21, 2014

Dumb because they don't memorize the cities in California where developers are destroying everything to build malls, mini malls and suburbs. All these homes but not jobs or transit systems, infrastructure... So people spend hours in their cars trying to get to work where they can get a job, often 2 hours from home, then another 2 hours after 8 or 10 hours at work.... What a waste of mental energy. Most of these cities are no place you want to live, trust me. It's the ones that did not make the list where life is the most satisfying!

Level 81

Jan 31, 2019

Why should we trust you? California is beautiful and San Francisco is Mercer's #1 most livable city in the whole United States.

Level 27

Jun 7, 2019

I agree. I, as an American, realized this same thing when I started taking state quizzes and not getting many cities at all. Many American Jetpunkers, much like myself, focus almost exclusively on international geography and not much on national. Also, Kudos to you and everyone else from other countries who did well.

Level 27

Jun 7, 2019

BTW, I was replying to Dhian12's comment, not cyninoregon.

Level 75

Jul 5, 2020

Or many Americans like myself know the names of large cities but not the ones in their metropolitan areas which have grown large from the overflow population of the larger nearby cities.

Level 36

Dec 21, 2014

Lived there most of my life and was shocked to see how Oxnard grew larger than Pasadena! And Santa Clarita didn't make the list either. Maybe it all depends on if there is room for growth--farms to turn into suburbs? When you drive north on the 101, after Santa Maria, it's all suburbs to the Bay Area. But the growth does not compare to Chula Vista...weird. And nothing on the list north of San Francisco? I found the video on youtube that lists these. I am still surprised. And all those cities we hated to drive through because of the smog--they have beautiful photos...the Air Quality Management Board and the Clean Air Act have done amazing work!! Those cities were too brown to see through the haze when I was a child! Now they are sparkling clear...Riverside may look like it did when my grandparents settled there many decades ago. Oregon is as smoggy as they are! Great theme!

Level 58

Feb 2, 2015

18 and I am from south dakota

Level 21

Feb 17, 2015

20/20 and I'm from Illinois.

Level 48

Jun 14, 2024

oof

Level 21

Feb 16, 2015

100% on second try.

Level 28

Jun 4, 2015

Never been to America and I got 14! :-)

Level 61

Jul 30, 2015

Oh, wow, I didn't really Modesto had gotten so big.

Level 65

Mar 22, 2016

I'm from San Ffancisco, and San Francisco, San Diego, and Sacramento are the only cities on this quiz that I would ever want to go to.

Level 56

May 16, 2017

San Jose is fine too

Level 65

Jul 17, 2023

Is San Ffancisco nice though?

Level 28

May 9, 2016

I been to Los Angeles, but I missed Oakland and Santa Ana:(

Level 74

Jun 3, 2016

Got San Bernardino because of the shooting.

Level 75

Oct 6, 2016

For non-Californians like me, it's difficult to know which cities in the LA area are part of LA and which are considered separate cities. i had to take the quiz twice to get them all. I only got Modesto because of the movie, American Graffiti.

Level 66

Mar 25, 2022

I got Modesto from Monsters vs. Aliens lol

Level 37

Oct 6, 2016

Top eleven minus Bakersfield and got San Bernardino. Really want to go to California one day, been to New England but I would really like to explore America and the west coast. Sounds stupid but I'm bored of England :/

Level 81

Oct 6, 2016

Why would that sound stupid?

Level 47

Oct 6, 2016

Too UK Centric.

Level 83

Oct 6, 2016

I think you should give 2 more mins

Level 7

Oct 12, 2016

I got 20 out of 20 and I'm from San Antonio,TX. Very pleased with myself.

Level 82

Nov 4, 2016

Missed Santa Ana, Fremont and Fontana. Almost forgot Sacramento too, but realised I didn't have it yet at the last moment.

Level 66

Nov 11, 2017

Shouldn't Auckland be on here?

Level 32

Feb 15, 2018

I’m shook that there aren’t Redding and Santa Barbara on the list

Level 57

Feb 9, 2021

Redding isn’t that big compared to the rest of California. The only reason I’ve heard of it is because it is so much further away from things.

Level 65

Jul 17, 2023

Yes, it's called Baltimore Phenomenon!

Level 63

Mar 3, 2018

San Jose is the bane of my existence on this website

Level 4

May 28, 2018

I got 11 and I live in frickin' San Diego. Maybe I shouldn't have taken this quiz after doing countries of the world quiz for literally 2 hours...

Level 91

Aug 24, 2018

I haven't seen/been able to find anything that show Oxnard getting passed at 20th. The number you show for 20ths population is the 2015 estimate for Oxnard in fact.

****Nevermind**** downloaded census data and see it passed Oxnard. The population clues are still looking at old numbers though. So that might warrant updating

Level ∞

Aug 24, 2018

The numbers are now updated for 2017.

Level 45

Aug 24, 2018

Only got 9. Knew a lot more but it was difficult to know what is considered a suburb of LA or an actual city. I would have known 14 had I typed what I assumed were suburbs.

Level 73

Jul 10, 2019

The only cities on here that could be considered suburbs of LA are Long Beach, Santa Clarita and maybe Anaheim.

Level 57

Feb 9, 2021

Suburb and city are not mutually exclusive. Many American suburbs are also cities with their own borders and governments.

Level 65

Jul 17, 2023

I only say neighborhood for a part of a city, and suburb exclusively for other cities. Might be a dialectal difference.

Level 77

Aug 26, 2018

What impresses me most is that after +56,000 quiz takers (or 6,000 since last reset) LA is still at 100%!

Level 23

May 13, 2019

i've been to a good amount of these cities. I would like to see/go to San Francisco and Sacramento one day-

imgettingboredofLAandothercitiessurroundingit

Level 43

Jun 2, 2019

Helps to think of all the different UC's. Would have missed Irvine without that

Level 55

Apr 16, 2020

not that anyone asked, but 20/20, and im a bosnian that lives in missouri

Level 75

Jul 5, 2020

Hello, fellow Missourian. A little-known fact to many non-Missourians is the largest population of Bosnians living outside of Europe is in St. Louis.

Level 60

Sep 12, 2020

Cool!

Level 40

May 21, 2020

I did not expect fontana.. And I only like like 15-20 min away from there.

Level 70

Jun 25, 2020

13/20 from NY

Level 73

Jul 5, 2020

It's wild that California suburbs like Fontana, Moreno Valley, and Fremont all have populations of 200,000+ and are bigger than much more recognizable cities like Birmingham, Alabama; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Providence, Rhode Island.

Level 48

Jul 9, 2020

I worked in L.A. with a guy who commuted almost 2 hours one way from Fontana. We called it Fontucky. No, I didn't know it had gotten so big.

Level 32

Nov 24, 2020

hehehe....

Level 16

May 4, 2021

I live in Oklahoma and still got all of them right

Level 56

May 10, 2021

I live in SoCal, but didn't get Fontana. You don't hear about Fontana much. And I didn't get the line between LA County and Orange County, so was trying to think of LA County cities, instead of Anaheim and Santa Ana.

Level 26

May 10, 2021

Got 12 :D I got the top 8, Anaheim, Stockton, Chula Vista, and San Bernadino.

Level 17

May 17, 2021

I can't believe I forgot San Jose.

Level 63

Feb 2, 2022

I feel dumb for forgetting Oakland and Fresno.

Level 46

Apr 1, 2022

I got 14 and I live in California

Level 25

Apr 12, 2022

i forgot Fontana...

I live in Fontana...................

Level 35

Jun 3, 2022

I got 14 and I am from Israel

Level ∞

Jun 6, 2022

San Francisco's population declined by 6.3% in one year from 2020 -> 2021. Crazy.

Level 74

Jul 9, 2022

Combination of all the issues San Francisco has, and with the pandemic people realizing they can work from home not needing to live in cities like that to somewhere more affordable.

Level 22

Feb 17, 2023

Crazy that California has 23 cities with 200,000+ people. I'm in Washington and got 20/20 and we only have 4 cities

Level 44

Jul 1, 2023

Nearly 1 in 8 Americans lives in California. It's like a country unto itself.

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