San Francisco, CA population, income and ZIP codes

San Francisco city is a major city in California, with 836,321 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #4 of 1,618 ranked by population — larger than 99% of them. The median age here is 39.7 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly older profile than the country as a whole. At this size the Census also publishes one-year estimates; the five-year values used here are steadier and let you compare against smaller neighbours on the same basis.

Households in San Francisco city earn a median of $141,446 a year, 80.1% above the national figure of $78,538 and 55% above the $91,111 median for the 1,050 California cities we cover. Median household income counts every pre-tax dollar arriving at an address — wages, self-employment, Social Security, pensions, interest and public assistance — for everyone living there, so multi-earner households pull the figure up even where individual pay is modest. Poverty reaches 10.6% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in San Francisco city is valued at $1,380,500, 355% above the national figure and 134% above the $589,600 peer median, while median gross rent runs $2,419 a month, 72% above the national figure, or roughly $29,028 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 20.5% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 9.8×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is out of reach on local earnings alone and the ownership market leans on outside income, equity or dual high earners. 38.5% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, a renter-majority market, so rent figures matter more here than the home-value line. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

Home values sit at 9.8× median household income, far past the 3.9× national mark, so ownership costs here are set by something other than local wages — second homes, retirees with equity, or commuters earning elsewhere.

No figure on this page is estimated by us; each one comes straight from the published ACS tables for this area. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.