South San Francisco, CA population, income and ZIP codes

South San Francisco city is a small city in California, with 64,487 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #143 of 1,618 ranked by population — larger than 91% of them. The median age here is 42.4 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly older profile than the country as a whole. Places under 65,000 residents only appear in the five-year release, never the one-year file, so these values pool sixty months of responses and lag the current year by design.

Households in South San Francisco city earn a median of $135,909 a year, 73% above the national figure of $78,538 and 49% above the $91,111 median for the 1,050 California cities we cover. This figure covers the household, not the worker: two people on ordinary wages at one address outrank a single professional in the same table. Poverty reaches 7.1% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in South San Francisco city is valued at $1,160,100, 282.4% above the national figure and 97% above the $589,600 peer median, while median gross rent runs $2,833 a month, 101.5% above the national figure, or roughly $33,996 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 25% 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 8.5×, 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. 60.8% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. Rent is reported gross — contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities — which is why it runs above the advertised price on a listing for the same unit.

Home values sit at 8.5× 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.

All values below were released by the Census for this exact geography, with no gap-filling on our side. 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.