San Jose Tops S.F. as State’s 3rd Biggest City

San Jose, a small farm town down the road not too many years ago, has passed San Francisco in population to become California’s third most populous city, the state reported Tuesday.

The state Department of Finance on Tuesday put the population of San Jose at 738,400, ahead of San Francisco, at 731,700, for the first time ever. In the last year, San Jose has added 10,100 people, while its now-smaller city to the north lost 4,800 residents.

For San Jose, it has been a rapid climb up to the list of major cities. In 1950, while San Francisco had long been the major West Coast port and financial center, San Jose had a mere 95,000 inhabitants.

In the post-World War II era, San Jose has been one of the fastest-growing cities in the country. At the same time, San Francisco’s numbers have slipped and it has also lost much of its preeminence on the West Coast to Los Angeles.

Figures Are Estimates

The population figures are estimates, calculated by the state to help divide up tax revenues and fill the 10-year gap between the national census conducted by the U.S. government.

San Francisco was still almost 50,000 ahead of San Jose when the government last counted officially, in 1980. And it is conceivable that next year’s federal census will return San Francisco to third place.

Census officials intend to make a stronger effort to count illegal immigrants, the homeless and minority group members who tend to be under-counted in the state survey. San Francisco, with a more diverse population than San Jose, stands to gain from a more accurate tally of the population.

State Grows by 2.4%

The report Tuesday also showed that California grew by 2.4%--666,000 people--last year to increase its lead as the country’s most populous state. About 28,662,000 people--about 11% of the U.S. population--live in California.

Los Angeles tops all cities in California, with an estimated 3,400,500. San Diego is second with about 1,086,000. After San Jose and San Francisco, the state ranks in order Long Beach, Oakland, Sacramento, Fresno, Anaheim and Santa Ana.

The fastest-growing large cities were Corona, in Riverside County, which added 16.8% to its population, and Fontana in San Bernardino County, which grew by 11.6%. The fastest-growing city in Los Angeles County was Palmdale, at 17.3%.

Among cities under 50,000 population, the most rapid growth was counted in Corcoran, in Kings County. Primarily because of a new state prison, whose inmates count as residents, Corcoran grew 43% to 11,000 people.