San Mateo is a larger medium-sized coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of California. With a population of 100,984 people and 28 associated neighborhoods, San Mateo is the 68th largest community in California.

San Mateo home prices are not only among the most expensive in California, but San Mateo real estate also consistently ranks among the most expensive in America.

Also of interest is that San Mateo has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.

Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 19.85% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.

One thing that you will notice about San Mateo is that there is a good-sized population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile career starters. Many singles consider San Mateo a good place to live without being in a really big city, with opportunities for friendships and fun with others like themselves.

One of the nice things about San Mateo is that it is nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Because of this, visitors and locals will often go to these areas to take in the scenery or to enjoy waterfront activities.

Although the majority of commuting trips in the city are by private automobile, San Mateo is somewhat unusual for a city of its size for having a substantial number of people who use public transportation. For a lot of people, the train helps to get to and from their jobs every morning, which benefits everyone in the San Mateo area by reducing both traffic and air pollution.

Do you like to read, write and learn? If you move to San Mateo, you'll likely find that many of your neighbors like to as well. San Mateo is one of the more educated communities in America, with a full 58.22% of its adults having a college degree or even advanced degree, compared to a national average across all communities of 21.84%.

The per capita income in San Mateo in 2022 was $78,990, which is wealthy relative to California and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $315,960 for a family of four. However, San Mateo contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.

San Mateo is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call San Mateo home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of San Mateo residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. San Mateo also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 24.71% of the city’s residents. Important ancestries of people in San Mateo include Irish, Italian, German, English, and European.

San Mateo also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 35.85%.

The most common language spoken in San Mateo is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Chinese.