THE SAN FRANCISCO LAND BRIEF
Land in the
San Francisco Peninsula setting.
San Francisco city has 46.7 square miles of land in San Francisco County. Its Census boundary intersects San Francisco Peninsula, within Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains.
Oak woodland, chaparral and grassland occupy foothills and low coastal mountains around the Central Valley. Narrow agricultural valleys interrupt this landscape of dry summers and wetter winters.
Regional context: Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains ↗ · Classification from the Census boundary intersection
The Census reference point falls outside the regional layer’s mapped footprint. This classification uses the actual place-boundary intersection, with San Francisco Peninsula representing its largest mapped overlap. Shorelines and dataset boundaries can differ.
Coast Range in San Francisco
Pacific-facing coastal mountains support moisture-loving conifers, with marine terraces, dunes and beaches along the ocean edge. Inland slopes and the immediate coast have different vegetation patterns.
Read the regional source ↗San Francisco and San Francisco County
San Francisco is associated with San Francisco County in the Census boundary data. Start with the parcel’s tax bill to match the property to that jurisdiction, then confirm which government handles its land use.
San Francisco by land and water
The Census records 185.2 square miles of water within San Francisco, or 79.9% of its total area. That share is close to San Francisco County’s 79.9%. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, San Francisco city has 8 times the land area of nearby Bolinas CDP (5.83 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.