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.

One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 19.85% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. 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.

Like elsewhere in America, most people in San Mateo use a private automobile to get to work. But notably, a substantial number of San Mateo‘s citizens do make use of public transit in their daily commute, primarily riding the train. This helps more people get to work with less air pollution, and require fewer highways to get them there.

If knowledge is power, San Mateo is a pretty powerful place. 58.22% of the adults in San Mateo have earned a 4-year college degree, masters degree, MD, law degree, or even PhD. Compare that to the national average of 21.84% for all cities and towns.

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.

Foreign born people are also an important part of San Mateo's cultural character, accounting for 35.85% of the city’s population.

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