The estimated 2006 population of San Francisco is 744,041. With nearly 16,000 people per square mile, San Francisco is the second most densely populated major American city. San Francisco is the traditional focal point of the San Francisco Bay Area and forms part of the greater San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland Combined Statistical Area (CSA) whose population is over 7 million: the fifth largest in the U.S. as of the 2000 Census.

Like many larger U.S. cities, San Francisco is a minority-majority city, as non-Hispanic whites comprise less than half of the population. As of 2005, the Census Bureau estimated that 44.1 percent of the population was non-Hispanic white. Asian Americans, principally Chinese, comprise nearly a third of the population. Hispanics of any race make up about 14 percent of the population. San Francisco's African American population has declined in recent decades, from 13.4 percent of the city in 1970 to just over 7 percent of the population. The current percentage of African Americans in San Francisco mirrors that of the state of California.

Few of the city's residents are native San Franciscans. Only 35 percent of its residents were born in California; 39 percent were born outside the U.S.

San Francisco has the highest percentage of same-sex households of any American county, with the Bay Area having a higher concentration than any other metropolitan area. Gay men outnumber lesbians; it has been estimated that one in five male city residents over the age of 15 is gay.

The San Francisco median household income is $57,833 and the median family income, at $67,809 in 2005, is the third-highest for any large city in the nation. Following a national trend, an out-migration of middle class families is contributing to widening income disparity and has left the city with a lower proportion of children, 14.5 percent, than any other large city in the U.S. The city's poverty rate, at 7.8 percent, is lower than the national average and among the lowest for cities ranked by the U.S. Census Department.

Homelessness has been a chronic and controversial problem for San Francisco since the early 1980s. The city is believed to have the highest number of homeless inhabitants per capita of any major city in the U.S. The rates of violent and property crime, reported for 2005 as 799 and 4974 incidents per 100,000 residents respectively, are higher than the national average. Among the 50 largest U.S. cities by population, San Francisco ranks 29th and 39th in each of those categories.

additional information from Wikipedia

12/19/07 by visitEarth
Tags: