San Jose, officially San José (/ˌsæn hoʊˈzeɪ, -ˈseɪ/; Spanish: [saŋ xoˈse]; Spanish for ‘Saint Joseph’), San Jose is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley, and the largest city in Northern California by both population and area.

With an estimated 2019 population of 1,021,795, it is the third-most populous city in California (after Los Angeles and San Diego) and the tenth-most populous in the United States. Located in the center of the Santa Clara Valley, on the southern shore of San Francisco Bay, San Jose covers an area of 179.97 square miles (466.1 km2). San Jose is the county seat of Santa Clara County, the most affluent county in California and one of the most affluent counties in the United States. San Jose is the main component of the San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara Metropolitan Statistical Area, with an estimated population of around 2 million residents in 2018.