San Jose At-A-Glance | Facts About San Jose, CA

Fast Facts

Downtown San Jose

One of the safest big cities in America.
California’s oldest civilian settlement, founded in 1777.
The site of California’s first state capital.
Northern California’s largest city by population.
The third largest city in California.
The largest concentration of technology expertise in the world with over 6,600 companies.

Obon Festival, Japantown

Residents speak more that 56 languages.
San José boasts the highest median household income in the nation.
More than half of the adults living in Silicon Valley hold a college degree.
40% of San José residents are foreign born.
San José has the largest Vietnamese population of any city outside Vietnam.
San José leads the nation in patent generation.
San José has one of only three Japantowns in the U.S.
San José is the site of the world’s first radio broadcasting station.
Mount Hamilton is the world’s first permanently occupied mountaintop observatory and houses the world’s third largest optical refracting telescope.

Lake Cunningham Skate Park

The sun shines an average of 300 days a year.
Wine Spectator noted the nearby Santa Cruz Mountains Wine Region as the “most underappreciated appellation in the world.”
Lake Cunningham Skate Park is California’s largest skate park.
Discovery Meadow park is home to the world’s largest Monopoly board.
The San José Museum of Quilts & Textiles is the first museum of its kind in the U.S.
San José has the nation’s first Vietnamese Heritage Garden and Historical Museum.
San José houses the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts in western North America at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum.
The Tech Interactive opened the first interactive bioengineering exhibit in the U.S.
The San José Earthquakes soccer stadium has the largest outdoor bar in North America.
With over 160 rooms, Winchester Mystery House is one of the largest Victorian homes in the U.S.