San Mateo, California
43 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1892 and the latest in 1997. It stands in the San Mateo census division. It lies in ZIP code area 94401. It stands on San Mateo Creek. The Survey maps it on the San Mateo quadrangle. 105,661 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 39 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1892 to 1997The same ground, surveyed 105 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Compare 1892 against another survey:
On record in San Mateo
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 8 records
Ernest Coxhead Houselisted 2000
Hotel St. Matthewlisted 1998
National Bank of San Mateolisted 1997
US Post Main Office-San Mateolisted 1988
Amelia Vollers Houselisted 2015
X-100listed 2016- Eugene J. De Sabla Jr. Teahouse and Tea Gardenlisted 1992
- Yoshiko Yamanouchi Houselisted 2023
Population over time
2 figuresSan Mateo grew from 97,207 to 105,661 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 97,207 | |
| 2020 | 105,661 | +8,454 (+9%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
22 surveys from 43 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1892 USGS San Mateo quadrangle1:62500
- 1896 USGS San Mateo quadrangle1:62500
- 1899 USGS San Mateo quadrangle1:62500, 6 printings
- 1915 USGS San Mateo quadrangle1:62500, 6 printings
- 1939 USGS San Mateo quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1943 USGS San Mateo quadrangle1:62500
- 1947 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1947 USGS San Mateo quadrangle1:24000
- 1948 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1949 USGS San Mateo quadrangle1:24000
- 1955 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1956 USGS San Mateo quadrangle1:24000, 6 printings
- 1957 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1964 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1971 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1978 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1985 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
- 1993 USGS San Mateo quadrangle1:24000
- 1997 USGS San Mateo quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
282 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 282 fires within 5 miles of San Mateo between 1992 and 2020, burning about 166 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 21 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 153 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 47 |
| Smoking | 32 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 21 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 15 |
| Debris and open burning | 8 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 3 |
| Natural | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | not named |
| 7 September 2007 | Smoking | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 6 September 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.5 acres | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | OYSTER POINT |
| 5 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | not named |
| 5 September 2008 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
| 4 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.1 acres | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | BEL AIRE RD THE_HIGHLAND |
| 4 September 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 9.5 acres | San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit | CRYSTAL |
| 4 September 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 29 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 29 workings within 5 miles of San Mateo: 15 producers, 14 past producers. 15 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Calcium, Stone, Salt. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Redwood City Plant | Salt | Producer | ||
| Hilltop | Calcium | Producer | ||
| Hilltop | Calcium | Past Producer | ||
| Quarry | Stone | Producer | ||
| Quarry | Stone | Past Producer | ||
| Skyline Quarry | Calcium | Producer | ||
| Skyline Quarry | Calcium | Past Producer | ||
| Unnamed Location | Stone | Producer | ||
| Unnamed Location | Stone | Past Producer | ||
| Casey | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer |
Storms near this place
5 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names San Mateo in 5 storm reports between 1996 and 2018: 2 flood, 2 heavy rain, 1 hail. The reports record 1 death and 12 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 1998 | Heavy Rain | San Mateo | 1 killed | heavy rain contributed to auto accident |
| January 1998 | Heavy Rain | San Mateo | 12 hurt | rain slick roads caused several auto accidents |
| January 2017 | Hail | San Mateo | $10 | Pea sized hail reported in Highlands Baywood Park. |
| April 2018 | Flood | San Mateo | - | US 101 at 3rd Ave on ramp, severe flooding in 1 lane. |
| December 1996 | Flood | San Mateo | - | no account filed |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hayward Park | 0.9 miles | 43 | |
| San Mateo Park | 1.1 miles | 43 | |
| Hillsborough Park | 1.9 miles | 43 | |
| Hillsdale | 2.1 miles | 43 | |
| Laurel | 2.3 miles | 43 | |
| Baywood Park | 2.5 miles | 43 | |
| Burlingame | 2.6 miles | 43 | |
| Foster City | 2.9 miles | 43 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on San Mateo | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q169943 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1659584. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.





















