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Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry (naturalized Americans who are immigrants from Asia may also identify as Asian-Americans).[3] Although it had historically been used to describe all the indigenous peoples of the continent of Asia, the usage of the term "Asian" by the United States Census Bureau excludes people with ethnic origins in certain parts of Asia, such as West Asia, who are now categorized as Middle Eastern Americans.[4][5] This includes people who indicate their race(s) on the census as "Asian" or reported entries such as "Chinese, Indian, Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Malaysian, and Other Asian".[6] In 2018, Asian Americans comprised 5.4% of the U.S. population; including multiracial Asian Americans, that percentage increases to 6.5%.[7] Chinese, Indian, and Filipino Americans make up the largest share of the Asian American population with 5 million, 4.3 million, and 4 million people respectively. These numbers equal 23%, 20%, and 18% of the total Asian American population, or 1.5% and 1.2% of the total US population.[8] Although migrants from Asia have been in parts of the contemporary United States since the 17th century, large-scale immigration did not begin until the mid-19th century. Nativist immigration laws during the 1880s–1920s excluded various Asian groups, eventually prohibiting almost all Asian immigration to the continental United States. After immigration laws were reformed during the 1940s–60s, abolishing national origins quotas, Asian immigration increased rapidly. Analyses of the 2010 census have shown that Asian Americans are the fastest-growing racial or ethnic group in the United States.[9] Contents 1 Terminology 1.1 Census definition 1.2 Debates 2 Demographics 2.1 Language 2.2 Religion 2.2.1 Religious trends 3 History 3.1 Early immigration 3.2 Exclusion era 3.3 World War II 3.4 Postwar immigration 3.5 Asian American movement 4 Notable contributions 4.1 Arts and entertainment 4.2 Business 4.3 Government and politics 4.4 Journalism 4.5 Military 4.6 Science and technology 4.7 Sports 5 Cultural influence 5.1 Health and medicine 5.2 Education 6 Social and political issues 6.1 Media portrayal 6.2 Bamboo ceiling 6.3 Illegal immigration 6.4 Race-based violence 6.5 Racial stereotypes 6.6 Model minority 6.7 Social and economic disparities among Asian Americans 7 See also 8 Footnotes 9 References 10 Further reading 11 External links Terminology As with other racial and ethnicity-based terms, formal and common usage have changed markedly through the short history of this term. Prior to the late 1960s, people of Asian ancestry were usually referred to as Oriental, Asiatic, and Mongoloid.[10][11] Additionally, the American definition of 'Asian' originally included West Asian ethnic groups, particularly Jewish Americans, Armenian Americans, Assyrian Americans, Iranian Americans, Kurdish Americans, and Arab Americans, although since 2020 these groups are considered Middle Eastern American.[12][5][13] The term Asian American was coined by historian Yuji Ichioka in 1968 during the founding of the Asian American Political Alliance,[14][15] and he is also credited with popularizing the term, which he meant to be used to frame a new "inter-ethnic-pan-Asian American self-defining political group".[10][16] Changing patterns of immigration and an extensive period of exclusion of Asian immigrants have resulted in demographic changes that have in turn affected the formal and common understandings of what defines Asian American. For example, since the removal of restrictive "national origins" quotas in 1965, the Asian-American population has diversified greatly to include more of the peoples with ancestry from various parts of Asia.[17] Today, "Asian American" is the accepted term for most formal purposes, such as government and academic research, although it is often shortened to Asian in common usage.[18] The most commonly used definition of Asian American is the U.S. Census Bureau definition, which includes all people with origins in the Far East, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent.[6] This is chiefly because the census definitions determine many governmental classifications, notably for equal opportunity programs and measurements.[19] According to the Oxford English Dictionary, "Asian person" in the United States is most often thought of as a person of East Asian descent.[20][21] In vernacular usage, "Asian" is usually used to refer to those of East Asian descent or anyone else of Asian descent with epicanthic eyefolds.[22] This differs from the U.S. Census definition[6][23] and the Asian American Studies departments in many universities consider all those of East, South or Southeast Asian descent to be "Asian".[24] Census definition In the US Census, people with origins or ancestry in the Far East, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent are classified as part of the Asian race;[25] while those with origins or ancestry in Central Asia (Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Turkmens, Tajiks, Kyrgyz, Afghans, etc.), Western Asia (diaspora Jews, Turks, Persians, Kurds, Assyrians, Asian Arabs, etc.), and the Caucasus (Georgians, Armenians, Azeris, etc.) are classified as "white" or "Middle Eastern".[4][26] As such, "Asian" and "African" ancestry are seen as racial categories only for the purpose of the Census, with the definition referring to ancestry from parts of the Asian and African continents outside of West Asia, North Africa, and Central Asia. In 1980 and before, Census forms listed particular Asian ancestries as separate groups, along with white and black or negro.[27] Asian Americans had also been classified as "other".[28] In 1977, the federal Office of Management and Budget issued a directive requiring government agencies to maintain statistics on racial groups, including on "Asian or Pacific Islander".[29] By the 1990 census, "Asian or Pacific Islander (API)" was included as an explicit category, although respondents had to select one particular ancestry as a subcategory.[30] Beginning with the 2000 census, two separate categories were used: "Asian American" and "Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander".[31] Debates See also: Racial classification of Indian Americans The definition of Asian American has variations that derive from the use of the word American in different contexts. Immigration status, citizenship (by birthright and by naturalization), acculturation, and language ability are some variables that are used to define American for various purposes and may vary in formal and everyday usage.[32] For example, restricting American to include only U.S. citizens conflicts with discussions of Asian American businesses, which generally refer both to citizen and non-citizen owners.[33] In a PBS interview from 2004, a panel of Asian American writers discussed how some groups include people of Middle Eastern descent in the Asian American category.[34] Asian American author Stewart Ikeda has noted, "The definition of 'Asian American' also frequently depends on who's asking, who's defining, in what context, and why... the possible definitions of 'Asian-Pacific American' are many, complex, and shifting... some scholars in Asian American Studies conferences suggest that Russians, Iranians, and Israelis all might fit the field's subject of study."[35] Jeff Yang, of The Wall Street Journal, writes that the panethnic definition of Asian American is a unique American construct, and as an identity is "in beta".[36] The majority of Asian Americans feel ambivalence about the term "Asian American" as a term by which to identify themselves.[37] Pyong Gap Min, a sociologist and Professor of Sociology at Queens College, has stated the term is merely political, used by Asian-American activists and further reinforced by the government. Beyond that, he feels that many of the diverse Asian people do not have commonalities in "culture, physical characteristics, or pre-migrant historical experiences".[38] Scholars have grappled with the accuracy, correctness, and usefulness of the term Asian American. The term "Asian" in Asian American most often comes under fire for encompassing a huge number of people with ancestry from (or who have immigrated from) a wide range of culturally diverse countries and traditions. As well as having a limited meaning that excludes many people with heritage from (or who've immigrated from) Asian countries beyond the US census definition.[19] In contrast, leading social sciences and humanities scholars of race and Asian American identity point out that because of the racial constructions in the United States, including the social attitudes toward race and those of Asian ancestry, Asian Americans have a "shared racial experience."[39] Because of this shared experience, the term Asian American is argued as still being a useful panethnic category because of the similarity of some experiences among Asian Americans, including stereotypes specific to people in this category.[39] Demographics Main article: Demographics of Asian Americans Asian American population percentage by state in 2010 Percentage Asian American by county, 2010 Census The demographics of Asian Americans describe a heterogeneous group of people in the United States who can trace their ancestry to one or more countries in East, South or Southeast Asia.[40] Because they compose 6% of the entire U.S. population, the diversity of the group is often disregarded in media and news discussions of "Asians" or of "Asian Americans."[41] While there are some commonalities across ethnic subgroups, there are significant differences among different Asian ethnicities that are related to each group's history.[42] The Asian American population is greatly urbanized, with nearly three-quarters of them living in metropolitan areas with population greater than 2.5 million.[43] As of July 2015, California had the largest population of Asian Americans of any state, and Hawaii was the only state where Asian Americans were the majority of the population.[44] The demographics of Asian Americans can further be subdivided into, as listed in alphabetical order: East Asian Americans, including Chinese Americans, Hong Kong Americans, Japanese Americans, Korean Americans, Mongolian Americans, Ryukyuan Americans, Taiwanese Americans, and Tibetan Americans. South Asian Americans, including Bangladeshi Americans, Bhutanese Americans, Indian Americans (including Indo-Caribbean Americans and Indo-Fijian Americans), Maldivian Americans, Nepalese Americans, Pakistani Americans, and Sri Lankan Americans Southeast Asian Americans, including Burmese Americans, Cambodian Americans, Filipino Americans, Hmong Americans, Indonesian Americans, Laotian Americans, Malaysian Americans, Mien Americans, Singaporean Americans, Thai Americans, and Vietnamese Americans. This grouping is by country of origin before immigration to the United States, and not necessarily by race, as for example Singaporean Americans may be of East Asian descent. Asian Americans include multiracial or mixed race persons with origins or ancestry in both the above groups and another race, or multiple of the above groups. Language In 2010, there were 2.8 million people (5 and older) who spoke one of the Chinese languages at home;[45] after the Spanish language, it is the third most common language in the United States.[45] Other sizeable Asian languages are Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Korean, with all three having more than 1 million speakers in the United States.[45] In 2012, Alaska, California, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Texas and Washington were publishing election material in Asian languages in accordance with the Voting Rights Act;[46] these languages include Tagalog, Mandarin Chinese, Vietnamese, Spanish,[47] Hindi and Bengali.[46] Election materials were also available in Gujarati, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, and Thai.[48] A 2013 poll found that 48 percent of Asian Americans considered media in their native language as their primary news source.[49] The 2000 Census found the more prominent languages of the Asian American community to include the Chinese languages (Cantonese, Taishanese, and Hokkien), Tagalog, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Hindi, Urdu, Telugu and Gujarati.[50] In 2008, the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Tagalog, and Vietnamese languages are all used in elections in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Illinois, New York, Texas, and Washington state.[51] Religion A 2012 Pew Research Center study found the following breakdown of religious identity among Asian Americans:[52] 70% Christian 10% Unaffiliated with any religion 6% Buddhist 7% Hindu 2% Muslim 4% other religion 1% Sikh Religious trends The percentage of Christians among Asian Americans has declined sharply since the 1990s, chiefly due to largescale immigration from countries in which Christianity is a minority religion (China and India in particular). In 1990, 63% of the Asian Americans identified as Christians, while in 2001 only 43% did.[53] This development has been accompanied by a rise in traditional Asian religions, with the people identifying with them doubling during the same decade.[54] History Main article: History of Asian Americans See also: Asian immigration to the United States Early immigration Five images of the Filipino settlement at Saint Malo, Louisiana As Asian Americans originate from many different countries, each population has its own unique immigration history.[55] Filipinos have been in the territories that would become the United States since the 16th century.[56] In 1635, an "East Indian" is listed in Jamestown, Virginia;[57] preceding wider settlement of Indian immigrants on the East Coast in the 1790s and the West Coast in the 1800s.[58] In 1763, Filipinos established the small settlement of Saint Malo, Louisiana, after fleeing mistreatment aboard Spanish ships.[59] Since there were no Filipino women with them, these 'Manilamen', as they were known, married Cajun and Native American women.[60] The first Japanese person to come to the United States, and stay any significant period of time was Nakahama Manjirō who reached the East Coast in 1841, and Joseph Heco became the first Japanese American naturalized US citizen in 1858.[61] Chinese sailors first came to Hawaii in 1789,[62] a few years after Captain James Cook came upon the island. Many settled and married Hawaiian women. Most Chinese, Korean and Japanese immigrants in Hawaii arrived in the 19th century as laborers to work on sugar plantations.[63] There were thousands of Asians in Hawaii when it was annexed to the United States in 1898.[64] Later, Filipinos also came to work as laborers, attracted by the job opportunities, although they were limited.[65] Okinawans would start migrating to Hawaii in 1900.[66] Large-scale migration from Asia to the United States began when Chinese immigrants arrived on the West Coast in the mid-19th century.[67] Forming part of the California gold rush, these early Chinese immigrants participated intensively in the mining business and later in the construction of the transcontinental railroad. By 1852, the number of Chinese immigrants in San Francisco had jumped to more than 20,000. A wave of Japanese immigration to the United States began after the Meiji Restoration in 1868.[68] In 1898, all Filipinos in the Philippine Islands became American nationals when the United States took over colonial rule of the islands from Spain following the latter's defeat in the Spanish–American War.[69] Exclusion era Under United States law during this period, particularly the Naturalization Act of 1790, only "free white persons" were eligible to naturalize as American citizens. Ineligibility for citizenship prevented Asian immigrants from accessing a variety of rights, such as voting.[70] Bhicaji Balsara became the first known Indian-born person to gain naturalized U.S. citizenship.[71] Balsara's naturalization was not the norm but an exception; in a pair of cases, Ozawa v. United States (1922) and United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind (1923), the Supreme Court upheld the racial qualification for citizenship and ruled that Asians were not "white persons". Second-generation Asian Americans, however, could become U.S. citizens due to the birthright citizenship clause of the Fourteenth Amendment; this guarantee was confirmed as applying regardless of race or ancestry by the Supreme Court in United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898).[72] From the 1880s to the 1920s, the United States passed laws inaugurating an era of exclusion of Asian immigrants. Although the exact number of Asian immigrants was small compared to that of immigrants from other regions, much of it was concentrated in the West, and the increase caused some nativist sentiment which was known as the "yellow peril". Congress passed restrictive legislation which prohibited nearly all Chinese immigration to the United States in the 1880s.[73] Japanese immigration was sharply curtailed by a diplomatic agreement in 1907. The Asiatic Barred Zone Act in 1917 further barred immigration from nearly all of Asia, the "Asiatic Zone".[74] The Immigration Act of 1924 provided that no "alien ineligible for citizenship" could be admitted as an immigrant to the United States, consolidating the prohibition of Asian immigration.[75] World War II President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, resulting in the internment of Japanese Americans, among others. Over 100,000 people of Japanese descent, mostly on the West Coast, were forcibly removed, in an action later considered ineffective and racist. Postwar immigration World War II-era legislation and judicial rulings[which?] gradually increased the ability of Asian Americans to immigrate and become naturalized citizens. Immigration rapidly increased following the enactment of the Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of 1965 as well as the influx of refugees from conflicts occurring in Southeast Asia such as the Vietnam War. Asian American immigrants have a significant percentage of individuals who have already achieved professional status, a first among immigration groups.[76] The number of Asian immigrants to the United States "grew from 491,000 in 1960 to about 12.8 million in 2014, representing a 2,597 percent increase."[77] Asian Americans were the fastest-growing racial group between 2000 and 2010.[55][78] By 2012, more immigrants came from Asia than from Latin America.[79] In 2015, Pew Research Center found that from 2010 to 2015 more immigrants came from Asia than from Latin America, and that since 1965; Asians have made up a quarter of all immigrants to the United States.[80] Asians have made up an increasing proportion of the foreign-born Americans: "In 1960, Asians represented 5 percent of the U.S. foreign-born population; by 2014, their share grew to 30 percent of the nation's 42.4 million immigrants."[77] As of 2016, "Asia is the second-largest region of birth (after Latin America) of U.S. immigrants."[77] In 2013, China surpassed Mexico as the top single country of origin for immigrants to the U.S.[81] Asian immigrants "are more likely than the overall foreign-born population to be naturalized citizens"; in 2014, 59% of Asian immigrants had U.S. citizenship, compared to 47% of all immigrants.[77] Postwar Asian immigration to the U.S. has been diverse: in 2014, 31% of Asian immigrants to the U.S. were from East Asia (predominately China and Korea); 27.7% were from South Asia (predominately India); 32.6% were from Southeastern Asia (predominately the Philippines and Vietnam) and 8.3% were from Western Asia.[77] Asian American movement Main article: Asian American movement Prior to the 1960s, Asian immigrants and their descendants had organized and agitated for social or political purposes according to their particular ethnicity: Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, or Asian Indian. The Asian American movement (a term coined by historian and activist Yuji Ichioka) gathered all those groups into a coalition, recognizing that they shared common problems with racial discrimination and common opposition to American imperialism, particularly in Asia. The movement developed during the 1960s, inspired in part by the Civil Rights Movement and the protests against the Vietnam War. "Drawing influences from the Black Power and antiwar movements, the Asian American movement forged a coalitional politics that united Asians of varying ethnicities and declared solidarity with other Third World people in the United States and abroad. Segments of the movement struggled for community control of education, provided social services and defended affordable housing in Asian ghettoes, organized exploited workers, protested against U.S. imperialism, and built new multiethnic cultural institutions."[82] William Wei described the movement as "rooted in a past history of oppression and a present struggle for liberation."[83] The movement as such was most active during the 1960s and 1970s.[82] Increasingly Asian American students demanded university-level research and teaching into Asian history and the interaction with the United States. They supported multiculturalism but opposed affirmative action that amounted to an Asian quota on their admission.[84][85][86] Notable contributions For a more comprehensive list, see List of Asian Americans. Arts and entertainment Main article: Asian Americans in arts and entertainment See also: Asian American literature See also: American television series with Asian leads Chloe Bennet Asian Americans have been involved in the entertainment industry since the first half of the 19th century, when Chang and Eng Bunker (the original "Siamese Twins") became naturalized citizens.[87] Throughout the 20th century, acting roles in television, film, and theater were relatively few, and many available roles were for narrow, stereotypical characters. More recently, young Asian American comedians and film-makers have found an outlet on YouTube allowing them to gain a strong and loyal fanbase among their fellow Asian Americans.[88] There have been several Asian American-centric television shows in American media, beginning with Mr. T and Tina in 1976, and as recent as Fresh Off the Boat in 2015.[89] In the Pacific, American beatboxer of Hawaii Chinese descent Jason Tom co-founded the Human Beatbox Academy to perpetuate the art of beatboxing through outreach performances, speaking engagements and workshops in Honolulu, the westernmost and southernmost major U.S. city of the 50th U.S. state of Hawaii.[90][91][92][93][94][95] Business Wiki letter w.svg This section is missing information about the history of the subject. Please expand the section to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page. (August 2009) When Asian Americans were largely excluded from labor markets in the 19th century, they started their own businesses. They have started convenience and grocery stores, professional offices such as medical and law practices, laundries, restaurants, beauty-related ventures, hi-tech companies, and many other kinds of enterprises, becoming very successful and influential in American society. They have dramatically expanded their involvement across the American economy. Asian Americans have been disproportionately successful in the hi-tech sectors of California's Silicon Valley, as evidenced by the Goldsea 100 Compilation of America's Most Successful Asian Entrepreneurs.[96] Compared to their population base, Asian Americans today are well represented in the professional sector and tend to earn higher wages.[97] The Goldsea compilation of Notable Asian American Professionals show that many have come to occupy high positions at leading U.S. corporations, including a disproportionately large number as Chief Marketing Officers.[98] Asian Americans have made major contributions to the American economy. In 2012, there were just under 486,000 Asian American-owned businesses in the U.S., which together employed more than 3.6 million workers, generating $707.6 billion in total receipts and sales, with annual payrolls of $112 billion. In 2015, Asian American and Pacific Islander households had $455.6 billion in spending power (comparable to the annual revenue of Walmart) and made tax contributions of $184.0 billion.[99] Fashion designer and mogul Vera Wang, who is famous for designing dresses for high-profile celebrities, started a clothing company, named after herself, which now offers a broad range of luxury fashion products. An Wang founded Wang Laboratories in June 1951. Amar Bose founded the Bose Corporation in 1964. Charles Wang founded Computer Associates, later became its CEO and chairman. Two brothers, David Khym and Kenny Khym founded hip hop fashion giant Southpole (clothing) in 1991. Jen-Hsun Huang co-founded the NVIDIA corporation in 1993. Jerry Yang co-founded Yahoo! Inc. in 1994 and became its CEO later. Andrea Jung serves as Chairman and CEO of Avon Products. Vinod Khosla was a founding CEO of Sun Microsystems and is a general partner of the prominent venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Steve Chen and Jawed Karim were co-creators of YouTube, and were beneficiaries of Google's $1.65 billion acquisition of that company in 2006. In addition to contributing greatly to other fields, Asian Americans have made considerable contributions in science and technology in the United States, in such prominent innovative R&D regions as Silicon Valley and The Triangle. Government and politics Main article: Asian Americans in government and politics See also: Foreign relations of the United States § East Asia, Foreign relations of the United States § South Asia, and Foreign relations of the United States § Southeast Asia Patsy Mink entered the U.S. House of Representatives in 1965 as the first non-white woman in either chamber of Congress. Asian Americans have a high level of political incorporation in terms of their actual voting population. Since 1907, Asian Americans have been active at the national level and have had multiple officeholders at local, state, and national levels. As more Asian Americans have been elected to public office, they have had a growing impact on foreign relations of the United States, immigration, international trade, and other topics.[100] The first Asian American to be elected to the United States Congress was Dalip Singh Saund in 1957. The highest ranked Asian American to serve in the United States Congress was Senator and President pro tempore Daniel Inouye, who died in office in 2012. There are several active Asian Americans in the United States Congress. With higher proportions and densities of Asian American populations, Hawaii has most consistently sent Asian Americans to the Senate, and Hawaii and California have most consistently sent Asian Americans to the House of Representatives. The first Asian American member of the U.S. cabinet was Norman Mineta, who served as Secretary of Commerce and then Secretary of Transportation in the George W. Bush administration. The highest ranked Asian American by order of precedence currently in office is Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, who previously served as U.S. Secretary of Labor. There have been roughly "about a half-dozen viable Asian-American candidates" to ever run for president of the United States.[101] Senator Hiram Fong of Hawaii, the child of Chinese immigrants, was a "favorite son" candidate at the Republican National Conventions of 1964 and 1968.[102][103] In 1972, Representative Patsy T. Mink of Hawaii, a Japanese American, unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president.[104] Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, the son of Indian immigrants, unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for president in 2016.[105] Entrepreneur and nonprofit founder Andrew Yang, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president in 2020.[101] In January 2021, Kamala Harris, the daughter of an Indian immigrant, became the first Asian American Vice President of the United States.[106] Journalism Connie Chung was one of the first Asian American national correspondents for a major TV news network, reporting for CBS in 1971. She later co-anchored the CBS Evening News from 1993 to 1995, becoming the first Asian American national news anchor.[107] At ABC, Ken Kashiwahara began reporting nationally in 1974. In 1989, Emil Guillermo, a Filipino American born reporter from San Francisco, became the first Asian American male to co-host a national news show when he was senior host at National Public Radio's All Things Considered. In 1990, Sheryl WuDunn, a foreign correspondent in the Beijing Bureau of The New York Times, became the first Asian American to win a Pulitzer Prize. Ann Curry joined NBC News as a reporter in 1990, later becoming prominently associated with The Today Show in 1997. Carol Lin is perhaps best known for being the first to break the news of 9-11 on CNN. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is currently CNN's chief health correspondent. Lisa Ling, a former co-host on The View, now provides special reports for CNN and The Oprah Winfrey Show, as well as hosting National Geographic Channel's Explorer. Fareed Zakaria, a naturalized Indian-born immigrant, is a prominent journalist and author specializing in international affairs. He is the editor-at-large of Time magazine, and the host of Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN. Juju Chang, James Hatori, John Yang, Veronica De La Cruz, Michelle Malkin, Betty Nguyen, and Julie Chen have become familiar faces on television news. John Yang won a Peabody Award. Alex Tizon, a Seattle Times staff writer, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1997. Military Main article: Military history of Asian Americans See also: Notable Asian Americans in the military Since the War of 1812 Asian Americans have served and fought on behalf of the United States. Serving in both segregated and non-segregated units until the desegregation of the US Military in 1948, 31 have been awarded the nation's highest award for combat valor, the Medal of Honor. Twenty-one of these were conferred upon members of the mostly Japanese American 100th Infantry Battalion of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team of World War II, the most highly decorated unit of its size in the history of the United States Armed Forces.[108][109] The highest ranked Asian American military official was Secretary of Veteran Affairs, four-star general and Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki.[110] Science and technology Main article: Asian Americans in science and technology Asian Americans have made many notable contributions to Science and Technology. Sports Main article: Asian Americans in sports Asian Americans have contributed to sports in the United States through much of the 20th Century. Some of the most notable contributions include Olympic sports, but also in professional sports, particularly in the post-World War II years. As the Asian American population grew in the late 20th century, Asian American contributions expanded to more sports. Cultural influence In recognition of the unique culture, traditions, and history of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, the United States government has permanently designated the month of May to be Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.[111] Asian American parenting as seen through relationships between Chinese parents and adolescence, which is described as being more authoritarian and less warm than relations between European parents and adolescence, has become a topic of study and discussion.[112] These influences affect how parents regulate and monitor their children, and has been described as Tiger parenting, and has received interest and curiosity from non Chinese parents.[113] Health and medicine Origins of foreign professions in the US Country of origin Proportion of total in U.S. IMGs[114] IDGs[115] INGs[116] India 19.9% (47,581) 25.8% 1.3% Philippines 8.8% (20,861) 11.0% 50.2% Pakistan 4.8% (11,330) 2.9% South Korea 2.1% (4,982) 3.2% 1.0% China 2.0% (4,834) 3.2% Hong Kong 1.2% Israel 1.0% See also: Health status of Asian Americans Asian immigrants are also changing the American medical landscape through increasing number of Asian medical practitioners in the United States. Beginning in the 1960s and 1970s, the US government invited a number of foreign physicians particularly from India and the Philippines to address the shortage of physicians in rural and medically underserved urban areas. The trend in importing foreign medical practitioners, however, became a long-term solution as US schools failed to produce enough health care providers to match the increasing population. Amid decreasing interest in medicine among American college students due to high educational costs and high rates of job dissatisfaction, loss of morale, stress, and lawsuits, Asian American immigrants maintained a supply of healthcare practitioners for millions of Americans. It is documented that Asian American international medical graduates including highly skilled guest workers using the J1 Visa program for medical workers, tend to serve in health professions shortage areas (HPSA) and specialties that are not filled by US medical graduates especially primary care and rural medicine.[117][118] In 2020, of all the medical personnel in the United States, 17% of doctors were Asian Americans, 9% of physician assistants were Asian American, and more than 9% of nurses were Asian Americans.[119] Among Asian Americans, nearly one in four are likely to use common alternative medicine.[120] This includes Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Ayurveda.[120][121] Due to the prevalence of usage, engaging with Asian American populations, through the practitioners of these common alternative medicines, can lead to an increase of usage of underused medical procedures.[122] Education Educational attainment, 25 and older Ethnicity High school graduation rate, 2004 Bachelor's degree or higher, 2010 Chinese 80.8% 51.8% Filipinos 90.8% 48.1% Indian 90.2% 70.7% Japanese 93.4% 47.3% Koreans 90.2% 52.9% Pakistanis 87.4% 55.1% Vietnamese 70.0% 26.3% Total U.S. population 83.9% 27.9% Sources: 2004[123][124][125] and 2010[126] Among America's major racial categories, Asian Americans have the highest educational qualifications. This varies, however, for individual ethnic groups. For example, a 2010 study of all Asian American adults found 42% have at least a college degree, but only 16% of Vietnamese Americans and only 5% for Laotians and Cambodians.[127] It has been noted, however, that 2008 US Census statistics put the bachelor's degree attainment rate of Vietnamese Americans at 26%, which is not very different from the rate of 27% for all Americans.[128] Census data from 2010 show 50% of Asian adults have earned at least a bachelor's degree, compared to 28% for all Americans,[129] and 34% for non-Hispanic whites.[130] Indian Americans have some of the highest education rates, with nearly 71% having attained at least a bachelor's degree in 2010.[126] as of December 2012 Asian Americans made up twelve to eighteen percent of the student population at Ivy League schools, larger than their share of the population.[131][a] For example, the Harvard College Class of 2023 admitted students were 25% Asian American.[136] In the years immediately preceding 2012, 61% of Asian American adult immigrants have a bachelor or higher level college education.[55] In August 2020, the US Justice Department argued that Yale University discriminated against Asian candidates on the basis of their race, a charge the university denied.[137] Social and political issues Media portrayal Because Asian Americans total about 6.9% of the entire US population, diversity within the group is often overlooked in media treatment.[138][139] Bamboo ceiling Main article: Bamboo ceiling This concept appears to elevate Asian Americans by portraying them as an elite group of successful, highly educated, intelligent, and wealthy individuals, but it can also be considered an overly narrow and overly one-dimensional portrayal of Asian Americans, leaving out other human qualities such as vocal leadership, negative emotions, risk taking, ability to learn from mistakes, and desire for creative expression.[140] Furthermore, Asian Americans who do not fit into the model minority mold can face challenges when people's expectations based on the model minority myth do not match with reality. Traits outside of the model minority mold can be seen as negative character flaws for Asian Americans despite those very same traits being positive for the general American majority (e.g., risk taking, confidence, empowered). For this reason, Asian Americans encounter a "bamboo ceiling", the Asian American equivalent of the glass ceiling in the workplace, with only 1.5% of Fortune 500 CEOs being Asians, a percentage smaller than their percentage of the total United States population.[141] The bamboo ceiling is defined as a combination of individual, cultural, and organisational factors that impede Asian Americans' career progress inside organizations. Since then, a variety of sectors (including nonprofits, universities, the government) have discussed the impact of the ceiling as it relates to Asians and the challenges they face. As described by Anne Fisher, the "bamboo ceiling" refers to the processes and barriers that serve to exclude Asians and American people of Asian descent from executive positions on the basis of subjective factors such as "lack of leadership potential" and "lack of communication skills" that cannot actually be explained by job performance or qualifications.[142] Articles regarding the subject have been published in Crains, Fortune magazine, and The Atlantic.[143] Illegal immigration See also: Deportation of Cambodians from the United States and Illegal immigration to the United States In 2012, there were 1.3 million Asian Americans; and for those awaiting visas, there were lengthy backlogs with over 450 thousand Filipinos, over 325 thousand Indians, over 250 thousand Vietnamese, and over 225 thousand Chinese are awaiting visas.[144] As of 2009, Filipinos and Indians accounted for the highest number of alien immigrants for "Asian Americans" with an estimated illegal population of 270,000 and 200,000 respectively. Indian Americans are also the fastest-growing alien immigrant group in the United States, an increase in illegal immigration of 125% since 2000.[145] This is followed by Koreans (200,000) and Chinese (120,000).[146] Nonetheless, Asian Americans have the highest naturalization rates in the United States. In 2015, out of a total of 730,259 applicants, 261,374 became new Americans.[147] According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, legal permanent residents or green card holders from India, Philippines and China were among the top nationals applying for U.S. naturalization in 2015.[148] Due to the stereotype of Asian Americans being successful as a group and having the lowest crime rates in the United States, public attention to illegal immigration is mostly focused on those from Mexico and Latin America while leaving out Asians.[149] Asians are the second largest racial/ethnic alien immigrant group in the U.S. behind Hispanics and Latinos.[150] While the majority of Asian immigrants immigrate legally to the United States,[151] up to 15% of Asian immigrants immigrate without legal documents.[152] Race-based violence See also: Yellow Peril, Anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States, Anti-Filipino sentiment § United States, Anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States, and Anti-Pakistan sentiment § United States Asian Americans have been the targets of violence based on their race and or ethnicity. This includes, but is not limited to, such events as the Rock Springs massacre,[153] Watsonville Riots,[154] Bellingham Riots in 1916 against South Asians,[155] attacks upon Japanese Americans following the attack on Pearl Harbor,[156] and Korean American businesses targeted during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.[157] Attacks on Chinese in the American frontier were common, this included the slaughter by Paiute Indians of forty to sixty Chinese miners in 1866 during the Snake War, and an attack on Chinese miners at Chinese Massacre Cove in 1887 by cowboys resulting in 31 deaths.[158] In the late 1980s, South Asians in New Jersey faced assault and other hate crimes by a group of Latinos known as the Dotbusters.[159] In the late 1990s, the lone death that occurred during the Los Angeles Jewish Community Center shooting by a white supremacist was a Filipino postal worker.[160] Even when it did not manifest as violence, contempt against Asian Americans was reflected in aspects of popular culture such as the playground chant "Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees".[161] After the September 11 attacks, Sikh Americans were targeted, becoming the victims of numerous hate crimes, including murder.[162] Other Asian Americans have also been the victims of race-based violence in Brooklyn,[163] Philadelphia,[164] San Francisco,[165] and Bloomington, Indiana.[166] Furthermore, it has been reported that young Asian Americans are more likely to be the targets of violence than their peers.[163][167] In 2017, racist graffiti and other property damage was done to a community center in Stockton's Little Manila.[168] Racism and discrimination still persist against Asian Americans, occurring not only against recent immigrants but also against well-educated and highly trained professionals.[169] Recent waves of immigration of Asian Americans to largely African American neighborhoods have led to cases of severe racial tension.[170] Acts of large-scale violence against Asian American students by their black classmates have been reported in multiple cities.[171] In October 2008, 30 black students chased and attacked 5 Asian students at South Philadelphia High School,[172] and a similar attack on Asian students occurred at the same school one year later, prompting a protest by Asian students in response.[173] Asian-owned businesses have been a frequent target of tensions between black and Asian Americans. During the 1992 Los Angeles riots, more than 2000 Korean-owned businesses were looted or burned by groups of African Americans.[174] From 1990 to 1991, a high-profile, racially motivated boycott of an Asian-owned shop in Brooklyn was organized by a local black nationalist activist, eventually resulting in the owner being forced to sell his business.[175] Another racially motivated boycott against an Asian-owned business occurred in Dallas in 2012, after an Asian American clerk fatally shot an African American who had robbed his store.[176] During the Ferguson unrest in 2014, Asian-owned businesses were looted,[177] and Asian-owned stores were looted during the 2015 Baltimore protests while African-American owned stores were bypassed.[178] Violence against Asian Americans continue to occur based on their race,[179] with one source asserting that Asian Americans are the fastest-growing targets of hate crimes and violence.[180] Racial stereotypes Main articles: Stereotypes of East Asians in the United States and Stereotypes of South Asians See also: Ching chong Until the late 20th century, the term "Asian American" was adopted mostly by activists, while the average person of Asian ancestries identified with their specific ethnicity.[188] The murder of Vincent Chin in 1982 was a pivotal civil rights case, and it marked the emergence of Asian Americans as a distinct group in United States.[188][189] Stereotypes of Asians have been largely collectively internalized by society and these stereotypes have mainly negative repercussions for Asian Americans and Asian immigrants in daily interactions, current events, and governmental legislation. In many instances, media portrayals of East Asians often reflect a dominant Americentric perception rather than realistic and authentic depictions of true cultures, customs and behaviors.[190] Asians have experienced discrimination and have been victims of hate crimes related to their ethnic stereotypes.[191] Study has indicated that most non-Asian Americans do not generally differentiate between Asian Americans of different ethnicities.[192] Stereotypes of Chinese Americans and Asian Americans are nearly identical.[193] A 2002 survey of Americans' attitudes toward Asian Americans and Chinese Americans indicated that 24% of the respondents disapprove of intermarriage with an Asian American, second only to African Americans; 23% would be uncomfortable supporting an Asian American presidential candidate, compared to 15% for an African American, 14% for a woman and 11% for a Jew; 17% would be upset if a substantial number of Asian Americans moved into their neighborhood; 25% had somewhat or very negative attitude toward Chinese Americans in general.[194] The study did find several positive perceptions of Chinese Americans: strong family values (91%); honesty as business people (77%); high value on education (67%).[193] There is a widespread perception that Asian Americans are not "American" but are instead "perpetual foreigners".[194][195][196] Asian Americans often report being asked the question, "Where are you really from?" by other Americans, regardless of how long they or their ancestors have lived in United States and been a part of its society.[197] Many Asian Americans are themselves not immigrants but rather born in the United States. Many East Asian Americans are asked if they are Chinese or Japanese, an assumption based on major groups of past immigrants.[195][198] Model minority Main article: Model minority Asian Americans are sometimes characterized as a model minority in the United States because many of their cultures encourage a strong work ethic, a respect for elders, a high degree of professional and academic success, a high valuation of family, education and religion.[202] Statistics such as high household income and low incarceration rate,[203] low rates of many diseases, and higher than average life expectancy are also discussed as positive aspects of Asian Americans.[204] The implicit advice is that the other minorities should stop protesting and emulate the Asian American work ethic and devotion to higher education. Some critics say the depiction replaces biological racism with cultural racism, and should be dropped.[205] According to The Washington Post, "the idea that Asian Americans are distinct among minority groups and immune to the challenges faced by other people of color is a particularly sensitive issue for the community, which has recently fought to reclaim its place in social justice conversations with movements like #ModelMinorityMutiny."[206] The model minority concept can also affect Asians' public education.[207] By comparison with other minorities, Asians often achieve higher test scores and grades compared to other Americans.[208] Stereotyping Asian American as over-achievers can lead to harm if school officials or peers expect all to perform higher than average.[209] The very high educational attainments of Asian Americans has often been noted; in 1980, for example, 74% of Chinese Americans, 62% of Japanese Americans, and 55% of Korean Americans aged 20–21 were in college, compared to only a third of the whites. The disparity at postgraduate levels is even greater, and the differential is especially notable in fields making heavy use of mathematics. By 2000, a plurality of undergraduates at such elite public California schools as UC Berkeley and UCLA, which are obligated by law to not consider race as a factor in admission, were Asian American. The pattern is rooted in the pre-World War II era. Native-born Chinese and Japanese Americans reached educational parity with majority whites in the early decades of the 20th century.[210] One group of writers who discuss the "model minority" stereotype, have taken to attaching the term "myth" after "model minority," thus encouraging discourse regarding how the concept and stereotype is harmful to Asian American communities and ethnic groups.[211] The model minority concept can be emotionally damaging to some Asian Americans, particularly since they are expected to live up to those peers who fit the stereotype.[212] Studies have shown that some Asian Americans suffer from higher rates of stress, depression, mental illnesses, and suicides in comparison to other races,[213] indicating that the pressures to achieve and live up to the model minority image may take a mental and psychological toll on some Asian Americans.[214] The "model minority" stereotype fails to distinguish between different ethnic groups with different histories.[215] When divided up by ethnicity, it can be seen that the economic and academic successes supposedly enjoyed by Asian Americans are concentrated into a few ethnic groups.[216] Cambodians, Hmong, and Laotians (and to a lesser extent, Vietnamese) all have relatively low achievement rates, possibly due to their refugee status, and the fact that they are non-voluntary immigrants.[217] Social and economic disparities among Asian Americans In 2015, Asian American earnings were found to exceed all other racial groups when all Asian ethnic groups are grouped as a whole.[218] Yet, a 2014 report from the Census Bureau reported that 12% of Asian Americans were living below the poverty line, while 10.1% of non-Hispanic White Americans live below the poverty line.[219][220] A 2017 study of wealth inequality within Asian Americans found a greater gap between wealthy and non-wealthy Asian Americans compared to non-Hispanic white Americans.[221] Once country of birth and other demographic factors are taken into account, a portion of the sub-groups that make up Asian Americans are much more likely than non-Hispanic White Americans to live in poverty.[222][223][224][225] There are major disparities that exist among Asian Americans when specific ethnic groups are examined. For example, in 2012, Asian Americans had the highest educational attainment level of any racial demographic in the country.[55] Yet, there are many sub groups of Asian Americans who suffer in terms of education with some sub groups showing a high rate of dropping out of school or lacking a college education.[224][225][226] This occurs in terms of household income as well – in 2008 Asian Americans had the highest median household income overall of any racial demographic,[227][228] while there were Asian sub-groups who had average median incomes lower than both the U.S. average and non-Hispanic Whites.[224] In 2014, data released by the United States Census Bureau revealed that 5 Asian American ethnic groups are in the top 10 lowest earning ethnicities in terms of per capita income in all of the United States.[229] The Asian American groups that have low educational attainment and high rates of poverty both in average individual and median income are Bhutanese Americans,[230][231] Bangladeshi Americans,[220][230][232] Cambodian Americans,[223][225] Burmese Americans,[224] Nepali Americans,[233] Hmong Americans,[220][225][230] and Laotian Americans.[225] This affects Vietnamese Americans as well, albeit to a lesser degree, as early 21st century immigration from Vietnam are almost entirely not from refugee backgrounds.[234] These individual ethnicities experience social issues within their communities, some specific to their individual communities themselves. Issues such as suicide, crime, and mental illness.[235] Other issues experienced include deportation, and poor physical health.[236] Within the Bhutanese American community, it has been documented that there are issues of suicide greater than the world's average.[237] Cambodian Americans, some of whom immigrated as refugees, are subject to deportation.[238] Crime and gang violence are common social issues among Southeast Asian Americans of refugee backgrounds such as Cambodian, Laotian, Hmong, and Vietnamese Americans.[239] See also Amerasian Asian American and Pacific Islander Policy Research Consortium Asian American studies Asian Americans in New York City Asian Latin Americans Asian Argentines Asian Brazilians Asian Peruvians Asian Mexicans Asian Britons Asian Canadians Asian Australians Asian New Zealanders Asian Pacific American Asian pride Category:Racially motivated violence against Asian-Americans Hyphenated American Jade Ribbon Campaign List of Asian-American firsts Index of articles related to Asian Americans The Chicago metropolitan area has an ethnic Chinese population. As of 2010, there are 43,228 Chinese Americans who live in Chicago, 1.6% of the city's population. This population includes native-born Chinese as well as immigrants from Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, and also racially mixed Chinese. Contents 1 History 2 Demographics 3 Institutions 4 Media 5 Education 6 Religion 7 Notable residents 8 References 9 Notes 10 Further reading 11 External links History In 1869 the first transcontinental railway was completed. By that time the first Chinese arrived in Chicago.[1] Early immigrants from China to Chicago came from the lower classes and lower middle classes.[2] The earliest immigrants were Cantonese.[3] In 1874 the Chinese managed one tea shop and 18 laundry businesses in central Chicago. The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act passed by the U.S. Congress restricted Chinese immigration and restricted freedom of travel for existing Chinese, forcing those in Chicago to stay put. At that time some Chinese in Chicago were illegal immigrants. The Chinese Inspector of the Department of Labor deported illegal immigrants who were discovered. According to the 1900 U.S. Census, there were 1,462 Chinese in the city. Chuimei Ho and Soo Lon Moy of the Chinatown Museum Foundation wrote that "there must have been others who avoided government notice."[1] Some Chinese immigration began after the Chinese exclusion laws were repealed in 1943. During the 1950s the Chinese population grew from 3,000 to 6,000. Taiwanese and Hong Kong immigrants settled in Chicago in the 1950s and 1960s. After the People's Republic of China was established in 1949, a new wave of immigrants from the mainland came in the 1950s. The Mandarin-speaking people settled throughout Chicago and the suburbs instead of clustering in the Chinatown area. The 1965 Immigration Act further increased Chinese settlement, with a new wave coming from Mainland China.[3] By 1970 there were 12,000 Chinese in Chicago. After the Fall of Saigon in the 1970s, a wave of ethnic Chinese came from southeast Asia. A new Chinatown opened in Uptown during that decade, and many Southeast Asian refugees were attracted to this new Chinatown. According to the 1990 U.S. Census there were over 23,000 Chinese in the city of Chicago. In the 2000 U.S. Census there were almost 74,000 Chinese in the Chicago metropolitan area, with 34,000 of them in the City of Chicago.[3] Demographics As of 1990 there were about 60,000 ethnic Chinese in the Chicago metropolitan area; of them, about 10,000 Chinese lived in Chinatown's business district and the area south of 26th Street.[4] As of 1995 almost 35,000 Chinese lived in Chicago, and 10,000 Chinese Americans lived in the area holding the Chinatown. The origins of ethnic Chinese Chicagoans include native-born Chinese as well as immigrants from Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, and also racially mixed Chinese. Around 1995 many new immigrants were from agricultural and blue collar working classes and from better educated professional classes.[2] As of 2013 90% of the residents of Chinatown were ethnic Chinese.[5] Institutions The Chinese American Museum of Chicago is in Chinatown. Chinese American Service League is in Chinatown, Chicago. Media As of 1995 Chicago had four daily Chinese newspapers. Chinese-Americans who were bilingual in Chinese and English or who knew English but did not know Chinese had a tendency to read English-language American newspapers. In 1995 there were no English-language Chinese-American newspapers that focus on Chinese-American issues in the Chicago area.[6] In 1983 a Mandarin-language television program opened on Channel 26. In 1989 a Chinese radio station named Global Communication was established.[6] Education In 2003 there were 20 Chinese schools in the Chicago area. Around 2003 an increase in immigration and non-Chinese American parents sending adopted Chinese children to Chinese schools caused enrollment figures of Chinese schools in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago to increase.[7] Religion Compared to Chinese in China, there is a higher proportion of Christians among the Chinese in Chicago. Chinese Christians operate their own missions. The Chinese Christian Union Church, an interdenominational church, has its main facility on Wentworth Avenue in Chicago and satellite facilities in the suburbs and in Bridgeport. Chinese Catholics, many of whom originate from Hong Kong and had converted to Christianity, attend the St. Marie Incoronata, an Italian Catholic church on Alexander Street. The St. Therese School, founded by the Maryknoll Sisters, was established for the Chinese community.[6] Christians in the United States attempted to convert Chinese from their native religions after the Chinese began arriving. The earliest recorded Chinese Baptist mission was one that opened on Clark Street, in the Chinese area, in 1878. In the early 20th century, of all cities, Chicago had the largest number of Chinese Sunday schools. In the South Side and West Side of Chicago, these smaller Chinese Sunday schools opened near laundry businesses operated by Chinese. By 1995 these Sunday Schools ceased to exist. Franciscan priests and nuns established the first Catholic missions for Chinese people.[6] Notable residents John Chiang Chloe Wang (Chloe Bennet) San Francisco (/ˌsæn frənˈsɪskoʊ/ SAN frən-SISS-koh; Spanish for 'Saint Francis'), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous city in California, with 808,437 residents, and the 17th most populous city in the United States as of 2022.[16] The city covers a land area of 46.9 square miles (121 square kilometers)[24] at the end of the San Francisco Peninsula, making it the second-most densely populated large U.S. city after New York City and the fifth-most densely populated U.S. county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs. Among the 91 U.S. cities proper with over 250,000 residents, San Francisco was ranked first by per capita income[25] and sixth by aggregate income as of 2021.[26] Colloquial nicknames for San Francisco include Frisco, San Fran, The City, and SF (although San Fran is generally not used by locals).[27][28] Prior to European colonization, the modern city proper was inhabited by the Yelamu, who spoke a language now referred to as Ramaytush Ohlone. On June 29, 1776, settlers from New Spain established the Presidio of San Francisco at the Golden Gate, and the Mission San Francisco de Asís a few miles away, both named for Francis of Assisi.[4] The California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, transforming an unimportant hamlet into a busy port, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time; between 1870 and 1900, approximately one quarter of California's population resided in the city proper.[26] In 1856, San Francisco became a consolidated city-county.[29] After three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire,[30] it was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, it was a major port of embarkation for naval service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater.[31] In 1945, the United Nations Charter was signed in San Francisco, establishing the United Nations before permanently relocating to Manhattan, and in 1951, the Treaty of San Francisco re-established peaceful relations between Japan and the Allied Powers.[32][33][34] After the war, the confluence of returning servicemen, significant immigration, liberalizing attitudes, the rise of the beatnik and hippie countercultures, the sexual revolution, the peace movement growing from opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, and other factors led to the Summer of Love and the gay rights movement, cementing San Francisco as a center of liberal activism in the United States. San Francisco and the surrounding San Francisco Bay Area are a global center of economic activity and the arts and sciences,[35][36] spurred by leading universities,[37] high-tech, healthcare, finance, insurance, real estate, and professional services sectors.[38] As of 2020, the metropolitan area, with 6.7 million residents, ranked 5th by GDP ($874 billion) and 2nd by GDP per capita ($131,082) across the OECD countries, ahead of global cities like Paris, London, and Singapore.[39][40][41] San Francisco anchors the 13th most populous metropolitan statistical area in the United States with 4.6 million residents, and the fourth-largest by aggregate income and economic output, with a GDP of $669 billion in 2021.[42] The wider San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland Combined Statistical Area is the fifth-most populous, with 9.5 million residents, and the third-largest by economic output, with a GDP of $1.1 trillion in 2021. In the same year, San Francisco proper had a GDP of $236.4 billion, and a GDP per capita of $289,990.[42] San Francisco was ranked fifth in the world and second in the United States on the Global Financial Centres Index as of March 2023.[43] The city houses the headquarters of numerous companies inside and outside of technology, including Wells Fargo, Salesforce, Uber, Airbnb, Twitter, Levi's, Gap, Dropbox, and Lyft. In 2022, San Francisco had over 1.7 million international visitors - the fifth-most visited city from abroad in the United States after New York City, Miami, Orlando, and Los Angeles - and approximately 20 million domestic visitors for a total of 21.9 million visitors.[44][45] The city is known for its steep rolling hills and eclectic mix of architecture across varied neighborhoods, as well as its cool summers, fog, and landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, Alcatraz, along with the Chinatown and Mission districts.[46] The city is home to a number of educational and cultural institutions, such as the University of California, San Francisco, the University of San Francisco, San Francisco State University, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the de Young Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Ballet, the San Francisco Opera, the SFJAZZ Center, and the California Academy of Sciences. Two major league sports teams, the San Francisco Giants and the Golden State Warriors, play their home games within San Francisco proper. San Francisco's main international airport offers flights to over 125 destinations while a light rail and bus network, in tandem with the BART and Caltrain systems, connects nearly every part of San Francisco with the wider region.[47][48] Etymology See also: List of San Francisco placename etymologies San Francisco, which is Spanish for "Saint Francis", takes its name from Mission San Francisco de Asís, which in turn was named after Saint Francis of Assisi. The mission received its name in 1776, when it was founded by the Spanish under the leadership of Padre Francisco Palóu. The city has officially been known as San Francisco since 1847, when Washington Allon Bartlett, then serving as the city's alcalde, renamed it from Yerba Buena (Spanish for "Good Herb"), which had been name used throughout the Spanish and Mexican eras since approximately 1776. The name Yerba Buena continues to be used in locations in the city, such as on Yerba Buena Island and in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Yerba Buena Gardens. While residents outside the San Francisco Bay Area use nicknames including Frisco, San Fran, and SF, local residents in the Bay Area sometimes refer to San Francisco as "the City";[1] for residents of San Francisco living in the more suburban parts of the city, "the City" generally refers to the more densely populated downtown areas around Market Street. Its use, or lack thereof, is a common way for locals to distinguish long-time residents from tourists and recent arrivals. "San Fran" and "Frisco" are sometimes considered controversial as nicknames among San Francisco residents.[49][50][51] History See also: History of San Francisco For a chronological guide, see Timeline of San Francisco. Indigenous history The earliest archeological evidence of human habitation of the territory of San Francisco dates to 3000 BCE.[52] The Yelamu group of the Ramaytush people resided in a few small villages when an overland Spanish exploration party arrived on November 2, 1769, the first documented European visit to San Francisco Bay.[53] The Ohlone name for San Francisco was Ahwaste, meaning, "place at the bay".[54] The arrival of Spanish colonists, and the implementation of their Mission system, marked the beginning of the genocide of the Ramaytush people, and the end of their language and culture. Spanish era Juan Bautista de Anza established the Presidio of San Francisco for the Spanish Empire in 1776. Mission San Francisco de Asís was founded by Padre Francisco Palóu on October 9, 1776. The Spanish Empire claimed San Francisco as part of Las Californias, a province of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. The Spanish first arrived in what is now San Francisco on November 2, 1769, when the Portolá expedition led by Don Gaspar de Portolá and Juan Crespí arrived at San Francisco Bay. Having noted the strategic benefits of the area due to its large natural harbor, the Spanish dispatched Pedro Fages in 1770 to find a more direct route to the San Francisco Peninsula from Monterey, which would become part of the El Camino Real route. By 1774, Juan Bautista de Anza had arrived to the area to select the sites for a mission and presidio. The first European maritime presence in San Francisco Bay occurred on August 5, 1775, when the Spanish ship San Carlos, commanded by Juan Manuel de Ayala, became the first ship to anchor in the bay.[55] Soon after, on March 28, 1776, Anza established the Presidio of San Francisco. On October 9, Mission San Francisco de Asís, also known as Mission Dolores, was founded by Padre Francisco Palóu.[4] In 1794, the Presidio established the Castillo de San Joaquín, a fortification on the southern side of the Golden Gate, which later came to be known as Fort Point. In 1804, the province of Alta California was created, which included San Francisco. At its peak in 1810–1820, the average population at the Mission Dolores settlement was about 1,100 people.[56] Mexican era Juana Briones de Miranda, known as the "Founding Mother of San Francisco"[57] In 1821, the Californias were ceded to Mexico by Spain. The extensive California mission system gradually lost its influence during the period of Mexican rule. Agricultural land became largely privatized as ranchos, as was occurring in other parts of California. Coastal trade increased, including a half-dozen barques from various Atlantic ports which regularly sailed in California waters.[58][59] Yerba Buena (after a native herb), a trading post with settlements between the Presidio and Mission grew up around the Plaza de Yerba Buena. The plaza was later renamed Portsmouth Square (now located in the city's Chinatown and Financial District). The Presidio was commanded in 1833 by Captain Mariano G. Vallejo.[58] In 1833, Juana Briones de Miranda built her rancho near El Polín Spring, founding the first civilian household in San Francisco, which had previously only been comprised by the military settlement at the Presidio and the religious settlement at Mission Dolores.[57] In 1834, Francisco de Haro became the first Alcalde of Yerba Buena. De Haro was a native of Mexico, from that nation's west coast city of Compostela, Nayarit. A land survey of Yerba Buena was made by the Swiss immigrant Jean Jacques Vioget as prelude to the city plan. The second Alcalde José Joaquín Estudillo was a Californio from a prominent Monterey family. In 1835, while in office, he approved the first land grant in Yerba Buena: to William Richardson, a naturalized Mexican citizen of English birth. Richardson had arrived in San Francisco aboard a whaling ship in 1822. In 1825, he married Maria Antonia Martinez, eldest daughter of the Californio Ygnacio Martínez.[60][a] The 1846 Battle of Yerba Buena was an early U.S. victory in the American conquest of California. Yerba Buena began to attract American and European settlers; an 1842 census listed 21 residents (11%) born in the United States or Europe, as well as one Filipino merchant.[61] Following the Bear Flag Revolt in Sonoma and the beginning of the U.S. Conquest of California, American forces under the command of John B. Montgomery captured Yerba Buena on July 9, 1846, with little resistance from the local Californio population. At the end of the month, the Brooklyn arrived with a group of Mormon settlers, who had departed New York City six months earlier. Following the capture, U.S. forces appointed both José de Jesús Noé and Washington Allon Bartlett to serve as co-alcaldes (mayors), while the conquest continued on in the rest of California. Following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, Alta California was ceded from Mexico to the United States. Post-Conquest era San Francisco in 1849, during the beginning of the California Gold Rush Port of San Francisco in 1851 Despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, post-Conquest San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography.[62] Its 1847 population was said to be 459.[58] The California Gold Rush brought a flood of treasure seekers (known as "forty-niners", as in "1849"). With their sourdough bread in tow,[63] prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia,[64] raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849.[65] The promise of wealth was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor.[66] Some of these approximately 500 abandoned ships were used at times as storeships, saloons, and hotels; many were left to rot, and some were sunk to establish title to the underwater lot. By 1851, the harbor was extended out into the bay by wharves while buildings were erected on piles among the ships. By 1870, Yerba Buena Cove had been filled to create new land. Buried ships are occasionally exposed when foundations are dug for new buildings.[67] California was quickly granted statehood in 1850, and the U.S. military built Fort Point at the Golden Gate and a fort on Alcatraz Island to secure the San Francisco Bay. San Francisco County was one of the state's 18 original counties established at California statehood in 1850.[68] Until 1856, San Francisco's city limits extended west to Divisadero Street and Castro Street, and south to 20th Street. In 1856, the California state government divided the county. A straight line was then drawn across the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula just north of San Bruno Mountain. Everything south of the line became the new San Mateo County while everything north of the line became the new consolidated City and County of San Francisco.[69] The Bank of California, established in 1863, was the first commercial bank in Western United States.[70] Entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the wealth generated by the Gold Rush. Silver discoveries, including the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1859, further drove rapid population growth.[71] With hordes of fortune seekers streaming through the city, lawlessness was common, and the Barbary Coast section of town gained notoriety as a haven for criminals, prostitution, bootlegging, and gambling.[72] Early winners were the banking industry, with the founding of Wells Fargo in 1852 and the Bank of California in 1864. Development of the Port of San Francisco and the establishment in 1869 of overland access to the eastern U.S. rail system via the newly completed Pacific Railroad (the construction of which the city only reluctantly helped support[73]) helped make the Bay Area a center for trade. Catering to the needs and tastes of the growing population, Levi Strauss opened a dry goods business and Domingo Ghirardelli began manufacturing chocolate. Chinese immigrants made the city a polyglot culture, drawn to "Old Gold Mountain", creating the city's Chinatown quarter. By 1880, Chinese made up 9.3% of the population.[74] View of the city in 1878 The first cable cars carried San Franciscans up Clay Street in 1873. The city's sea of Victorian houses began to take shape, and civic leaders campaigned for a spacious public park, resulting in plans for Golden Gate Park. San Franciscans built schools, churches, theaters, and all the hallmarks of civic life. The Presidio developed into the most important American military installation on the Pacific coast.[75] By 1890, San Francisco's population approached 300,000, making it the eighth-largest city in the United States at the time. Around 1901, San Francisco was a major city known for its flamboyant style, stately hotels, ostentatious mansions on Nob Hill, and a thriving arts scene.[76] The first North American plague epidemic was the San Francisco plague of 1900–1904.[77] 1906 earthquake and interwar era The 1906 San Francisco earthquake was the deadliest earthquake in U.S. history. At 5:12 am on April 18, 1906, a major earthquake struck San Francisco and northern California. As buildings collapsed from the shaking, ruptured gas lines ignited fires that spread across the city and burned out of control for several days. With water mains out of service, the Presidio Artillery Corps attempted to contain the inferno by dynamiting blocks of buildings to create firebreaks.[78] More than three-quarters of the city lay in ruins, including almost all of the downtown core.[30] Contemporary accounts reported that 498 people died, though modern estimates put the number in the several thousands.[79] More than half of the city's population of 400,000 was left homeless.[80] Refugees settled temporarily in makeshift tent villages in Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, on the beaches, and elsewhere. Many fled permanently to the East Bay. Jack London is remembered for having famously eulogized the earthquake: "Not in history has a modern imperial city been so completely destroyed. San Francisco is gone."[81] The reconstruction of San Francisco City Hall on Civic Center Plaza, c. 1913–16 Rebuilding was rapid and performed on a grand scale. Rejecting calls to completely remake the street grid, San Franciscans opted for speed.[82] Amadeo Giannini's Bank of Italy, later to become Bank of America, provided loans for many of those whose livelihoods had been devastated. The influential San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association or SPUR was founded in 1910 to address the quality of housing after the earthquake.[83] The earthquake hastened development of western neighborhoods that survived the fire, including Pacific Heights, where many of the city's wealthy rebuilt their homes.[84] In turn, the destroyed mansions of Nob Hill became grand hotels. City Hall rose again in the Beaux Arts style, and the city celebrated its rebirth at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in 1915.[85] The Panama–Pacific Exposition, a major world's fair held in 1915, was seen as a chance to showcase the city's recovery from the earthquake. During this period, San Francisco built some of its most important infrastructure. Civil Engineer Michael O'Shaughnessy was hired by San Francisco Mayor James Rolph as chief engineer for the city in September 1912 to supervise the construction of the Twin Peaks Reservoir, the Stockton Street Tunnel, the Twin Peaks Tunnel, the San Francisco Municipal Railway, the Auxiliary Water Supply System, and new sewers. San Francisco's streetcar system, of which the J, K, L, M, and N lines survive today, was pushed to completion by O'Shaughnessy between 1915 and 1927. It was the O'Shaughnessy Dam, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, and Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct that would have the largest effect on San Francisco.[86] An abundant water supply enabled San Francisco to develop into the city it has become today. The Bay Bridge under construction on Yerba Buena Island in 1935 In ensuing years, the city solidified its standing as a financial capital; in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash, not a single San Francisco-based bank failed.[87] Indeed, it was at the height of the Great Depression that San Francisco undertook two great civil engineering projects, simultaneously constructing the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge, completing them in 1936 and 1937, respectively. It was in this period that the island of Alcatraz, a former military stockade, began its service as a federal maximum security prison, housing notorious inmates such as Al Capone, and Robert Franklin Stroud, the Birdman of Alcatraz. San Francisco later celebrated its regained grandeur with a World's fair, the Golden Gate International Exposition in 1939–40, creating Treasure Island in the middle of the bay to house it.[88] Contemporary era See also: San Francisco in the 1970s The United Nations was created in San Francisco in 1945, when the United Nations Charter was signed at the San Francisco Conference. During World War II, the city-owned Sharp Park in Pacifica was used as an internment camp to detain Japanese Americans.[89] Hunters Point Naval Shipyard became a hub of activity, and Fort Mason became the primary port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater of Operations.[31] The explosion of jobs drew many people, especially African Americans from the South, to the area. After the end of the war, many military personnel returning from service abroad and civilians who had originally come to work decided to stay. The United Nations Charter creating the United Nations was drafted and signed in San Francisco in 1945 and, in 1951, the Treaty of San Francisco re-established peaceful relations between Japan and the Allied Powers.[90] Urban planning projects in the 1950s and 1960s involved widespread destruction and redevelopment of west-side neighborhoods and the construction of new freeways, of which only a series of short segments were built before being halted by citizen-led opposition.[91] The onset of containerization made San Francisco's small piers obsolete, and cargo activity moved to the larger Port of Oakland.[92] The city began to lose industrial jobs and turned to tourism as the most important segment of its economy.[93] The suburbs experienced rapid growth, and San Francisco underwent significant demographic change, as large segments of the white population left the city, supplanted by an increasing wave of immigration from Asia and Latin America.[94][95] From 1950 to 1980, the city lost over 10 percent of its population. The Summer of Love in 1967 was an influential counterculture phenomenon with as many as 100,000 people converging in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. Over this period, San Francisco became a magnet for America's counterculture movement. Beat Generation writers fueled the San Francisco Renaissance and centered on the North Beach neighborhood in the 1950s.[96] Hippies flocked to Haight-Ashbury in the 1960s, reaching a peak with the 1967 Summer of Love.[97] In 1974, the Zebra murders left at least 16 people dead.[98] In the 1970s, the city became a center of the gay rights movement, with the emergence of The Castro as an urban gay village, the election of Harvey Milk to the Board of Supervisors, and his assassination, along with that of Mayor George Moscone, in 1978.[99] Bank of America, now based in Charlotte, North Carolina, was founded in San Francisco; the bank completed 555 California Street in 1969. The Transamerica Pyramid was completed in 1972,[100] igniting a wave of "Manhattanization" that lasted until the late 1980s, a period of extensive high-rise development downtown.[101] The 1980s also saw a dramatic increase in the number of homeless people in the city, an issue that remains today, despite many attempts to address it.[102] Transamerica Pyramid, built in 1972, characterized the Manhattanization of the city's skyline in the 1970–80's. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake caused destruction and loss of life throughout the Bay Area. In San Francisco, the quake severely damaged structures in the Marina and South of Market districts and precipitated the demolition of the damaged Embarcadero Freeway and much of the damaged Central Freeway, allowing the city to reclaim The Embarcadero as its historic downtown waterfront and revitalizing the Hayes Valley neighborhood.[103] The two recent decades have seen booms driven by the internet industry. During the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, startup companies invigorated the San Francisco economy. Large numbers of entrepreneurs and computer application developers moved into the city, followed by marketing, design, and sales professionals, changing the social landscape as once poorer neighborhoods became increasingly gentrified.[104] Demand for new housing and office space ignited a second wave of high-rise development, this time in the South of Market district.[105] By 2000, the city's population reached new highs, surpassing the previous record set in 1950. When the bubble burst in 2001 and again in 2023, many of these companies folded and their employees were laid off. Yet high technology and entrepreneurship remain mainstays of the San Francisco economy. By the mid-2000s (decade), the social media boom had begun, with San Francisco becoming a popular location for tech offices and a common place to live for people employed in Silicon Valley companies such as Apple and Google.[106] The early 2020s featured an exodus of tech companies from Downtown San Francisco, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic; although San Francisco has since been widely characterized in the media to have entered an indefinite economic doom loop,[107][108] other sources have refuted this broad-based characterization of the city as a whole, asserting that the issues of concern are restricted primarily to the urban core of San Francisco.[109] The Ferry Station Post Office Building, Armour & Co. Building, Atherton House, and YMCA Hotel are historic buildings among dozens of historical landmarks in the city, according to the National Register of Historic Places listings in San Francisco.[110] Geography Satellite view of San Francisco San Francisco is located on the West Coast of the United States, at the north end of the San Francisco Peninsula and includes significant stretches of the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay within its boundaries. Several picturesque islands—Alcatraz, Treasure Island and the adjacent Yerba Buena Island, and small portions of Alameda Island, Red Rock Island, and Angel Island—are part of the city. Also included are the uninhabited Farallon Islands, 27 miles (43 km) offshore in the Pacific Ocean. The mainland within the city limits roughly forms a "seven-by-seven-mile square", a common local colloquialism referring to the city's shape, though its total area, including water, is nearly 232 square miles (600 km2). There are more than 50 hills within the city limits.[111] Some neighborhoods are named after the hill on which they are situated, including Nob Hill, Potrero Hill, and Russian Hill. Near the geographic center of the city, southwest of the downtown area, are a series of less densely populated hills. Twin Peaks, a pair of hills forming one of the city's highest points, forms an overlook spot. San Francisco's tallest hill, Mount Davidson, is 928 feet (283 m) high and is capped with a 103-foot (31 m) tall cross built in 1934.[112] Dominating this area is Sutro Tower, a large red and white radio and television transmission tower reaching 1,811 ft (552 m) above sea level. Lake Merced, located in southwestern San Francisco The nearby San Andreas and Hayward Faults are responsible for much earthquake activity, although neither physically passes through the city itself. The San Andreas Fault caused the earthquakes in 1906 and 1989. Minor earthquakes occur on a regular basis. The threat of major earthquakes plays a large role in the city's infrastructure development. The city constructed an auxiliary water supply system and has repeatedly upgraded its building codes, requiring retrofits for older buildings and higher engineering standards for new construction.[113] However, there are still thousands of smaller buildings that remain vulnerable to quake damage.[114] USGS has released the California earthquake forecast which models earthquake occurrence in California.[115] San Francisco's shoreline has grown beyond its natural limits. Entire neighborhoods such as the Marina, Mission Bay, and Hunters Point, as well as large sections of the Embarcadero, sit on areas of landfill. Treasure Island was constructed from material dredged from the bay as well as material resulting from the excavation of the Yerba Buena Tunnel through Yerba Buena Island during the construction of the Bay Bridge. Such land tends to be unstable during earthquakes. The resulting soil liquefaction causes extensive damage to property built upon it, as was evidenced in the Marina district during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.[116] A few natural lakes and creeks (Lake Merced, Mountain Lake, Pine Lake, Lobos Creek, El Polin Spring) are within parks and remain protected in what is essentially their original form, but most of the city's natural watercourses, such as Islais Creek and Mission Creek, have been partially or completely culverted and built over. Since the 1990s, however, the Public Utilities Commission has been studying proposals to daylight or restore some creeks.[117] Neighborhoods Main articles: Neighborhoods in San Francisco and List of Landmarks and Historic Places in San Francisco See also: List of tallest buildings in San Francisco View of the city's central districts along its northwestern coastline The historic center of San Francisco is the northeast quadrant of the city anchored by Market Street and the waterfront. Here the Financial District is centered, with Union Square, the principal shopping and hotel district, and the Tenderloin nearby. Cable cars carry riders up steep inclines to the summit of Nob Hill, once the home of the city's business tycoons, and down to the waterfront tourist attractions of Fisherman's Wharf, and Pier 39, where many restaurants feature Dungeness crab from a still-active fishing industry. Also in this quadrant are Russian Hill, a residential neighborhood with the famously crooked Lombard Street; North Beach, the city's Little Italy and the former center of the Beat Generation; and Telegraph Hill, which features Coit Tower. Abutting Russian Hill and North Beach is San Francisco's Chinatown, the oldest Chinatown in North America.[118][119][120][121] The South of Market, which was once San Francisco's industrial core, has seen significant redevelopment following the construction of Oracle Park and an infusion of startup companies. New skyscrapers, live-work lofts, and condominiums dot the area. Further development is taking place just to the south in Mission Bay area, a former railroad yard, which now has a second campus of the University of California, San Francisco and Chase Center, which opened in 2019 as the new home of the Golden State Warriors.[122] West of downtown, across Van Ness Avenue, lies the large Western Addition neighborhood, which became established with a large African American population after World War II. The Western Addition is usually divided into smaller neighborhoods including Hayes Valley, the Fillmore, and Japantown, which was once the largest Japantown in North America but suffered when its Japanese American residents were forcibly removed and interned during World War II. The Western Addition survived the 1906 earthquake with its Victorians largely intact, including the famous "Painted Ladies", standing alongside Alamo Square. To the south, near the geographic center of the city is Haight-Ashbury, famously associated with 1960s hippie culture.[123] The Haight is now[timeframe?] home to some expensive boutiques[124][better source needed] and a few controversial chain stores,[125] although it still retains[timeframe?][citation needed] some bohemian character. San Francisco Chinatown, the oldest in North America and one of the world's largest. North of the Western Addition is Pacific Heights, an affluent neighborhood that features the homes built by wealthy San Franciscans in the wake of the 1906 earthquake. Directly north of Pacific Heights facing the waterfront is the Marina, a neighborhood popular with young professionals that was largely built on reclaimed land from the Bay.[126] In the southeast quadrant of the city is the Mission District—populated in the 19th century by Californios and working-class immigrants from Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Scandinavia. In the 1910s, a wave of Central American immigrants settled in the Mission and, in the 1950s, immigrants from Mexico began to predominate.[127] In recent years, gentrification has changed the demographics of parts of the Mission from Latino, to twenty-something professionals. Noe Valley to the southwest and Bernal Heights to the south are both increasingly popular among young families with children. East of the Mission is the Potrero Hill neighborhood, a mostly residential neighborhood that features sweeping views of downtown San Francisco. West of the Mission, the area historically known as Eureka Valley, now popularly called the Castro, was once a working-class Scandinavian and Irish area. It has become North America's first gay village, and is now the center of gay life in the city.[128] Located near the city's southern border, the Excelsior District is one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in San Francisco. The Bayview-Hunters Point in the far southeast corner of the city is one of the poorest neighborhoods, though the area has been the focus of several revitalizing and urban renewal projects. The Ferry Building, located in the Embarcadero, the city's eastern waterfront along San Francisco Bay The construction of the Twin Peaks Tunnel in 1918 connected southwest neighborhoods to downtown via streetcar, hastening the development of West Portal, and nearby affluent Forest Hill and St. Francis Wood. Further west, stretching all the way to the Pacific Ocean and north to Golden Gate Park lies the vast Sunset District, a large middle-class area with a predominantly Asian population.[129] The northwestern quadrant of the city contains the Richmond, a mostly middle-class neighborhood north of Golden Gate Park, home to immigrants from other parts of Asia as well as many Russian and Ukrainian immigrants. Together, these areas are known as The Avenues. These two districts are each sometimes further divided into two regions: the Outer Richmond and Outer Sunset can refer to the more western portions of their respective district and the Inner Richmond and Inner Sunset can refer to the more eastern portions. Many piers remained derelict for years until the demolition of the Embarcadero Freeway reopened the downtown waterfront, allowing for redevelopment. The centerpiece of the port, the Ferry Building, while still receiving commuter ferry traffic, has been restored and redeveloped as a gourmet marketplace. Climate San Francisco fog is a regular phenomenon in the summer. San Francisco has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb), characteristic of California's coast, with moist, mild winters and dry summers.[130] San Francisco's weather is strongly influenced by the cool currents of the Pacific Ocean on the west side of the city, and the water of San Francisco Bay to the north and east. This moderates temperature swings and produces a remarkably mild year-round climate with little seasonal temperature variation.[131] Among major U.S. cities, San Francisco has the coolest daily mean, maximum, and minimum temperatures for June, July, and August.[132] During the summer, rising hot air in California's interior valleys creates a low-pressure area that draws winds from the North Pacific High through the Golden Gate, which creates the city's characteristic cool winds and fog.[133] The fog is less pronounced in eastern neighborhoods and during the late summer and early fall. As a result, the year's warmest month, on average, is September, and on average, October is warmer than July, especially in daytime. Temperatures reach or exceed 80 °F (27 °C) on an average of only 21 and 23 days a year at downtown and San Francisco International Airport (SFO), respectively.[134] The dry period of May to October is mild to warm, with the normal monthly mean temperature peaking in September at 62.7 °F (17.1 °C).[134] The rainy period of November to April is slightly cooler, with the normal monthly mean temperature reaching its lowest in January at 51.3 °F (10.7 °C).[134] On average, there are 73 rainy days a year, and annual precipitation averages 23.65 inches (601 mm).[134] Variation in precipitation from year to year is high. Above-average rain years are often associated with warm El Niño conditions in the Pacific while dry years often occur in cold water La Niña periods. In 2013 (a "La Niña" year), a record low 5.59 in (142 mm) of rainfall was recorded at downtown San Francisco, where records have been kept since 1849.[134] Snowfall in the city is very rare, with only 10 measurable accumulations recorded since 1852, most recently in 1976 when up to 5 inches (13 cm) fell on Twin Peaks.[135][136] The Farallon Islands are located in the Gulf of the Farallones, off the Pacific coast of San Francisco. The highest recorded temperature at the official National Weather Service downtown observation station[b] was 106 °F (41 °C) on September 1, 2017.[138] During that hot spell, the warmest ever night of 71 °F (22 °C) was also recorded.[139] The lowest recorded temperature was 27 °F (−3 °C) on December 11, 1932.[140] The National Weather Service provides a helpful visual aid[141] graphing the information in the table below to display visually by month the annual typical temperatures, the past year's temperatures, and record temperatures.[importance?] During an average year between 1991 and 2020, San Francisco recorded a warmest night at 64 °F (18 °C) and a coldest day at 49 °F (9 °C).[134] The coldest daytime high since the station's opening in 1945 was recorded in December 1972 at 37 °F (3 °C).[134] As a coastal city, San Francisco will be heavily affected by climate change. As of 2021, sea levels are projected to rise by as much as 5 feet (1.5 m), resulting in periodic flooding, rising groundwater levels, and lowland floods from more severe storms.[142] San Francisco falls under the USDA 10b Plant hardiness zone, though some areas, particularly downtown, border zone 11a.[143][144] vte Climate data for San Francisco (downtown),[c] 1991–2020 normals,[d] extremes 1849–present Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Record high °F (°C) 79 (26) 81 (27) 87 (31) 94 (34) 97 (36) 103 (39) 99 (37) 98 (37) 106 (41) 102 (39) 86 (30) 76 (24) 106 (41) Mean maximum °F (°C) 67.1 (19.5) 71.8 (22.1) 76.4 (24.7) 80.7 (27.1) 81.4 (27.4) 84.6 (29.2) 80.5 (26.9) 83.4 (28.6) 90.8 (32.7) 87.9 (31.1) 75.8 (24.3) 66.4 (19.1) 94.0 (34.4) Average high °F (°C) 57.8 (14.3) 60.4 (15.8) 62.1 (16.7) 63.0 (17.2) 64.1 (17.8) 66.5 (19.2) 66.3 (19.1) 67.9 (19.9) 70.2 (21.2) 69.8 (21.0) 63.7 (17.6) 57.9 (14.4) 64.1 (17.8) Daily mean °F (°C) 52.2 (11.2) 54.2 (12.3) 55.5 (13.1) 56.4 (13.6) 57.8 (14.3) 59.7 (15.4) 60.3 (15.7) 61.7 (16.5) 62.9 (17.2) 62.1 (16.7) 57.2 (14.0) 52.5 (11.4) 57.7 (14.3) Average low °F (°C) 46.6 (8.1) 47.9 (8.8) 48.9 (9.4) 49.7 (9.8) 51.4 (10.8) 53.0 (11.7) 54.4 (12.4) 55.5 (13.1) 55.6 (13.1) 54.4 (12.4) 50.7 (10.4) 47.0 (8.3) 51.3 (10.7) Mean minimum °F (°C) 40.5 (4.7) 42.0 (5.6) 43.7 (6.5) 45.0 (7.2) 48.0 (8.9) 50.1 (10.1) 51.6 (10.9) 52.9 (11.6) 52.0 (11.1) 49.9 (9.9) 44.9 (7.2) 40.7 (4.8) 38.8 (3.8) Record low °F (°C) 29 (−2) 31 (−1) 33 (1) 40 (4) 42 (6) 46 (8) 47 (8) 46 (8) 47 (8) 43 (6) 38 (3) 27 (−3) 27 (−3) Average precipitation inches (mm) 4.40 (112) 4.37 (111) 3.15 (80) 1.60 (41) 0.70 (18) 0.20 (5.1) 0.01 (0.25) 0.06 (1.5) 0.10 (2.5) 0.94 (24) 2.60 (66) 4.76 (121) 22.89 (581) Average precipitation days (≥ 0.01 in) 11.2 10.8 10.8 6.8 4.0 1.6 0.7 1.1 1.2 3.5 7.9 11.6 71.2 Average relative humidity (%) 80 77 75 72 72 71 75 75 73 71 75 78 75 Mean monthly sunshine hours 185.9 207.7 269.1 309.3 325.1 311.4 313.3 287.4 271.4 247.1 173.4 160.6 3,061.7 Percent possible sunshine 61 69 73 78 74 70 70 68 73 71 57 54 69 Average ultraviolet index 2 3 5 7 9 10 10 9 7 5 3 2 6 Source 1: NOAA (sun 1961–1974)[134][145][146][147] Source 2: Met Office (humidity)[148], Weather Atlas (UV)[149] Time Series Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki wiki. See or edit raw graph data. Ecology Aerial view of the Presidio of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Historically, tule elk were present in San Francisco County, based on archeological evidence of elk remains in at least five different Native American shellmounds: at Hunter's Point, Fort Mason, Stevenson Street, Market Street, and Yerba Buena.[150][151] Perhaps the first historical observer record was from the De Anza Expedition on March 23, 1776. Herbert Eugene Bolton wrote about the expedition camp at Mountain Lake, near the southern end of today's Presidio: "Round about were grazing deer, and scattered here and there were the antlers of large elk."[152] Also, when Richard Henry Dana Jr. visited San Francisco Bay in 1835, he wrote about vast elk herds near the Golden Gate: on December 27 "...we came to anchor near the mouth of the bay, under a high and beautifully sloping hill, upon which herds of hundreds and hundreds of red deer [note: "red deer" is the European term for "elk"], and the stag, with his high branching antlers, were bounding about...", although it is not clear whether this was the Marin side or the San Francisco side.[153] Demographics Main article: Demographics of San Francisco Historical population Year Pop. ±% 1848 1,000 —     1849 25,000 +2400.0% 1852 34,776 +39.1% 1860 56,802 +63.3% 1870 149,473 +163.1% 1880 233,959 +56.5% 1890 298,997 +27.8% 1900 342,782 +14.6% 1910 416,912 +21.6% 1920 506,676 +21.5% 1930 634,394 +25.2% 1940 634,536 +0.0% 1950 775,357 +22.2% 1960 740,316 −4.5% 1970 715,674 −3.3% 1980 678,974 −5.1% 1990 723,959 +6.6% 2000 776,733 +7.3% 2010 805,235 +3.7% 2020 873,965 +8.5% 2022 808,437 −7.5% U.S. Decennial Census[154] 2020–2022[16] The 2020 United States census showed San Francisco's population to be 873,965, an increase of 8.5% from the 2010 census.[155] With roughly one-quarter the population density of Manhattan, San Francisco is the second-most densely populated large American city, behind only New York City among cities greater than 200,000 population, and the fifth-most densely populated U.S. county, following only four of the five New York City boroughs. San Francisco is part of the five-county San Francisco–Oakland–Hayward, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 4.7 million people (13th most populous in the U.S.), and has served as its traditional demographic focal point. It is also part of the greater 14-county San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area, whose population is over 9.6 million, making it the fifth-largest in the United States as of 2018.[156] Race, ethnicity, religion, and languages Ethnic origins in San Francisco San Francisco has a majority minority population, as non-Hispanic whites comprise less than half of the population, 41.9%, down from 92.5% in 1940.[157] As of the 2020 census, the racial makeup and population of San Francisco included: 361,382 Whites (41.3%), 296,505 Asians (33.9%), 46,725 African Americans (5.3%), 86,233 Multiracial Americans (9.9%), 6,475 Native Americans and Alaska Natives (0.7%), 3,476 Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders (0.4%) and 73,169 persons of other races (8.4%). There were 136,761 Hispanics or Latinos of any race (15.6%). In 2010, residents of Chinese ethnicity constituted the largest single ethnic minority group in San Francisco at 21% of the population; other large Asian groups include Filipinos (5%) and Vietnamese (2%), with Japanese, Koreans and many other Asian and Pacific Islander groups represented in the city.[158] The population of Chinese ancestry is most heavily concentrated in Chinatown and the Sunset and Richmond Districts. Filipinos are most concentrated in SoMa and the Crocker-Amazon; the latter neighborhood shares a border with Daly City, which has one of the highest concentrations of Filipinos in North America.[158][159] The Tenderloin District is home to a large portion of the city's Vietnamese population as well as businesses and restaurants, which is known as the city's Little Saigon.[158] The principal Hispanic groups in the city were those of Mexican (7%) and Salvadoran (2%) ancestry. The Hispanic population is most heavily concentrated in the Mission District, Tenderloin District, and Excelsior District.[160] The city's percentage of Hispanic residents is less than half of that of the state. African Americans constitute 6% of San Francisco's population,[157] a percentage similar to that for California as a whole.[161] The majority of the city's black population reside within the neighborhoods of Bayview-Hunters Point, Visitacion Valley, and the Fillmore District.[160] There are smaller, yet sizeable Black communities in Diamond Heights, Glen Park, and Mission District. The city has long been home to a significant Jewish community, today Jewish Americans make up 10% (80,000) of the city's population as of 2018. The Jewish population of San Francisco is relatively young compared to many other major cities, and at 10% of the population, San Francisco has the third-largest Jewish community in terms of percentages after New York City, and Los Angeles, respectively.[162] The Jewish community is one of the largest minority groups in the city and is scattered throughout the city, but the Richmond District is home to an ethnic enclave of mostly Russian Jews.[163] The Fillmore District was formerly a mostly Jewish neighborhood from the 1920s until the 1970s, when many of its Jewish residents moved to other neighborhoods of the city as well as the suburbs of nearby Marin County.[164] Demographic profile[165] 1860 1880 1920 1960 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020[166] Non-Hispanic White alone 90.2% 87.7% 93.5% 72.7% 52.8% 46.9% 43.5% 41.7% 39.1% Non-Hispanic Asian alone 4.6% 9.3% 2.7% 7.9% 21.3% 28.0% 30.7% 33.1% 33.7% — Chinese American 4.6% 9.3% 1.5% 5.1% 12.1% 17.6% 20.0% 19.8% 21.0% — Filipino American — — 0.2% 1.5% 5.2% 5.4% 5.0% 4.9% 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, any race(s) 3.0% 2.4% 3.4% 9.4% 12.6% 13.3% 14.2% 15.2% 15.6% — Mexican American 1.8% 1.4% 1.5% 5.1% 5.0% 5.2% 6.0% 7.5% 7.9% Non-Hispanic Black alone 2.1% 0.6% 0.4% 9.7% 12.3% 10.7% 7.6% 6.0% 5.1% Non-Hispanic Pacific Islander alone — — <0.1% — 0.2% 0.4% 0.4% 0.5% 0.3% Non-Hispanic Native American alone <0.1% <0.1% <0.1% 0.1% 0.4% 0.4% 0.3% 0.3% 0.2% Non-Hispanic other — — — 0.2% 0.4% 0.2% 0.3% 0.3% 0.8% Non-Hispanic two or more races — — — — — — 3.0% 2.9% 5.2% Foreign-born[e] 50.2% 44.5% 30.1% 20.2% 29.5% 35.4% 38.4% 38.2% 34.2% See also: Demographics of San Francisco § Historical estimates Source: U.S. Census and IPUMS USA[165] Map of racial distribution in San Francisco, 2010 U.S. Census. Each dot is 25 people: ⬤ White ⬤ Black ⬤ Asian ⬤ Hispanic ⬤ Other According to a 2018 study by the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, Jews make up 10% (80,000) of the city's population, making Judaism the second-largest religion in San Francisco after Christianity.[162] A prior 2014 study by the Pew Research Center, the largest religious groupings in San Francisco's metropolitan area are Christians (48%), followed by those of no religion (35%), Hindus (5%), Jews (3%), Buddhists (2%), Muslims (1%) and a variety of other religions have smaller followings. According to the same study by the Pew Research Center, about 20% of residents in the area are Protestant, and 25% professing Roman Catholic beliefs. Meanwhile, 10% of the residents in metropolitan San Francisco identify as agnostics, while 5% identify as atheists.[167][168] As of 2010, 55% (411,728) of San Francisco residents spoke only English at home, while 19% (140,302) spoke a variety of Chinese (mostly Taishanese and Cantonese[169][170]), 12% (88,147) Spanish, 3% (25,767) Tagalog, and 2% (14,017) Russian. In total, 45% (342,693) of San Francisco's population spoke a language at home other than English.[171] Ethnic clustering San Francisco has several prominent Chinese, Mexican, and Filipino neighborhoods including Chinatown and the Mission District. Research collected on the immigrant clusters in the city show that more than half of the Asian population in San Francisco is either Chinese-born (40.3%) or Philippine-born (13.1%), and of the Mexican population 21% were Mexican-born, meaning these are people who recently immigrated to the United States.[172] Between the years of 1990 and 2000, the number of foreign-born residents increased from 33% to nearly 40%.[172] During this same time period, the San Francisco metropolitan area received 850,000 immigrants, ranking third in the United States after Los Angeles and New York.[172] Education, households, and income Sea Cliff is one of the city's most expensive neighborhoods.[173] Of all major cities in the United States, San Francisco has the second-highest percentage of residents with a college degree, second only to Seattle. Over 44% of adults have a bachelor's or higher degree.[174] San Francisco had the highest rate at 7,031 per square mile, or over 344,000 total graduates in the city's 46.7 square miles (121 km2).[175] San Francisco has the highest estimated percentage of gay and lesbian individuals of any of the 50 largest U.S. cities, at 15%.[176] San Francisco also 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.[177] San Francisco ranks third of American cities in median household income[178] with a 2007 value of $65,519.[161] Median family income is $81,136.[161] An emigration of middle-class families has left the city with a lower proportion of children than any other large American city,[179] with the dog population cited as exceeding the child population of 115,000, in 2018.[180] The city's poverty rate is 12%, lower than the national average.[181] Homelessness has been a chronic problem for San Francisco since the early 1970s.[182] The city is believed to have the highest number of homeless inhabitants per capita of any major U.S. city.[183][184] There are 345,811 households in the city, out of which: 133,366 households (39%) were individuals, 109,437 (32%) were opposite-sex married couples, 63,577 (18%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 21,677 (6%) were unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 10,384 (3%) were same-sex married couples or partnerships. The average household size was 2.26; the average family size was 3.11. 452,986 people (56%) lived in rental housing units, and 327,985 people (41%) lived in owner-occupied housing units. The median age of the city population is 38 years. San Francisco declared itself a sanctuary city in 1989, and city officials strengthened the stance in 2013 with its 'Due Process for All' ordinance. The law declared local authorities could not hold immigrants for immigration offenses if they had no violent felonies on their records and did not currently face charges."[185] The city issues a Resident ID Card regardless of the applicant's immigration status.[186] Homelessness See also: Homelessness in the San Francisco Bay Area Homeless encampment under a freeway in San Francisco Homelessness in San Francisco emerged as a major issue in the late 20th century and remains a growing problem in modern times.[187] 8,035 homeless people were counted in San Francisco's 2019 point-in-time street and shelter count. This was an increase of more than 17% over the 2017 count of 6,858 people. 5,180 of the people were living unsheltered on the streets and in parks.[188] 26% of respondents in the 2019 count identified job loss as the primary cause of their homelessness, 18% cited alcohol or drug use, and 13% cited being evicted from their residence.[188] The city of San Francisco has been dramatically increasing its spending to service the growing population homelessness crisis: spending jumped by $241 million in 2016–17 to total $275 million, compared to a budget of just $34 million the previous year. In 2017–18 the budget for combatting homelessness stood at $305 million.[189] In the 2019–2020 budget year, the city budgeted $368 million for homelessness services. In the proposed 2020–2021 budget the city budgeted $850 million for homelessness services.[190] In January 2018 a United Nations special rapporteur on homelessness, Leilani Farha, stated that she was "completely shocked" by San Francisco's homelessness crisis during a visit to the city. She compared the "deplorable conditions" of the homeless camps she witnessed on San Francisco's streets to those she had seen in Mumbai.[189] In May 2020, San Francisco officially sanctioned homeless encampments.[191] Crime Main article: Crime in San Francisco SFPD mounted police officers In 2011, 50 murders were reported, which is 6.1 per 100,000 people.[192] There were about 134 rapes, 3,142 robberies, and about 2,139 assaults. There were about 4,469 burglaries, 25,100 thefts, and 4,210 motor vehicle thefts.[193] The Tenderloin area has the highest crime rate in San Francisco: 70% of the city's violent crimes, and around one-fourth of the city's murders, occur in this neighborhood. The Tenderloin also sees high rates of drug abuse, gang violence, and prostitution.[194] Another area with high crime rates is the Bayview-Hunters Point area. In the first six months of 2015 there were 25 murders compared to 14 in the first six months of 2014. However, the murder rate is still much lower than in past decades.[195] That rate, though, did rise again by the close of 2016. According to the San Francisco Police Department, there were 59 murders in the city in 2016, an annual total that marked a 13.5% increase in the number of homicides (52) from 2015.[196] The city has also gained a reputation for car break-ins, with over 19,000 car break-ins occurring in 2021.[197] During the first half of 2018, human feces on San Francisco sidewalks were the second-most-frequent complaint of city residents, with about 65 calls per day. The city has formed a "poop patrol" to attempt to combat the problem.[198] SFPD parking enforcement officers San Francisco is a center of sexual slavery.[199] In January 2022, CBS News reported that a single suspect was "responsible for more than half of all reported hate crimes against the API community in San Francisco last year," and that he "was allowed to be out of custody despite the number of charges against him."[200] Several street gangs have operated in the city over the decades, including MS-13,[201] the Sureños and Norteños in the Mission District.[202] In 2008, a MS-13 member killed three family members as they were arriving home in the city's Excelsior District. His victims had no relationship with him, nor did they have any known gang or street crime involvement.[203][citation needed] African-American street gangs familiar in other cities, including the Bloods, Crips and their sets, have struggled to establish footholds in San Francisco,[204] while police and prosecutors have been accused of liberally labeling young African-American males as gang members.[205] However, gangs founded in San Francisco with majority Black memberships have made their presence in the city. Criminal gangs with shotcallers in China, including Triad groups such as the Wo Hop To, have been reported active in San Francisco.[206] Economy See also: List of companies based in San Francisco San Francisco's Financial District, despite its declining importance,[207] is still considered the Wall Street of the West. San Francisco has a diversified service economy, with employment spread across a wide range of professional services, including tourism, financial services, and (increasingly) high technology.[208] In 2016, approximately 27% of workers were employed in professional business services; 14% in leisure and hospitality; 13% in government services; 12% in education and health care; 11% in trade, transportation, and utilities; and 8% in financial activities.[208] In 2019, GDP in the five-county San Francisco metropolitan area grew 3.8% in real terms to $592 billion.[209][210] Additionally, in 2019 the 14-county San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland combined statistical area had a GDP of $1.086 trillion,[210] ranking 3rd among CSAs, and ahead of all but 16 countries. As of 2019, San Francisco County was the 7th highest-income county in the United States (among 3,142), with a per capita personal income of $139,405.[211] Marin County, directly to the north over the Golden Gate Bridge, and San Mateo County, directly to the south on the Peninsula, were the 6th and 9th highest-income counties respectively. Skyline of South of Market (SoMa), including Salesforce Tower, the tallest building in San Francisco The legacy of the California Gold Rush turned San Francisco into the principal banking and finance center of the West Coast in the early twentieth century.[212] Montgomery Street in the Financial District became known as the "Wall Street of the West", home to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the Wells Fargo corporate headquarters, and the site of the now-defunct Pacific Coast Stock Exchange.[212] Bank of America, a pioneer in making banking services accessible to the middle class, was founded in San Francisco and in the 1960s, built the landmark modern skyscraper at 555 California Street for its corporate headquarters. eventually moving to Charlotte, North Carolina. Many large financial institutions, multinational banks, and venture capital firms are based in or have regional headquarters in the city. With over 30 international financial institutions,[213] six Fortune 500 companies,[214] and a large supporting infrastructure of professional services—including law, public relations, architecture and design—San Francisco is designated as an Alpha(-) World City.[215] The 2017 Global Financial Centres Index ranked San Francisco as the sixth-most competitive financial center in the world.[216] Beginning in the 1990s, San Francisco's economy diversified away from finance and tourism towards the growing fields of high tech, biotechnology, and medical research.[217] Technology jobs accounted for just 1 percent of San Francisco's economy in 1990, growing to 4 percent in 2010 and an estimated 8 percent by the end of 2013.[218] San Francisco became a center of Internet start-up companies during the dot-com bubble of the 1990s and the subsequent social media boom of the late 2000s (decade).[219] Since 2010, San Francisco proper has attracted an increasing share of venture capital investments as compared to nearby Silicon Valley, attracting 423 financings worth US$4.58 billion in 2013.[220][221][222] In 2004, the city approved a payroll tax exemption for biotechnology companies[223] to foster growth in the Mission Bay neighborhood, site of a second campus and hospital of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Mission Bay hosts the UCSF Medical Center, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, and Gladstone Institutes,[224] as well as more than 40 private-sector life sciences companies.[225] Union Square is a major retail hub for the city and for the Bay Area. According to academic Rob Wilson, San Francisco is a global city, a status that pre-dated the city's popularity during the California Gold Rush.[226] However, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to high office vacancy rates and the closure of many retail and tech businesses in the downtown core of San Francisco.[227][228] Attributed causes include a shift to remote work in the technology and professional services sectors, as well as high levels of homelessness, drug use, and crime in areas around downtown San Francisco, such as the Tenderloin and Mid-Market neighborhoods.[229][230] The top employer in the city is the city government itself, employing 5.6% (31,000+ people) of the city's workforce, followed by UCSF with over 25,000 employees.[231] The largest private-sector employer is Salesforce, with 8,500 employees, as of 2018.[232] Small businesses with fewer than 10 employees and self-employed firms made up 85% of city establishments in 2006,[233] and the number of San Franciscans employed by firms of more than 1,000 employees has fallen by half since 1977.[234] The growth of national big box and formula retail chains into the city has been made intentionally difficult by political and civic consensus. In an effort to buoy small privately owned businesses in San Francisco and preserve the unique retail personality of the city, the Small Business Commission started a publicity campaign in 2004 to keep a larger share of retail dollars in the local economy,[235] and the Board of Supervisors has used the planning code to limit the neighborhoods where formula retail establishments can set up shop,[236] an effort affirmed by San Francisco voters.[237] However, by 2016, San Francisco was rated low by small businesses in a Business Friendliness Survey.[238] Ferry Building in the Embarcadero. Like many U.S. cities, San Francisco once had a significant manufacturing sector employing nearly 60,000 workers in 1969, but nearly all production left for cheaper locations by the 1980s.[239] As of 2014, San Francisco has seen a small resurgence in manufacturing, with more than 4,000 manufacturing jobs across 500 companies, doubling since 2011. The city's largest manufacturing employer is Anchor Brewing Company, and the largest by revenue is Timbuk2.[239] As of the first quarter of 2022, the median value of homes in San Francisco County was $1,297,030. It ranked third in the U.S. for counties with highest median home value, behind Nantucket, Massachusetts and San Mateo County, California.[240] Technology Twitter headquarters on Market St. San Francisco became a hub for technological driven economic growth during the internet boom of the 1990s, and still holds an important position in the world city network today.[172][241] Intense redevelopment towards the "new economy" makes business more technologically minded. Between the years of 1999 and 2000, the job growth rate was 4.9%, creating over 50,000 jobs in technology firms and internet content production.[172] However, the technology industry has become geographically dispersed.[242][243] In the second technological boom driven by social media in the mid-2000s, San Francisco became a location for companies such as Apple, Google, Ubisoft, Facebook, and Twitter to base their tech offices and for their employees to live.[244] Tourism and conventions See also: Port of San Francisco The Fisherman's Wharf is a popular tourist attraction. Tourism is one of San Francisco's most important private-sector industries, accounting for more than one out of seven jobs in the city.[217][245] The city's frequent portrayal in music, film, and popular culture has made the city and its landmarks recognizable worldwide. In 2016, it attracted the fifth-highest number of foreign tourists of any city in the United States.[246] More than 25 million visitors arrived in San Francisco in 2016, adding US$9.96 billion to the economy.[247] With a large hotel infrastructure and a world-class convention facility in the Moscone Center, San Francisco is a popular destination for annual conventions and conferences.[248] Some of the most popular tourist attractions in San Francisco, as noted by the Travel Channel, include the Golden Gate Bridge and Alamo Square Park, home to the famous "Painted Ladies". Both of these locations were often used as landscape shots for the hit American television sitcom Full House. There is also Lombard Street, known for its "crookedness" and extensive views. Tourists also visit Pier 39, which offers dining, shopping, entertainment, and views of the bay, sunbathing California sea lions, the Aquarium of the Bay, and the famous Alcatraz Island.[249] Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill San Francisco also offers tourists cultural and unique nightlife in its neighborhoods.[250][251] The new Terminal Project at Pier 27 opened September 25, 2014, as a replacement for the old Pier 35.[252] Itineraries from San Francisco usually include round-trip cruises to Alaska and Mexico. A heightened interest in conventioneering in San Francisco, marked by the establishment of convention centers such as Yerba Buena, acted as a feeder into the local tourist economy and resulted in an increase in the hotel industry: "In 1959, the city had fewer than thirty-three hundred first-class hotel rooms; by 1970, the number was nine thousand; and by 1999, there were more than thirty thousand."[253] The commodification of the Castro District has contributed to San Francisco's tourist economy.[254] Arts and culture Main article: Culture of San Francisco See also: San Francisco in popular culture The Palace of Fine Arts, originally built for the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition Although the Financial District, Union Square, and Fisherman's Wharf are well known around the world, San Francisco is also characterized by its numerous culturally rich streetscapes featuring mixed-use neighborhoods anchored around central commercial corridors to which residents and visitors alike can walk.[citation needed] Because of these characteristics,[original research?] San Francisco is ranked the "most walkable" city in the United States by Walkscore.com.[255] Many neighborhoods feature a mix of businesses, restaurants and venues that cater to the daily needs of local residents while also serving many visitors and tourists. Some neighborhoods are dotted with boutiques, cafés and nightlife such as Union Street in Cow Hollow, 24th Street in Noe Valley, Valencia Street in the Mission, Grant Avenue in North Beach, and Irving Street in the Inner Sunset. This approach especially has influenced the continuing South of Market neighborhood redevelopment with businesses and neighborhood services rising alongside high-rise residences.[256][failed verification] The Castro is famous as one of the first gay villages in the country.[257] Since the 1990s, the demand for skilled information technology workers from local startups and nearby Silicon Valley has attracted white-collar workers from all over the world and created a high standard of living in San Francisco.[258] Many neighborhoods that were once blue-collar, middle, and lower class have been gentrifying, as many of the city's traditional business and industrial districts have experienced a renaissance driven by the redevelopment of the Embarcadero, including the neighborhoods South Beach and Mission Bay. The city's property values and household income have risen to among the highest in the nation,[259][260][261] creating a large and upscale restaurant, retail, and entertainment scene. According to a 2014 quality of life survey of global cities, San Francisco has the highest quality of living of any U.S. city.[262] However, due to the exceptionally high cost of living, many of the city's middle and lower-class families have been leaving the city for the outer suburbs of the Bay Area, or for California's Central Valley.[263] By June 2, 2015, the median rent was reported to be as high as $4,225.[264] The high cost of living is due in part to restrictive planning laws which limit new residential construction.[265] The Mission District is the historic center of the city's Chicano/Mexican-American population and greater Hispanic and Latino community. The international character that San Francisco has enjoyed since its founding is continued today by large numbers of immigrants from Asia and Latin America. With 39% of its residents born overseas,[234] San Francisco has numerous neighborhoods filled with businesses and civic institutions catering to new arrivals. In particular, the arrival of many ethnic Chinese, which began to accelerate in the 1970s, has complemented the long-established community historically based in Chinatown throughout the city and has transformed the annual Chinese New Year Parade into the largest event of its kind on the West Coast. With the arrival of the "beat" writers and artists of the 1950s and societal changes culminating in the Summer of Love in the Haight-Ashbury district during the 1960s, San Francisco became a center of liberal activism and of the counterculture that arose at that time. The Democrats and to a lesser extent the Green Party have dominated city politics since the late 1970s, after the last serious Republican challenger for city office lost the 1975 mayoral election by a narrow margin. San Francisco has not voted more than 20% for a Republican presidential or senatorial candidate since 1988.[266] In 2007, the city expanded its Medicaid and other indigent medical programs into the Healthy San Francisco program,[267] which subsidizes certain medical services for eligible residents.[268][269][270] The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, also known as SF MOMA Since 1993, the San Francisco Department of Public Health has distributed 400,000 free syringes every month aimed at reducing HIV and other health risks for drug users, as well as providing disposal sites and services.[271][272][273] San Francisco also has had a very active environmental community. Starting with the founding of the Sierra Club in 1892 to the establishment of the non-profit Friends of the Urban Forest in 1981, San Francisco has been at the forefront of many global discussions regarding the environment.[274][275] The 1980 San Francisco Recycling Program was one of the earliest curbside recycling programs.[276] The city's GoSolarSF incentive promotes solar installations and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is rolling out the CleanPowerSF program to sell electricity from local renewable sources.[277][278] SF Greasecycle is a program to recycle used cooking oil for conversion to biodiesel.[279] The Sunset Reservoir Solar Project, completed in 2010, installed 24,000 solar panels on the roof of the reservoir. The 5-megawatt plant more than tripled the city's 2-megawatt solar generation capacity when it opened in December 2010.[280][281] LGBT Main article: LGBT culture in San Francisco San Francisco Pride is one of the oldest and largest LGBT pride events in the world. San Francisco has long had an LGBT-friendly history. It was home to the first lesbian-rights organization in the United States, Daughters of Bilitis; the first openly gay person to run for public office in the United States, José Sarria; the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, Harvey Milk; the first openly lesbian judge appointed in the U.S., Mary C. Morgan; and the first transgender police commissioner, Theresa Sparks. The city's large gay population has created and sustained a politically and culturally active community over many decades, developing a powerful presence in San Francisco's civic life.[citation needed] Survey data released in 2015 by Gallup places the proportion of LGBT adults in the San Francisco metro area at 6.2%, which is the highest proportion of the 50 most populous metropolitan areas as measured by the polling organization.[282] The gay pride flag was originally developed in San Francisco. One of the most popular destinations for gay tourists internationally, the city hosts San Francisco Pride, one of the largest and oldest pride parades. San Francisco Pride events have been held continuously since 1972. The events are themed and a new theme is created each year.[283] In 2013, over 1.5 million people attended, around 500,000 more than the previous year.[284] Pink Saturday is an annual street party held the Saturday before the pride parade, which coincides with the Dyke march. The Folsom Street Fair (FSF) is an annual BDSM and leather subculture street fair that is held in September, endcapping San Francisco's "Leather Pride Week".[285] It started in 1984 and is California's third-largest single-day, outdoor spectator event and the world's largest leather event and showcase for BDSM products and culture.[286] Performing arts See also: List of theatres in San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, part of the S.F. War Memorial & Performing Arts Center, one of the largest performing arts centers in the U.S. Golden Gate Theatre is located in the historic Theatre District San Francisco's War Memorial and Performing Arts Center hosts some of the most enduring performing-arts companies in the country. The War Memorial Opera House houses the San Francisco Opera, the second-largest opera company in North America[287] as well as the San Francisco Ballet, while the San Francisco Symphony plays in Davies Symphony Hall. Opened in 2013, the SFJAZZ Center hosts jazz performances year round.[288] The Fillmore is a music venue located in the Western Addition. It is the second incarnation of the historic venue that gained fame in the 1960s, housing the stage where now-famous musicians such as the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, and Jefferson Airplane first performed, fostering the San Francisco Sound.[289] It closed its doors in 1971 with a final performance by Santana and reopened in 1994 with a show by the Smashing Pumpkins.[290] San Francisco has a large number of theaters and live performance venues. Local theater companies have been noted for risk taking and innovation.[291] The Tony Award-winning non-profit American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) is a member of the national League of Resident Theatres. Other local winners of the Regional Theatre Tony Award include the San Francisco Mime Troupe.[292] San Francisco theaters frequently host pre-Broadway engagements and tryout runs,[293] and some original San Francisco productions have later moved to Broadway.[294] Museums Further information: List of museums in San Francisco Bay Area, California § San Francisco The California Palace of the Legion of Honor, part of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) houses 20th century and contemporary works of art. It moved to its current building in the South of Market neighborhood in 1995 and attracted more than 600,000 visitors annually.[295] SFMOMA closed for renovation and expansion in 2013. The museum reopened on May 14, 2016, with an addition, designed by Snøhetta, that has doubled the museum's size.[296] The Palace of the Legion of Honor holds primarily European antiquities and works of art at its Lincoln Park building modeled after its Parisian namesake. The de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park features American decorative pieces and anthropological holdings from Africa, Oceania and the Americas, while Asian art is housed in the Asian Art Museum. Opposite the de Young stands the California Academy of Sciences, a natural history museum that also hosts the Morrison Planetarium and Steinhart Aquarium. Located on Pier 15 on the Embarcadero, the Exploratorium is an interactive science museum. The Contemporary Jewish Museum is a non-collecting institution that hosts a broad array of temporary exhibitions. On Nob Hill, the Cable Car Museum is a working museum featuring the cable car powerhouse, which drives the cables.[297] Sports Further information: Sports in the San Francisco Bay Area Oracle Park, home of the SF Giants Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants have played in San Francisco since moving from New York in 1958. The Giants play at Oracle Park, which opened in 2000.[298] The Giants won World Series titles in 2010, 2012, and in 2014. The Giants have boasted stars such as Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, and Barry Bonds (MLB's career home run leader). In 2012, San Francisco was ranked No. 1 in a study that examined which U.S. metro areas have produced the most Major Leaguers since 1920.[299] The San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL) began play in 1946 as an All-America Football Conference (AAFC) league charter member, moved to the NFL in 1950 and into Candlestick Park in 1971. The team left the San Francisco area in 2014, moving approximately 50 miles south to Santa Clara, and began playing its home games at Levi's Stadium,[300][301] but despite the relocation did not change its name from the "San Francisco" 49ers. The 49ers won five Super Bowl titles between 1982 and 1995. The Chase Center, home of the Golden State Warriors NBA's Golden State Warriors have played in the San Francisco Bay Area since moving from Philadelphia in 1962. The Warriors played as the San Francisco Warriors, from 1962 to 1971, before being renamed the Golden State Warriors prior to the 1971–1972 season in an attempt to present the team as a representation of the whole state of California, which had already adopted "The Golden State" nickname.[302] The Warriors' arena, Chase Center, is located in San Francisco.[303] After winning two championships in Philadelphia, they have won five championships since moving to the San Francisco Bay Area,[304] and made five consecutive NBA Finals from 2015 to 2019, winning three of them. They won again in 2022, the franchise's first championship while residing in San Francisco proper. At the collegiate level, the San Francisco Dons compete in NCAA Division I. Bill Russell led the Dons basketball team to NCAA championships in 1955 and 1956. There is also the San Francisco State Gators, who compete in NCAA Division II.[305] Oracle Park hosted the annual Fight Hunger Bowl college football game from 2002 through 2013 before it moved to Santa Clara. There are a handful of lower-league soccer clubs in San Francisco playing mostly from April – June. Club Founded Venue League Tier level El Farolito 1985 Boxer Stadium NPSL 4 San Francisco City FC 2001 Kezar Stadium USL League Two 4 San Francisco Glens SC 1961 Skyline College USL League Two 4 SF Elite Metro 2017 Negoesco Stadium NISA Nation 5 Bay to Breakers is an annual foot race known for colorful costumes. The Bay to Breakers footrace, held annually since 1912, is best known for colorful costumes and a celebratory community spirit.[306] The San Francisco Marathon attracts more than 21,000 participants.[307] The Escape from Alcatraz triathlon has, since 1980, attracted 2,000 top professional and amateur triathletes for its annual race.[308] The Olympic Club, founded in 1860, is the oldest athletic club in the United States. Its private golf course has hosted the U.S. Open on five occasions. San Francisco hosted the 2013 America's Cup yacht racing competition.[309] With an ideal climate for outdoor activities, San Francisco has ample resources and opportunities for amateur and participatory sports and recreation. There are more than 200 miles (320 km) of bicycle paths, lanes and bike routes in the city.[310] San Francisco residents have often ranked among the fittest in the country.[311] Golden Gate Park has miles of paved and unpaved running trails as well as a golf course and disc golf course. Boating, sailing, windsurfing and kitesurfing are among the popular activities on San Francisco Bay, and the city maintains a yacht harbor in the Marina District. San Francisco also has had Esports teams, such as the Overwatch League's San Francisco Shock. Established in 2017,[312] they won two back-to-back championship titles in 2019 and 2020.[313][314] Parks and recreation See also: List of parks in San Francisco Golden Gate Park is the 3rd most-visited city park in the U.S., after Central Park and the National Mall.[315] Several of San Francisco's parks and nearly all of its beaches form part of the regional Golden Gate National Recreation Area, one of the most visited units of the National Park system in the United States with over 13 million visitors a year. Among the GGNRA's attractions within the city are Ocean Beach, which runs along the Pacific Ocean shoreline and is frequented by a vibrant surfing community, and Baker Beach, which is located in a cove west of the Golden Gate. The Presidio of San Francisco is the former 18th century Spanish military base, which today is one of the city's largest parks and home to numerous museums and institutions. Also within the Presidio is Crissy Field, a former airfield that was restored to its natural salt marsh ecosystem. The GGNRA also administers Fort Funston, Lands End, Fort Mason, and Alcatraz. The National Park Service separately administers the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park – a fleet of historic ships and waterfront property around Aquatic Park.[citation needed] Painted Ladies on Alamo Square. The Cliff House over Ocean Beach There are more than 220 parks maintained by the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department.[316] The largest and best-known city park is Golden Gate Park,[317] which stretches from the center of the city west to the Pacific Ocean. Once covered in native grasses and sand dunes, the park was conceived in the 1860s and was created by the extensive planting of thousands of non-native trees and plants. The large park is rich with cultural and natural attractions such as the Conservatory of Flowers, Japanese Tea Garden and San Francisco Botanical Garden.[citation needed] Lake Merced is a fresh-water lake surrounded by parkland[citation needed] and near the San Francisco Zoo, a city-owned park that houses more than 250 animal species, many of which are endangered.[318] The only park managed by the California State Park system located principally in San Francisco, Candlestick Point was the state's first urban recreation area.[319] Most of San Francisco's islands are protected as parkland or nature reserves. Alcatraz Island, operated by the National Park Service, is open to the public. The Farallon Islands are protected wildlife refuges. The Seal Rocks are protected as part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Red Rock Island is the only privately owned island in San Francisco Bay, but is uninhabited. Yerba Buena Island is largely utilized by the military. San Francisco is the first city in the U.S. to have a park within a 10-Minute Walk of every resident.[320][321] It also ranks fifth in the U.S. for park access and quality in the 2018 ParkScore ranking of the top 100 park systems across the United States, according to the nonprofit Trust for Public Land.[322] Government Main articles: Government of San Francisco, Politics of San Francisco, and Mayors of San Francisco See also: San Francisco City Hall San Francisco City Hall, built 1913–16 and designed by Arthur Brown Jr. The mayor is also the county executive, and the county Board of Supervisors acts as the city council. The government of San Francisco is a charter city and is constituted of two co-equal branches: the executive branch is headed by the mayor and includes other citywide elected and appointed officials as well as the civil service; the 11-member Board of Supervisors, the legislative branch, is headed by a president and is responsible for passing laws and budgets, though San Franciscans also make use of direct ballot initiatives to pass legislation.[323] Because of its unique city-county status, the local government is able to exercise jurisdiction over certain property outside city limits. San Francisco International Airport, though located in San Mateo County, is owned and operated by the City and County of San Francisco. San Francisco's largest jail complex (County Jail No. 5) is located in San Mateo County, in an unincorporated area adjacent to San Bruno. San Francisco was also granted a perpetual leasehold over the Hetch Hetchy Valley and watershed in Yosemite National Park by the Raker Act in 1913.[324] The Supreme Court of California is based in the Earl Warren Building. The members of the Board of Supervisors are elected as representatives of specific districts within the city.[325] Upon the death or resignation of the mayor, the President of the Board of Supervisors becomes acting mayor until the full Board elects an interim replacement for the remainder of the term. In 1978, Dianne Feinstein assumed the office following the assassination of George Moscone and was later selected by the board to finish the term.[citation needed] In 2011, Ed Lee was selected by the board to finish the term of Gavin Newsom, who resigned to take office as Lieutenant Governor of California.[326] Lee (who won two elections to remain mayor) was temporarily replaced by San Francisco Board of Supervisors President London Breed after he died on December 12, 2017. Supervisor Mark Farrell was appointed by the Board of Supervisors to finish Lee's term on January 23, 2018. Most local offices in San Francisco are elected using ranked choice voting.[327] San Francisco Federal Building San Francisco serves as the regional hub for many arms of the federal bureaucracy, including the U.S. Court of Appeals, the Federal Reserve Bank, and the U.S. Mint. Until decommissioning in the early 1990s, the city had major military installations at the Presidio, Treasure Island, and Hunters Point—a legacy still reflected in the annual celebration of Fleet Week. The State of California uses San Francisco as the home of the state supreme court and other state agencies. Foreign governments maintain more than seventy consulates in San Francisco.[328] The municipal budget for fiscal year 2015–16 was $8.99 billion,[329] and is one of the largest city budgets in the United States.[330] The City of San Francisco spends more per resident than any city other than Washington, D.C., over $10,000 in FY 2015–2016.[330] The city employs around 27,000 workers.[331] The historic Browning Courthouse In the California State Senate, San Francisco is in the 11th Senate District, represented by Democrat Scott Wiener. In the California State Assembly, it is split between the 17th Assembly District, represented by Democrat Matt Haney, and the 19th Assembly District, represented by Democrat Phil Ting.[332] In the United States House of Representatives, San Francisco is split between two congressional districts. Most of the city is in the 11th District, represented by Nancy Pelosi (D–San Francisco). A sliver in the southwest is part of the 15th District represented by Kevin Mullin (D–South San Francisco).[333] Pelosi served as the House Speaker from January 3, 2019, to January 3, 2023, a post she also held from 2007 through 2011. She has also held the post of House Minority Leader, from 2003 to 2007 and 2011 to 2019. Education University of San Francisco Colleges and universities See also: List of colleges and universities in San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco is the sole campus of the University of California system entirely dedicated to graduate education in health and biomedical sciences. It is ranked among the top five medical schools in the United States[334] and operates the UCSF Medical Center, which ranks as the number one hospital in California and the number 5 in the country.[335] UCSF is a major local employer, second in size only to the city and county government.[336][337][338] A 43-acre (17 ha) Mission Bay campus was opened in 2003, complementing its original facility in Parnassus Heights. It contains research space and facilities to foster biotechnology and life sciences entrepreneurship and will double the size of UCSF's research enterprise.[339] All in all, UCSF operates more than 20 facilities across San Francisco.[340] The University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, founded in Civic Center in 1878, is the oldest law school in California and claims more judges on the state bench than any other institution.[341] San Francisco's two University of California institutions have recently formed an official affiliation in the UCSF/UC Law SF Consortium on Law, Science & Health Policy.[342] San Francisco Art Institute is the oldest art school in the Western U.S. San Francisco State University is part of the California State University system and is located near Lake Merced.[343] The school has approximately 30,000 students and awards undergraduate, master's and doctoral degrees in more than 100 disciplines.[343] The City College of San Francisco, with its main facility in the Ingleside district, is one of the largest two-year community colleges in the country. It has an enrollment of about 100,000 students and offers an extensive continuing education program.[344] University of California College of the Law Founded in 1855, the University of San Francisco, a private Jesuit university located on Lone Mountain, is the oldest institution of higher education in San Francisco and one of the oldest universities established west of the Mississippi River.[345] Golden Gate University is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational university formed in 1901 and located in the Financial District. With an enrollment of 13,000 students, the Academy of Art University is the largest institute of art and design in the nation.[346] Founded in 1871, the San Francisco Art Institute is the oldest art school west of the Mississippi.[347] The California College of the Arts, located north of Potrero Hill, has programs in architecture, fine arts, design, and writing.[348] The San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the only independent music school on the West Coast, grants degrees in orchestral instruments, chamber music, composition, and conducting. The California Culinary Academy, associated with the Le Cordon Bleu program, offers programs in the culinary arts, baking and pastry arts, and hospitality and restaurant management. California Institute of Integral Studies, founded in 1968, offers a variety of graduate programs in its Schools of Professional Psychology & Health, and Consciousness and Transformation. Primary and secondary schools See also: San Francisco public grammar schools and List of high schools in California § San Francisco County The San Francisco Unified School District operates 114 schools and is the oldest school district in California. Public schools are run by the San Francisco Unified School District, which covers the entire city and county,[349] as well as the California State Board of Education for some charter schools. Lowell High School, the oldest public high school in the U.S. west of the Mississippi,[350] and the smaller School of the Arts High School are two of San Francisco's magnet schools at the secondary level. Public school students attend schools based on an assignment system rather than neighborhood proximity.[351] Just under 30% of the city's school-age population attends one of San Francisco's more than 100 private or parochial schools, compared to a 10% rate nationwide.[352] Nearly 40 of those schools are Catholic schools managed by the Archdiocese of San Francisco.[353] San Francisco has nearly 300 preschool programs primarily operated by Head Start, San Francisco Unified School District, private for-profit, private non-profit and family child care providers.[354] All four-year-old children living in San Francisco are offered universal access to preschool through the Preschool for All program.[355] Media Further information: Media in the San Francisco Bay Area This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) San Francisco Chronicle building The major daily newspaper in San Francisco is the San Francisco Chronicle, which is currently Northern California's most widely circulated newspaper.[356] The Chronicle is most famous for a former columnist, the late Herb Caen, whose daily musings attracted critical acclaim and represented the "voice of San Francisco". The San Francisco Examiner, once the cornerstone of William Randolph Hearst's media empire and the home of Ambrose Bierce, declined in circulation over the years and now takes the form of a free daily tabloid, under new ownership.[357][358] Sing Tao Daily claims to be the largest of several Chinese language dailies that serve the Bay Area.[359] SF Weekly is the city's alternative weekly newspaper. San Francisco and 7x7 are major glossy magazines about San Francisco. The national newsmagazine Mother Jones is also based in San Francisco. San Francisco is home to online-only media publications such as SFist, and AsianWeek. The Julia Morgan-designed Hearst Building, the western headquarters of the Hearst Corporation The San Francisco Bay Area is the sixth-largest television market.[360] It is the fourth-largest radio market after that of New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago.[361] in the U.S. All major U.S. television networks have affiliates serving the region, with most of them based in the city. CNN, MSNBC, BBC, Russia Today, and CCTV America also have regional news bureaus in San Francisco. Bloomberg West was launched in 2011 from a studio on the Embarcadero and CNBC broadcasts from One Market Plaza since 2015. ESPN uses the local ABC studio for their broadcasting. The regional sports network, Comcast SportsNet Bay Area and its sister station Comcast SportsNet California, are both located in San Francisco. The Pac-12 Network is also based in San Francisco. Sutro Tower is a broadcast tower and local landmark. Public broadcasting outlets include both a television station and a radio station, both broadcasting under the call letters KQED from a facility near the Potrero Hill neighborhood. KQED-FM is the most-listened-to National Public Radio affiliate in the country.[362] KUSF is a student-run radio station by college students from the University of San Francisco.[363] Another local broadcaster, KPOO, is an independent, African-American owned and operated noncommercial radio station established in 1971.[364] CNET, founded 1994, and Salon.com, 1995, are based in San Francisco. Sutro Tower is an important broadcast tower located between Mount Sutro and the Twin Peaks, built in 1973 for KTVU, KRON, and KPIX. Infrastructure Transportation See also: Transportation in the San Francisco Bay Area Public transportation See also: San Francisco Municipal Railway A San Francisco cable car with Alcatraz seen behind Transit is the most used form of transportation every day in San Francisco. Every weekday, more than 560,000 people travel on Muni's 69 bus routes and more than 140,000 customers ride the Muni Metro light rail system.[365] 32% of San Francisco residents use public transportation for their daily commute to work, ranking it fourth in the United States and first on the West Coast.[366] The San Francisco Municipal Railway, primarily known as Muni, is the primary public transit system of San Francisco. Muni is the seventh-largest transit system in the United States, with 210,848,310 rides in 2006.[367] The system operates a combined light rail and subway system, the Muni Metro, as well as large bus and trolley coach networks.[368] Additionally, it runs a historic streetcar line, which runs on Market Street from Castro Street to Fisherman's Wharf.[368] It also operates the famous cable cars,[368] which have been designated as a National Historic Landmark and are a major tourist attraction.[369] Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), a regional Rapid Transit system, connects San Francisco with the East Bay and San Jose through the underwater Transbay Tube. The line runs under Market Street to Civic Center where it turns south to the Mission District, the southern part of the city, and through northern San Mateo County, to the San Francisco International Airport, and Millbrae.[368] Muni Metro, run by SF Muni Another commuter rail system, Caltrain, runs from San Francisco along the San Francisco Peninsula to San Jose.[368] Historically, trains operated by Southern Pacific Lines ran from San Francisco to Los Angeles, via Palo Alto and San Jose. Amtrak Thruway runs a shuttle bus from three locations in San Francisco to its station across the bay in Emeryville.[370] Additionally, BART offers connections to San Francisco from Amtrak's stations in Emeryville, Oakland and Richmond, and Caltrain offers connections in San Jose and Santa Clara. Thruway service also runs south to San Luis Obispo with connection to the Pacific Surfliner. San Francisco was an early adopter of carsharing in America. The non-profit City CarShare opened in 2001[371] and Zipcar closely followed.[372] Golden Gate Ferries connect the city to North Bay communities, while San Francisco Bay Ferry connects the city to both the North and East Bay. San Francisco Bay Ferry operates from the Ferry Building and Pier 39 to points in Oakland, Alameda, Bay Farm Island, South San Francisco, Richmond, and north to Vallejo in Solano County.[373] The Golden Gate Ferry is the other ferry operator with service between San Francisco and Marin County.[374] SolTrans runs supplemental bus service between the Ferry Building and Vallejo. To accommodate the large amount of San Francisco citizens who commute to the Silicon Valley daily, employers like Genentech, Google, and Apple have begun to provide private bus transportation for their employees, from San Francisco locations. These buses have quickly become a heated topic of debate within the city, as protesters claim they block bus lanes and delay public buses.[375] Freeways and roads Further information: List of streets in San Francisco The Bay Bridge connects the city to Oakland and the East Bay. In 2014, only 41.3% of residents commuted by driving alone or carpooling in private vehicles in San Francisco, a decline from 48.6% in 2000.[376] There are 1,088 miles of streets in San Francisco with 946 miles of these streets being surface streets, and 59 miles of freeways.[376] Due to its unique geography, and the freeway revolts of the late 1950s,[377] Interstate 80 begins at the approach to the Bay Bridge and is the only direct automobile link to the East Bay. U.S. Route 101 connects to the western terminus of Interstate 80 and provides access to the south of the city along San Francisco Bay toward Silicon Valley. Northward, the routing for U.S. 101 uses arterial streets to connect to the Golden Gate Bridge, the only direct automobile link to Marin County and the North Bay. As part of the retrofitting of the Golden Gate Bridge and installation of a suicide barrier, starting in 2019 the railings on the west side of the pedestrian walkway were replaced with thinner, more flexible slats in order to improve the bridge's aerodynamic tolerance of high wind to 100 mph (161 km/h). Starting in June 2020, reports were received of a loud hum produced by the new railing slats, heard across the city when a strong west wind was blowing.[378] Lombard Street in Russian Hill is famed as "the most crooked street in the world". State Route 1 also enters San Francisco from the north via the Golden Gate Bridge and bisects the city as the 19th Avenue arterial thoroughfare, joining with Interstate 280 at the city's southern border. Interstate 280 continues south from San Francisco, and also turns to the east along the southern edge of the city, terminating just south of the Bay Bridge in the South of Market neighborhood. After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, city leaders demolished the Embarcadero Freeway and a portion of the Central Freeway, converting them into street-level boulevards.[377] State Route 35 enters the city from the south as Skyline Boulevard and terminates at its intersection with Highway 1. State Route 82 enters San Francisco from the south as Mission Street, and terminates shortly thereafter at its junction with 280. The western terminus of the historic transcontinental Lincoln Highway, the first road across America, is in San Francisco's Lincoln Park. Vision Zero In 2014, San Francisco committed to Vision Zero, with the goal of ending all traffic fatalities caused by motor vehicles within the city by 2024.[379] San Francisco's Vision Zero plan calls for investing in engineering, enforcement, and education, and focusing on dangerous intersections. In 2013, 25 people were killed by car and truck drivers while walking and biking in the city and 9 car drivers and passengers were killed in collisions. In 2019, 42 people were killed in traffic collisions in San Francisco.[380] Airports Main article: San Francisco International Airport San Francisco International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the world Though located 13 miles (21 km) south of downtown in unincorporated San Mateo County, San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is under the jurisdiction of the City and County of San Francisco. SFO is a hub for United Airlines[381] and Alaska Airlines.[382] SFO is a major international gateway to Asia and Europe, with the largest international terminal in North America.[383] In 2011, SFO was the eighth-busiest airport in the U.S. and the 22nd-busiest in the world, handling over 40.9 million passengers.[384] Located in the South Bay, the San Jose International Airport (SJC) is the second-busiest airport in the Bay Area, followed by Oakland International Airport, which is a popular, low-cost alternative to SFO. Geographically, Oakland Airport is approximately the same distance from downtown San Francisco as SFO, but due to its location across San Francisco Bay, it is greater driving distance from San Francisco.[citation needed] Cycling and walking Main article: Cycling in San Francisco Bay Wheels station on Market St. Cycling is a popular mode of transportation in San Francisco, with 75,000 residents commuting by bicycle each day.[385] In recent years, the city has installed better cycling infrastructure such as protected bike lanes and parking racks.[386] Bay Wheels, previously named Bay Area Bike Share at inception, launched in August 2013 with 700 bikes in downtown San Francisco, selected cities in the East Bay, and San Jose. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and Bay Area Air Quality Management District are responsible for the operation with management provided by Motivate.[387] A major expansion started in 2017, along with a rebranding as Ford GoBike; the company received its current name in 2019.[388] Pedestrian traffic is also widespread. In 2015, Walk Score ranked San Francisco the second-most walkable city in the United States.[389][390][391] San Francisco has significantly higher rates of pedestrian and bicyclist traffic deaths than the United States on average. In 2013, 21 pedestrians were killed in vehicle collisions, the highest since 2001,[392] which is 2.5 deaths per 100,000 population – 70% higher than the national average of 1.5.[393] San Francisco cycling event Cycling is becoming increasingly popular in the city. The 2010 Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA) annual bicycle count showed the number of cyclists at 33 locations had increased 58% from the 2006 baseline counts.[394] In 2008, the MTA estimated that about 128,000 trips were made by bicycle each day in the city, or 6% of total trips.[395] As of 2019, 2.6% of the city's streets have protected bike lanes, with 28 miles of protected bike lanes in the city.[365] Since 2006, San Francisco has received a Bicycle Friendly Community status of "Gold" from the League of American Bicyclists.[396] In 2022 a measure on the ballot passed to protect JFK drive in Golden Gate Park as a pedestrian and biking space with 59% of voters in favor.[397] Public safety See also: History of the San Francisco Police Department The San Francisco Police Department was founded in 1849.[398] The portions of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area located within the city, including the Presidio and Ocean Beach, are patrolled by the United States Park Police. The San Francisco Fire Department provides both fire suppression and emergency medical services to the city.[399] Sister cities Main articles: Sister cities of San Francisco, California and List of diplomatic missions in San Francisco San Francisco participates in the Sister Cities program.[400] A total of 41 consulates general and 23 honorary consulates have offices in the San Francisco Bay Area.[401] Notable residents As of 2012, 21.4% of the population in San Francisco was of Chinese descent, and there were at least 150,000 Chinese American residents.[1] The Chinese are the largest Asian American subgroup in San Francisco.[2] San Francisco has the highest percentage of residents of Chinese descent of any major U.S. city, and the second largest Chinese American population, after New York City. The San Francisco Area is 7.9% Chinese American, with many residents in Oakland and Santa Clara County. San Francisco's Chinese community has ancestry mainly from Guangdong province, China and Hong Kong, although there is a sizable population of ethnic Chinese with ancestry from other parts of mainland China and Taiwan as well. History The Gateway Arch (Dragon Gate) on Grant Avenue at Bush Street in Chinatown. The Chinese arriving in San Francisco, primarily from the Taishan and Zhongshan regions as well as Guangdong province of mainland China, did so at the height of the California Gold Rush, and many worked in the mines scattered throughout the northern part of the state.[3] Chinatown was the one geographical region deeded by the city government and private property owners which allowed Chinese people to inherit and inhabit dwellings. The majority of these Chinese shopkeepers, restaurant owners, and hired workers in San Francisco Chinatown were predominantly Hoisanese and male[citation needed]. Many Chinese found jobs working for large companies, most famously as part of the Central Pacific[4] on the Transcontinental Railroad. Other early immigrants worked as mine workers or independent prospectors hoping to strike it rich during the California Gold Rush. Although many of the earlier waves of Chinese immigration were predominantly men searching for jobs, Chinese women also began making the journey towards the United States. The first known Chinese woman to immigrate was Marie Seise who arrived in 1848 and worked in the household of Charles V. Gillespie.[5] Within a matter of months of Seise's arrival to the West Coast, the rush for gold in California commenced which brought a flooding of prospective miners from around the globe. Among this group were Chinese, primarily from the Guangdong Province, most of whom were seafarers who had already established Western contacts. “Few women accompanied these early sojourners, many of whom expected to return from after they made their fortune.”[6] Although the oceanic voyage to the United States offered new and exciting opportunities, dangers also loomed for women while traveling and many were discouraged from making the trip due to the harsh living conditions. Oceanic voyages with Chinese immigrants boarded the Pacific Mail Steamship Company and Canadian Pacific Steamship Company. Chinese immigrants would have to ride in the steerage where food was stored. Many were given rice bowls to eat during the voyage. In 1892, a federal law passed to ensure immigrants who were on board, needed a certificate. Due to tight arrangements, unhygienic situations and scarcity in food, this led to health degradation.[7] Many immigrants were unable to board these voyages due to the Geary Act of 1892 which blocked the reunion of immigrants in America with their families not with them.[8] Many diseases found through these voyages were Hookworm Yersinia pestis which contributed greatly to the Bubonic Plague.[9] “During the Gold Rush era, when Chinese men were a common sight in California, Chinese women were an oddity” and in urban spaces were rarely seen in public. Unlike the rural areas, Chinatown afforded few opportunities for women to come into contact with the larger society.”[6] Simultaneously, Chinese women also participated in urban sex work, which resulted in local laws like one passed in April 1854 that sought to shut down "houses of ill-fame," not racialized in name but practically deployed to "[single] out Mexican and Chinese houses of ill fame, starting with Charles Walden's Golden Rule House on Pacific Street and moving on to establishments run by Ah-Choo, C. Lossen, and Ah Yow."[10] With national unemployment in the wake of the Panic of 1873, racial tensions in the city boiled over into full blown race riots. Like much of San Francisco during these times, a period of criminality ensued in some Chinese gangs known as tongs, which were onto smuggling, gambling and prostitution. In response to the violence, the Consolidated Chinese Benevolent Association or the Chinese Six Companies, which evolved out of the labor recruiting organizations for different areas of Guangdong province, was created as a means of providing a unified voice for the community. The heads of these companies were the leaders of the Chinese merchants, who represented the Chinese community in front of the business community as a whole and the city government. Numerous white citizens defended the Chinese community, among them Pastor Franklin Rhoda whose numerous letters appeared in the local press. By the early 1880s, the population had adopted the term Tong war to describe periods of violence in Chinatown, the San Francisco Police Department had established its so-called Chinatown Squad. The anti-immigrant sentiment became law as the United States Government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 – the first immigration restriction law aimed at a single ethnic group. This law, along with other immigration restriction laws such as the Geary Act, greatly reduced the number of Chinese people allowed into the country and the city, and in theory limited Chinese immigration to single men only. Exceptions were granted to the families of wealthy merchants, but the law was still effective enough to reduce the population of the neighborhood to an all-time low in the 1920s. The neighborhood was completely destroyed in the 1906 earthquake that leveled most of the city. One of the more successful sergeants of Chinatown Squad, Jack Manion, was appointed in 1921 and served for two decades. From 1910 to 1940, Chinese immigrants were detained at the Angel Island immigration station in the San Francisco Bay. To be permitted entry to the United States, thousands of mostly Chinese immigrants crossing the Pacific to San Francisco had to enter through the gauntlet of Angel Island, and were detained for months in a purgatory of isolation. Some spent years on the island waiting for entry to the U.S.[11][12] The exclusion act was repealed during World War II under the Magnuson Act, in recognition of the important role of China as an ally in the war, although tight quotas still applied. The Chinatown Squad was finally disbanded in August 1955 by police chief George Healey, upon the request of the influential Chinese World newspaper, which had editorialized that the squad was an "affront to Americans of Chinese descent".[13] Many working-class Hong Kong Chinese immigrants began arriving in Chinatown in large numbers in the 1960s, and despite their status and professions in Hong Kong, had to find low-paying employment in restaurants and garment factories in Chinatown because of limited English fluency. An increase in Cantonese-speaking immigrants from Hong Kong and Guangdong has gradually led to the replacement of the Taishanese (Hoisanese) dialect with the standard Cantonese dialect. The Golden Dragon massacre occurred in 1977. In the Sunset District in western San Francisco, a demographic shift began in the late 1960s and accelerated from the 1980s as Asian immigration to San Francisco increased dramatically. Much of the original, largely Irish American population of the Sunset moved to other neighborhoods and outlying suburban areas, although there is still a significant Irish American and Irish minority in the neighborhood. Informal Chinatowns have emerged on Irving Street between 19th Avenue and 26th Avenue as well as on the commercial sections of Taraval Street and Noriega Street west of 19th Avenue. About half of the Sunset District's residents are Asian American, mostly of Chinese birth and descent. The immigrants in the Sunset District were both Mandarin- and Cantonese-speaking. With the rise of the technology industry in Silicon Valley, many immigrants from Mainland China and Taiwan moved to the San Francisco Area. Many of them (particularly the Mandarin-speaking group) reside in the South Area cities of Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, San Jose, and Fremont.[2] Geography Chinatowns in San Francisco: Chinatown, San Francisco Clement Street Chinatown, San Francisco, the "Second Chinatown" Irving Street Chinatown, San Francisco, the "Third Chinatown" Noriega Street Chinatown, San Francisco, the "Fourth Chinatown" Chinatowns around San Francisco: Chinatown, Oakland Chinatown, San Jose, California Milpitas Square, a Chinese shopping center in Milpitas, California Cultural institutions The Chinese Culture Center, a community-based, non-profit organization, is located between Chinatown and the Financial District in San Francisco. The Chinese Historical Society of America, since 1963, is a non-profit, and the first organization established in the US to preserve, promote and present the history, heritage, culture and legacy of Chinese in America through exhibitions, education, and research; the Museum is located in San Francisco's original Chinatown on Clay Street. Healthcare Prior to health care According to "Handbook of Asian American Health" by Grace J. Yoo, the late 19th century was a period of major epidemics in San Francisco, which included outbreaks such as the bubonic plague, smallpox, and cholera. These diseases were commonly found among the poor and working classes. At the time, many believed in the miasma theory, or the spreading of disease due to "breathing sick air", rather than the now widely accepted germ theory. "In 1876, the Chinese were blamed as the source of the disease because of the unsanitary conditions of Chinatown." The area was unsanitary and overpopulated because the city's Chinese population was discriminated against, as Americans saw them as competition for work. This sentiment withheld services, such as access to healthcare or physicians, and property rights from the Chinese, causing them to cluster within Chinatown.[14] Struggles to establish health care Before the Chinese had any particular health care system for their community, all of them had to go through the following barriers: they had to walk a very long distance to receive any medical attention at a hospital, and they were denied coverage due to unaffordable rates of the services provided by the hospitals. Instead most Chinese relied on "folk healer" than on western medicine. The "Folk Healers" were those that provided Chinese traditional medicine to the Chinese community in San Francisco Chinatown. Therefore, many Chinese did not bother to go to the hospital unless it was a crisis.[15] First medical facility: Tung Wah Dispensary The first medical care place in San Francisco Chinatown was the Tung Wah Dispensary. It was provided by the Chinese Six Companies, and it was built in 1900 on 828 Sacramento Street. The dispensary was named after the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals in Hong Kong, and it housed 25 beds, provided both western and Chinese medicine, free or to low cost care to patients, and its staff was volunteers from the community and physicians from outside of the community. Of those physicians three were American physicians and the rest were Chinese American physicians who helped with the Chinese medicine and translating from Chinese to English for the American physicians.[15] Natural disaster led to the first modern hospital In 1906, due to the great earthquake in San Francisco, the Tung Wah Dispensary was destroyed but was rebuilt in Trenton Alley. However, with the many injuries due to the natural disaster, a lot more Chinese patients needed medical attention, and the dispensary was beginning to overflow with patients. Therefore, they decided to expand the dispensary to a modern hospital. In order to build the modern hospital they needed to make $200,000, so they began to have Chinese pageants that helped to contribute the donations from the Chinese Americans and Americans. So, when they got they collected the $200,000, they finally got permission from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to build the Hospital, and in two years the construction was in underway. By April 18, 1925 the San Francisco Chinese Hospital (東華醫院) in the San Francisco Chinatown was established. It is the only Chinese-language hospital in the United States.[16][17] The Asian Aids Project (AAP) was started in the 1987, it is made to help them fight the AIDS epidemic in the Asian Community including the Chinese Americans.[18] Education [icon] This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (April 2015) Chinese School, San Francisco (中華學校) Chinese Education Center Elementary School (舊金山的華人教育中心小學) In San Francisco: The Chinese American International School, Cumberland Chinese School, North Valley Chinese School, Mei Jia Chinese Learning Center, and Alice Fong Yu Alternative School are located in San Francisco. Around San Francisco: Palo Alto Chinese School is located in Palo Alto, and has classes teaching both Mandarin and Cantonese. The Shoong Family Chinese Cultural Center in Oakland serves as the premier Chinese-language school in the East Area, and Contra Costa Chinese School is located in Pleasant Hill. The North Valley Chinese School in Milpitas and San Jose Chinese school both serve the greater San Jose area. The Redwood Empire Chinese Center's Chinese school in Santa Rosa serves the North Bay. Media The New York-based but worldwide-distributed newspaper Epoch Times (大紀元時報) has a branch office in San Francisco. The Hong Kong-based newspaper Sing Tao Daily (星島日報) has an office in San Francisco. East West, The Chinese American Journal folded in 1989.[citation needed] The Chinese-American newspaper World Journal (世界日報) has an office in Millbrae.[19] KTSF serves as a Chinese-language television broadcast station.[20] Transportation Previously the Taiwanese airline China Airlines operated a bus to San Francisco International Airport from Milpitas and Cupertino in California.[21] Cultural events The Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco is held on every Chinese New Year's, and is celebrated in Chinatown. It is the largest Chinese New Year event in North America.[22] The Taiwanese American Cultural Festival, started in 1993, is held in Union Square, San Francisco every May.[23] Notable people Francis Chan, preacher Raymond Chow Kwok Cheung, criminal Carmen Chu, politician Sandra Lee Fewer, politician Edsel Ford Fong, waiter at Sam Wo Heather Fong, former Chief of San Francisco Police Department Alex Gong, kickboxer Ed Jew, politician Fred Lau, former Chief of San Francisco Police Department Bruce Lee, actor, born in Chinatown Ed Lee, former Mayor of San Francisco[2] Walter U. Lum, activist Eric Mar, politician Gordon Mar, politician Betty Ong, American Airlines Flight 11 flight attendant Rose Pak, community organizer Amy Tan, author Katy Tang, politician Phil Ting, politician Alex Tse, screenwriter Ali Wong, comedian Martin Wong, artist Willie "Woo Woo" Wong, basketball player, who a playground in Chinatown is named after Leland Yee, politician Norman Yee, politician References Chinese Americans are Americans of Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans have ancestors from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan,[4] as well as other regions that are inhabited by large populations of the Chinese diaspora, especially Southeast Asia and some other countries such as Australia, Canada, France, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Chinese Americans include Chinese from the China circle and around the world who became naturalized U.S. citizens as well as their natural-born descendants in the United States. The Chinese American community is the largest overseas Chinese community outside Asia. It is also the third-largest community in the Chinese diaspora, behind the Chinese communities in Thailand and Malaysia. The 2016 Community Survey of the U.S. Census estimated the population of Chinese Americans of one or more races to be 5,081,682.[5] According to the 2010 census, the Chinese American population numbered about 3.8 million.[6] In 2010, half of the Chinese-born people in the United States lived in California and New York.[7] About half or more of the Chinese ethnic people in the U.S. in the 1980s had roots in Taishan, Guangdong,[8] a city in southern China near the major city of Guangzhou. In general, much of the Chinese population before the 1990s consisted of Cantonese or Taishanese-speaking people from southern China, predominately from Guangdong province. During the 1980s, more Mandarin-speaking immigrants from Northern China and Taiwan immigrated to the U.S.[9] The Chinese population in much of the 1800s and 1990s was almost entirely contained to the Western U.S., especially California and Nevada, as well as New York City. Originally, Chinese immigrants and their descendants generally[clarification needed] lived in Chinatowns (especially the ones in San Francisco and New York), or Chinese populated districts in downtowns of major cities. History Chinese American miners in the Colorado School of Mines' Edgar Experimental Mine near Idaho Springs, Colorado, c. 1920 Main article: History of Chinese Americans See also: Chinese immigration to Hawaii and Chinese immigration to Puerto Rico There are three major waves of recent Chinese immigration into America: First wave, beginning in 1815, sailors and merchants from Sino-U.S. maritime trade Second wave, 1949-1980s, where WWII allyship led to the repealing of the Chinese Exclusion Act and the passing of the Magnuson Act, legally allowing for Chinese Americans to naturalize Third wave, 1980s-present, when the PRC removed restrictions on emigration from China Chinese American Shell Peedlers (1918) First wave (1815–1949) Main article: 19th century Chinese immigration to America 19th century arrivals, cause for migration Nearly all of the early Chinese migrants were young men from rural villages of Toisan, as well as the eight districts in Guangdong Province.[10] The Guangdong province, especially Toisan, experienced extreme floods and famine in the mid-nineteenth century, as well as mass political unrest such as the Red Turban unrest. This prompted many people to migrate to America.[11] The vast majority of the 19th century Chinese immigrants to the U.S. came from a small area of eight districts on the west side of the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province. The eight districts consist of three subgroups—the four districts of Sze Yup, the district of Chung Shan, and the three districts of Sam Yup—each subgroup speaking a distinct dialect of Cantonese. In the U.S., people from Sze Yup generally worked as laborers; Chung Shan people specialized in agriculture; and Sam Yup people worked as entrepreneurs.[12] California Gold Rush, Central Pacific Railroad construction In the 1850s, Chinese workers migrated to work in the California Gold Rush,[13][14][15][16] and also to do agricultural jobs and factory work, especially the garment industry.[11] Some became entrepreneurs. Chinese often settled in ethnic neighborhoods called Chinatowns. In 1852, there were 25,000 Chinese migrants in America. Chinese American fisherman, circa 1875 From 1860 until 1869, the Central Pacific Railroad recruited large labor gangs, with many laborers on five-year contracts, to build on the Transcontinental Railroad. Chinese laborers built the majority of the difficult route through the Sierra Nevada mountains and across Nevada. By 1869, there were at least 100,000 ethnic Chinese in the United States.[17] By 1887, less than four hundred thousand Chinese entered the United States, concentrated in California.[18] Chinese Exclusion Acts See also: Chinese Exclusion Act and White Australia policy The Burlingame-Seward Treaty of 1868 between the United States and Qing China supported Chinese migration,[11] but the Page Law of 1875 banned all female Chinese migrants from entering the United States. Upon arrival to the U.S. Chinese men and women were separated from each other as they awaited hearings on their immigration status, which often took weeks. During this time the women were subjected to lengthy questioning that focused on their family life and origins. Their responses were then cross examined with others from their village, and any discrepancies were used to justify denial of entry. The stress of being separated from family caused many women to fall ill while they waited for a hearing. Some even committed suicide as they feared being denied access to the country. Once they were approved and allowed into the country, Chinese women migrants faced additional challenges. Many were coerced into prostitution, with over 60% of the adult Chinese women living in California in 1870 working in the trade. Some women were lured to the U.S. with the promise of marriage only to become sex slaves, while others went to the U.S. in order to reunite with their families. Ninety percent of the Chinese women who immigrated to the U.S. between 1898 and 1908 did so to join a husband or father. By 1900, only 4,522 of the 89,837 (5%) Chinese migrants were women. In 1880, the diplomat James B. Angell was appointed to negotiate a new treaty with Qing China. The resulting Angell Treaty of 1880 restricted Chinese immigration and banned the naturalization of Chinese migrants. Two years later, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prohibited all Chinese from immigrating for 10 years, and required all Chinese people to carry identification. This was the first act to restrict immigration in American history. Then, six years later, the Scott Act of 1888 illegalized reentry to the United States after a visit to China, even for long-term legal residents. In 1892, the Geary Act was passed to extend the Chinese Exclusion Act, and in 1902, the prohibition was expanded to cover Hawaii and the Philippines, despite the strong objections from the Chinese government and people.[11] Only in 1898, as a result of the United States v. Wong Kim Ark Supreme Court decision, ethnic Chinese born in the United States become American citizens. The Chinese Exclusion Acts remained part of the law until 1943. With relations already complicated by the Treaties of Wangxia and Tianjian, the increasingly harsh restrictions on Chinese immigration combined with the rising discrimination against Chinese living in the United States in the 1870s-early 1900s.[11] Second Wave (1949–1980) During and after World War II, severe immigration restrictions were eased as the United States allied with China against Japanese expansionism. Later reforms in the 1960s placed increasing value on family unification, allowing relatives of U.S. citizens to receive preference in immigration. [icon] This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (May 2023) Third Wave (1980s–present) [icon] This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (May 2023) As of 2023, illegal Chinese immigration to New York City has accelerated.[19] Museums There are a number of museums in the United States specifically focusing on and documenting the Chinese American experience, the most prominent being the Museum of Chinese in America in Manhattan's Chinatown, established in 1980; as well as others, including the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles, the Chinese American Museum of Chicago, the Chinese Historical Society of America in San Francisco, and the Chinese American Museum in Washington, D.C. Demographics Main article: List of U.S. cities with significant Chinese American populations See also: Demographics of the United States and list of common Chinese American surnames Population This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) The chart on the right shows the total number of ethnic Chinese in the United States since 1850.[20][21] Historical population Year Pop. ±% 1850 758 —     1860 34,933 +4508.6% 1870 63,199 +80.9% 1880 105,465 +66.9% 1890 107,488 +1.9% 1900 89,863 −16.4% 1910 71,531 −20.4% 1920 61,639 −13.8% 1930 74,954 +21.6% 1940 77,504 +3.4% 1950 117,629 +51.8% 1960 237,292 +101.7% 1970 435,062 +83.3% 1980 806,040 +85.3% 1990 1,645,472 +104.1% 2000 2,432,585 +47.8% 2010 3,347,229 +37.6% 2019 5,400,000 +61.3% Percentage of Chinese population in the United States, 2000 States with the largest estimated Chinese American populations The states with the largest estimated Chinese American populations, according to the 2010 Census, were California (1,253,100; 3.4%), New York (577,000; 3.0%), Texas (157,000; 0.6%), New Jersey (134,500; 1.5%), Massachusetts (123,000; 1.9%), Illinois (104,200; 0.8%), Washington (94,200; 1.4%), Pennsylvania (85,000; 0.7%), Maryland (69,400; 1.2%), Virginia (59,800; 0.7%), and Ohio (51,033; 0.5%). The state of Hawaii has the highest concentration of Chinese Americans at 4.0%, or 55,000 people. Population centers of Chinese Americans According to the 2012 Census estimates,[23] the three metropolitan areas with the largest Chinese American populations were the Greater New York Combined Statistical Area at 735,019 people, the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland Combined Statistical Area at 629,243 people, and the Los Angeles Area Combined Statistical Area at about 566,968 people. New York City contains by far the highest ethnic Chinese population of any individual city outside Asia, estimated at 628,763 as of 2017.[24] The Los Angeles County city of Monterey Park has the highest percentage of Chinese Americans of any municipality, at 43.7% of its population, or 24,758 people. The New York metropolitan area, which includes New York City, Long Island, and nearby areas within the states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, is home to the largest Chinese American population of any metropolitan area within the United States, enumerating an estimated 893,697 in 2017[25] and including at least 12 Chinatowns. Continuing significant immigration from mainland China is fueled by New York's status as an alpha global city, its high population density, its extensive mass transit system, and the New York metropolitan area's enormous economic marketplace. The Manhattan Chinatown contains the largest concentration of ethnic Chinese in the Western hemisphere;[26] while the Flushing Chinatown in Queens has become the world's largest Chinatown. As of 2023, illegal Chinese immigration to New York City, and especially to the Flushing, Queens Chinatown, has accelerated.[19] Also on the East Coast, Greater Boston and the Philadelphia metropolitan area are home to significant Chinese American communities, with Chinatowns in Boston and Philadelphia hosting important and diverse cultural centers. Significant populations can also be found in the Washington metropolitan area, with Montgomery County, Maryland and Fairfax County, Virginia, being 3.9% and 2.4% Chinese American, respectively. Boston's Chinatown is the only historical Chinese neighborhood within New England. The Boston suburb of Quincy also has a prominent Chinese American population, especially within the North Quincy area.[27] San Francisco, California has the highest per capita concentration of Chinese Americans of any major city in the United States, at an estimated 21.4%, or 172,181 people, and contains the second-largest total number of Chinese Americans of any U.S. city. San Francisco's Chinatown was established in the 1840s, making it the oldest Chinatown in North America and one of the largest neighborhoods of Chinese people outside of Asia,[28][29] composed in large part by immigrants hailing from Guangdong province and also many from Hong Kong. The San Francisco neighborhoods of Sunset District and Richmond District also contain significant Chinese populations. In addition to the big cities, smaller pockets of Chinese Americans are also dispersed in rural towns, often university-college towns, throughout the United States. For example, the number of Chinese Americans, including college professors, doctors, professionals, and students, has increased over 200% from 2005 to 2010 in Providence, Rhode Island, a small city with a large number of colleges. Income and social status Income and social status of these Chinese American locations vary widely. As of 2012 about 333,333 people living in the United States with a Chinese background are not United States citizens.[30] Although many Chinese Americans in Chinatowns of large cities are often members of an impoverished working class, others are well-educated upper-class people living in affluent suburbs. The upper and lower-class Chinese are also widely separated by social status and class discrimination. In California's San Gabriel Valley, for example, the cities of Monterey Park and San Marino are both Chinese American communities lying geographically close to each other but they are separated by a large socioeconomic gap. Cultural centers The busy intersection of Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue in the Flushing Chinatown (法拉盛華埠), Downtown Flushing, Queens, New York City. The segment of Main Street between Kissena Boulevard and Roosevelt Avenue, punctuated by the Long Island Rail Road trestle overpass, represents the cultural heart of Flushing Chinatown. Housing over 30,000 individuals born in China alone, the largest by this metric outside Asia, Flushing has become home to the largest and one of the fastest-growing Chinatowns in the world.[31] Flushing is undergoing rapid gentrification by Chinese transnational entities,[32] and the growth of the business activity at the core of Downtown Flushing, dominated by the Flushing Chinatown, has continued despite the COVID-19 pandemic.[33] As of 2023, illegal Chinese immigration to the Flushing Chinatown has accelerated.[19] Rank City State Chinese Americans Percentage 1 San Francisco California 172,181 21.4 2 Honolulu Hawaii 38,330 10.2 3 Oakland California 34,083 8.7 4 San Jose California 63,434 6.7 5 New York City New York 486,463 6.0 6 Plano Texas 13,592 5.2 7 Sacramento California 20,307 4.4 8 Seattle Washington 27,216 4.1 9 Boston Massachusetts 24,910 4.0 10 San Diego California 35,661 2.7 11 Philadelphia Pennsylvania 30,069 2.0 12 Stockton California 5,188 1.8 13 Los Angeles California 66,782 1.8 14 Portland Oregon 9,113 1.7 15 Chicago Illinois 43,228 1.6 16 Anaheim California 4,738 1.4 17 Houston Texas 29,429 1.3 18 Austin Texas 8,886 1.2 19 Pittsburgh Pennsylvania 3,402 1.1 20 Riverside California 2,985 1.0 Social status and assimilation New York City is home to the largest Chinese American population of any city proper, over 600,000 as of 2017.[24] Although most Chinatowns in North America are shrinking due to assimilation of Chinese Americans into the suburbs, New York City is the exception. Multiple large Chinatowns in Manhattan, Brooklyn (above), and Queens are thriving as traditionally urban enclaves, as large-scale Chinese immigration continues into New York,[34][35][36][37][38] with the largest metropolitan Chinese population outside Asia,[39][40] comprising an estimated 893,697 uniracial individuals as of 2017.[41] Some noteworthy historical Chinese contributions to America include building the western half of the Transcontinental Railroad, the levees in the Sacramento River Delta, Chinese American food, deep oil extraction in Texas, and the introduction of Chinese and East Asian culture to America, such as Buddhism, Taoism, and Kung fu. Chinese immigrants to the United States brought many of their ideas, values, and culture with them. Some of these have continued to influence later generations, such as the Confucian respect for elders.[42] Similarly, education and the civil service were the most important path for upward social mobility in China.[42][43] The first Broadway show about Asian Americans was Flower Drum Song which premiered on Broadway in 1958;[44] the hit Chinglish premiered on Broadway in 2011.[45] In most American cities with significant Chinese populations, the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) is celebrated with cultural festivals and other celebrations. In Seattle, the Chinese Culture and Arts Festival is held every year. Other important festivals include the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival. Discrimination, prejudice, depression and suicide  Main articles: Xenophobia and Anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States See also: Stereotypes of East Asians in the United States and Xenophobia and racism related to the COVID-19 pandemic § United States 17 to 20 Chinese immigrants were murdered during the Chinese massacre of 1871 in Los Angeles. An illustration of the Rock Springs massacre of 1885, in which at least 28 Chinese immigrants were killed Perceptions and stereotypes A 2007 analysis indicated that most non-Asian Americans do not differentiate between Chinese Americans and East Asian Americans generally, and perceptions of both groups are nearly identical.[46] A 2001 survey of Americans' attitudes toward Asian Americans and Chinese Americans indicated that one fourth of the respondents had somewhat or very negative attitude toward Chinese Americans in general.[47] However, the study did also find several positive perceptions of Chinese Americans: strong family values (91%); honesty as entrepreneurs (77%); high value on education (67%).[46] Anti-Chinese violence in the United States Further information: Anti-Chinese violence in California, Anti-Chinese violence in Oregon, and Anti-Chinese violence in Washington Early Chinese Americans struggled to survive in the United States because of prejudice, discrimination, and violence. In 1880, motivated by yellow peril and sensationalism surrounding the upcoming presidential election, a mob numbering 3,000 instigated an anti-Chinese riot in Denver, Colorado. A man named Look Young was lynched, and nearly all of Chinatown was destroyed. 185 Chinese men were held in jail for three days for their own safety. Most of the rioters arrested were dismissed, and the alleged murderers of Look Young were tried and found not guilty.[48][49] In 1871, 17–20 Chinese immigrants were murdered in Los Angeles by a mob of around 500 men. This racially motivated massacre was one of the largest mass-lynchings in the United States, and it took place after the accidental killing of Robert Thompson, a local rancher. The Rock Springs massacre occurred in 1885, in which at least 28 Chinese immigrants were killed and 15 other Chinese were injured. Many enraged white miners in Sweetwater County felt threatened by the Chinese and they also blamed them for their unemployment. As a result of competition for jobs, white miners expressed their frustration by committing acts of physical violence in which they robbed, shot, and stabbed Chinese in Chinatown. The Chinese quickly tried to flee, but in doing so, many of them ended up being burned alive in their homes, starving to death in hiding places, or being exposed to animal predators which lived in the mountains; some of them were successfully rescued by a passing train. A total of 78 homes were burned. During the Hells Canyon massacre of 1887, at least 34 Chinese miners were killed. An accurate account of the event is still unavailable, but it is speculated that the Chinese miners were killed by gunshot during a robbery by a gang of seven armed horse thieves. Other acts of violence which were committed against Chinese immigrants include the San Francisco riot of 1877, the Issaquah and Tacoma riot of 1885, the attack on Squak Valley Chinese laborers in 1885, the Seattle riot of 1886, and the Pacific Coast race riots of 1907. With the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is believed to have started in the city of Wuhan, China, numerous incidents of xenophobia and racism against Chinese people and people who are perceived to be Chinese have been reported. Depression and suicide In 2008, researchers Georg Hsu and Yu Mui Wan published a paper citing severe stigma of mental illness in the Chinese American community as a barrier to diagnosis and treatment.[50] In a 1998 study of 29 diagnosed depressive Chinese American immigrants, more than half of respondents avoided labeling their symptoms as depression.[51] While patients were able to accurately identify and report depressive symptoms such as "irritability" and "rumination," patients were more likely to attribute their depression to somatic and physical symptoms than as a psychological state.[51] Among Asian-American youth in 1980, suicide accounted for 20.8% of Chinese American female deaths.[52] Among males, it constituted 15.1% of deaths.[52] The study also reported that suicide rates among Chinese American elderly were higher than that of the national suicide rate for African-American, Hispanic, and Native-American. A study published in the Journal of Aging and Health, stated that 18% to 29.4% of older Chinese adults in North America had at least a mild level of depression which was higher than other ethnic groups.[53] Further, the study reported that these depressive symptoms among older Chinese adults "tend to remain untreated."[53] Languages Main article: Chinese language and varieties in the United States See also: Language and overseas Chinese communities § North America According to the United States Census Bureau, the various varieties of Chinese make up the third-most spoken language in the United States. It is almost completely spoken within Chinese American populations and by immigrants or the descendants of immigrants, especially in California.[54] In 2002, over 2 million Americans speak some variety or dialect of Chinese, with Standard Chinese (Mandarin) becoming increasingly common due to new immigration from China and supplanting the previous widespread Cantonese and Taishanese.[54] In New York City, although Standard Chinese (Mandarin) was spoken as a native language among only 10% of American-born Chinese speakers, it is used as a secondary dialect to English.[55] In addition, the immigration from Fuzhou, Fujian brings in a significant[quantify] populace of Fuzhou people (Eastern Min), particularly Changle dialect speakers to major cities like New York City, San Francisco, and Boston.[citation needed] People who comes from Fujian (Minnan region), Chaoshan, Taiwan and Southeast Asia mainly use Southern Min dialect (Hokkien and Teochew) as their mother tongue. Varieties of Wu Chinese, particularly Shanghainese and the mutually unintelligible Wenzhounese, are spoken by a minority of recent Chinese immigrants hailing from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai.[when?][citation needed] Although many Chinese Americans grow up learning English, some teach their children to speak Chinese for a variety of reasons: preservation of an ancient civilization, preservation of a group identity, preservation of their cultural ancestry, desire for easy communication with each other and their relatives, and the perception that Chinese is a very useful language. The official standard for United States public notices and signage is Traditional Chinese.[56] Religion Religions of Chinese Americans (2012)[3][57]   Not declared (52%)   Christianity (30%)   Buddhism (15%)   Chinese Folk Religion (3%) The majority of Chinese Americans do not report a religious affiliation. 43% of Chinese Americans switched to a different religion and 54% stayed within their childhood religion within their lifetime. According to the 2012 Pew Research Center Asian-American Survey, 52% of Chinese Americans aged 15 and over said that they did not have any religious affiliation. This is also compared with the religious affiliation of Asian-American average of 26% and a national average of 19%. Of the survey respondents, 15% were Buddhist, 8% were Catholic, and 22% belonged to a Protestant denomination. About half of Chinese Americans (52%)—including 55% of those born in the U.S. and 51% of those born overseas—describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated.[3][57] There are also many Chinese people in New York City who identify as Jewish due to intermarriage with Jews.[58][59] Some posit that Judaism has similar habits to Confucianism[60] such as the emphasis on scholarship.[speculation?] There is a significantly higher[quantify] percentage of Chinese Christians in the United States than there is in China, as Chinese Christians flee to the United States from Chinese Communist persecution.[61][62] List of Chinese temples in the United States Temple of Kwan Tai (武帝廟), located in Mendocino, California Bok Kai Temple (北溪廟), located in the city of Marysville, California Kong Chow Temple (岡州古廟), located in San Francisco, California Tin How Temple (天后古廟), located in San Francisco's Chinatown, California Oroville Chinese Temple (列聖宮), located in Oroville, California Ma-Tsu Temple (美國舊金山媽祖廟朝聖宮), located in San Francisco's Chinatown, California Weaverville Joss House (雲林廟), located in the center of the town of Weaverville, California Pao Fa Temple (寶法寺), located in Irvine, California Hsu Yun Temple (虛雲禪寺), located in Honolulu, Hawaii Hsi Lai Temple (佛光山西來寺), located in northern Puente Hills, Hacienda Heights, California City of Ten Thousand Buddhas (萬佛聖城), located in Talmage, California Chuang Yen Monastery (莊嚴寺), located in Kent, Putnam County, New York Politics Judy Chu (D‑CA 27th), the first female Chinese American elected to Congress Chinese Americans are divided among many subgroups based on factors such as age, nativity, and socioeconomic status and politics between China and the United States, and Chinese nationalism. Different subgroups of Chinese Americans also have radically different and sometimes conflicting political priorities and goals. As of 2013, Chinese Americans were the least likely Asian-American ethnicity to be affiliated with a political party.[63] Chinese Americans tend to be clustered in majority-Democratic states and have increasingly voted Democratic in recent presidential elections, following the trend for Asian Americans in general, excluding the Vietnamese Americans.[64] Polling just before the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election found John Kerry was favored by 58% of Chinese Americans and George W. Bush by only 23%,[65] as compared with a 54/44 split in California, a 58/40 split in New York, and a 48/51 split in America as a whole on Election Day itself. In the 2012 presidential election, 81% of Chinese American voters selected Barack Obama over Mitt Romney.[66] Modern immigration Economic growth in the People's Republic of China has given mainland Chinese more opportunities to emigrate. A 2011 survey showed that 60% of Chinese millionaires were planning to emigrate, with 40% of Chinese millionaires selecting the United States as the top destination for immigration.[67][68][69][70][71] The EB-5 Investment Visa allows many Chinese to seek U.S. citizenship. It has a yearly quota of around 10,000 applicants or families, and recent reports show that 75% of applicants for this visa in 2011 were Chinese.[72][73] Under this program, applicants, together with their spouses and unmarried children under 21 years old will be eligible to apply for U.S. permanent residency as a group. Because the EB-5 program allows applicants to apply as a family, it has been reported to be a significant method for Chinese students to obtain authorization to work in the United States. Chinese multimillionaires benefited most from the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program in the U.S. now,[when?] as long as one has at least US$500,000 to invest in projects listed by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), where it is possible to get an EB-5 green card that comes with permanent U.S. residency rights, but only in states specified by the pilot project.[74][75] The H-1B visa is also becoming one of the main immigration pathways for the Chinese with 9% of the approved petitions in 2016.[76] Illegal immigration Further information: Scott Act (1888) and Geary Act Before 1882, there were no limits on immigration to the United States, but with the Chinese Exclusion Act, for the first time in American history immigration was deemed illegal. This legislation was partially repealed in 1943 with the Magnuson Act, and only fully repealed in 1965. The history of illegal immigration of Chinese people to the United States go back to the 19th century.[77] Smuggling of immigrants without authorization increased during 1990s following policy changes by the American government, but by the 21st century some have returned to China due to its growing economy.[78] By 2017, it is estimated that more than a quarter million immigrants reside in the United States without authorization from China.[79] In 2015, there were about 39,000 Chinese nationals who were supposed to be deported; however, the People's Republic of China government had not provided paperwork to verify their citizenship.[80] In 2017, China was described as having become one of the leading sources of new immigrants without authorization.[81] Socioeconomics See also: Model minority Educational attainment Overall, as a demographic group, Chinese Americans have a higher educational attainment, have a higher percentage of people working in select white collar and professional occupations, and earn higher median household incomes compared to other demographic groups in the United States.[82] Educational achievements of Chinese in the United States are one of the highest among Asian Americans and also among all ethnic groups in the United States.[83] Chinese Americans often have some[clarification needed] of the highest averages in tests such as SAT, ACT, GRE etc. in the United States. Although verbal scores lag somewhat due to the influx of new immigrants, combined SAT scores have also been higher than for most Americans.[84] With above average SAT and ACT scores as well as GPA's, Chinese Americans are more likely to apply to competitively elite higher education institutions.[85][86][87][88] China sends the most international students to the U.S., with Chinese students accounting for 33.2% of the international student population. In the 2017–2018 school year, there were close to 363,000 enrolled students in higher education.[89] Chinese students also make up 32.2% of the undergraduate students and 48.8% of the graduate students. International students International students studying at various higher education institutions around the United States account for a significant percentage of the international student body. According to a Brookings Institution report analyzing foreign student visa approvals from 2008 to 2012, Michigan State University has the highest enrollment of Chinese international students in the United States, with roughly 4,700 Chinese citizens enrolled during the period of the study making up 62 percent of the 7,568 international students enrolled at MSU.[90] International undergraduates, who make up 38 percent of Purdue's undergraduate body, come from China more than any other country.[91] International Chinese students make up 49.8 percent of all international students at the University of Southern California.[92] International Chinese students are also 60 percent of the 6039 international students enrolled at Ohio State University.[93] Mainland China is the top sending country of international students to the United States.[94][note 1] After the 1970s, the globalization and Chinese Reform and Opening-Up Act resulted in a growing economy, more middle-class families from China are able to afford American college tuition, bringing an influx of Chinese students to study abroad in the United States. With a more diverse educational background and higher level of English proficiency, international Chinese students also value American degrees, as it gives them a notable advantage over their college-educated counterparts in China by the time they return to their native country to seek employment.[95] Choice of institution Due to cultural differences and socioeconomic factors, many Chinese international students are prestige-oriented and brand name conscious, choosing nationally ranked elite higher education institutes such as Harvard, Stanford, and MIT throughout the United States as their target schools.[96][97][98] International Chinese students are also widely found at many elite liberal arts colleges such as Barnard College and Mount Holyoke College.[99][100] Students from China gravitate towards Americans colleges and universities for their high quality and the style of education which stresses interdisciplinary approaches, argumentative analysis, creativity, student participation, and critical thinking.[98] Subject choice As a result of differences in cultural factors in addition to extensive parental involvement and family preferences in the decision-making process with regards to what university majors to pursue that are optimally suited for one's future career path. Chinese international students tend to gravitate towards technical and scientific majors that involve the heavy use of mathematics such as engineering, formal sciences such as computer science, statistics, and mathematics, and the natural sciences such as physics, chemistry, and biology in comparison to the social sciences and humanities. These factors, coupled with the growing economic affluence and wealth in East Asia has led many modern Chinese parents hailing from upper and middle-class households to see and take advantage of the benefits of harnessing modern science and technology as a means of charting a pathway for accelerating China's and the rest of East Asia's inexorable economic advancement into the future. As modern Chinese as well as other East Asian parents value education and put a greater premium in the STEM-related fields as they are perceived to lead to more practical career path with more remuneratively lucrative socioeconomic outcomes for their children to pursue compared to their liberal arts, social sciences, and humanities counterparts.[101] While 27.5% of international Chinese students have chosen business administration, finance, or economics as their future area of study and academic focus, 19.2% of Chinese international students pursue engineering, 11.5% have chosen to take up the life sciences, and 10.6% study math and computer science.[102] Largely driven by educational immigration, among American PhD recipients in fields related to science and engineering, 25% of the recipients are of Chinese descent.[103] Level of education According to the 2021 U.S. Census Bureau of Labor Statistics, 58.6% of all Chinese Americans have attained at least a bachelor's degree, compared with 35.0% nationally and 56.4% for all Asian-American groups. The 2021 U.S. Census also reports that 60.6% of Chinese American men attained a bachelor's degree and 56.9% of Chinese American women attained a bachelor's degree at a minimum. In addition, 31.0% of all Chinese Americans in the United States possess at least a master's, doctorate or other graduate and professional degree, compared to 25.8% for all Asian Americans, and is a little more than two times above the national average of 13.8%.[104] Bachelor's Degree or Higher Educational Attainment[104] Ethnicity Percent of Population Chinese 58.6% Japanese 54.6% Korean 60.7% Asian 56.4% Taiwanese 80.8% Total U.S. Population 35.0% Employment Technology conglomerates such as eBay located within high-technology centers across the United States, including California's Silicon Valley, have become attractive destinations of employment for Chinese Americans with technical skill-sets and foreign-born Chinese technology entrepreneurs looking to start or expand their own businesses.[105] Perceptions and change There has been a significant change in the perceptions about Chinese Americans among the general American populace. In as little as 100 years of American history, stereotypes of Chinese and other East Asian Americans have changed from being perceived as indentured and uneducated coolie laborers who were perpetually entangled in an endlessly hopeless cycle of socioeconomic destitution towards a modern juxtaposed portrayal of them being an intelligent, conscientious, and educated minority group. Most Chinese Americans work as white-collar professionals, many of whom are highly educated and salaried professionals whose work is largely self-directed in management, professional, and related occupations such as engineering, medicine, finance, law, and academia. 63.1% of Chinese Americans work in white-collar professions compared with 57.5% for all Asian Americans and a U.S. national average of 42.2%.[104] Chinese Americans also make up a third of the Asian-American high-tech professional workforce and one-tenth of the entire Silicon Valley workforce.[106] Chinese American unemployment rates are comparable with the general U.S. population average with a figure of 6.4% compared to a national rate of 6.3% in 2021.[104] Medicine Between 2008 and 2017, the number of Chinese-educated physicians practicing in the United States rose by 38.1%, and the total number of Chinese-educated physicians actively practicing in the United States was about 0.6% of the active physician workforce in 2017.[107] Technology sector Many Chinese Americans with engineering and technical backgrounds and skillsets have flocked and turned to the United States high tech center of Silicon Valley to look for employment opportunities or start their own businesses by jump-starting potential computer science and programming startups as means to harness their technical skillsets by capitalizing on the region's immense wealth of venture capital, business expertise, and financial incentives for cultivating technological innovation. Ethnic Chinese have been successful in starting new firms in technology centers across the United States. Chinese Americans have enjoyed a vast disproportion of entrepreneurial and investment success in various U.S.-based high-technology centers and sectors, as evidenced by the 2010 Goldsea 100 Compilation of America's Most Successful Asian Entrepreneurs.[108] Chinese Americans accounted for 4% of people listed in the 1998 Forbes Hi Tech 100 List.[109] Annalee Saxenian, a UC Berkeley professor, whose scholarly research interests include the contribution of Chinese immigrants on America's technology concludes that in Silicon Valley, carried out a study that showed that since 1998, one out of five high tech start-ups in Silicon Valley were led by Chinese Americans. During the same year, 5 of the 8 fastest growing companies had a leading executive who was of Chinese ancestry, except for Yahoo, whose Jerry Yang was a founder and owner, but was not serving an executive leadership position. In Silicon Valley, there are at least two to three dozen Chinese American organizations according to professional interests each with at least 100 members, one prominent organization of which is the Committee of 100.[110] Immigrants from mainland China and Taiwan were key founders in 12.8% of all Silicon Valley start-ups between 1995 and 2005.[111] Almost 6% of the immigrants who founded companies in the innovation/manufacturing-related services field are from China.[112] Research funded by the Public Policy Institute of California indicates that in 1996, 1,786 Silicon Valley technology companies with $12.5 billion in sales and 46,000 employees were run by executives of Indian or Chinese descent. Moreover, the pace of entrepreneurship among local immigrants has been increasing rapidly. While executives of Chinese or Indian origin were at the helm of 13% of the Silicon Valley technology businesses started between 1980 and 1985, they were also running 27% of the more than 4,000 businesses started between 1991 and 1996.[113] Start-up firms remain a primary source for new ideas and innovation for Chinese American internet entrepreneurs. Many of them are employed or directly engaged in new start-up activities. The proportional share of start-up firms by ethnic Chinese in Silicon Valley skyrocketed from 9% in 1980–1984 to about 20% between 1995 and 1998.[114] By 2006, Chinese American high-technology entrepreneurs were behind 20 percent of all Silicon Valley start-up firms, leading 2000 Silicon Valley companies, and employing 58,000 workers.[103] Today, Chinese Americans still continue to own about 20% of all U.S.-based information technology companies that were founded in Silicon Valley since 1980. Numerous professional organizations in perspective in the 1990s as a support network for fellow Chinese American high tech start-ups in the valley.[115] Between 1980 and 1999, 17% of the 11,443 high-tech firms in Silicon Valley—including some 40 publicly traded firms were controlled by an owner of Chinese ancestry. In 1990, Chinese Americans made up a third of the Asian-American high-tech professional workforce in addition to 11% of the entire Silicon Valley professional workforce. In 1998, Chinese Americans managed 2001 firms, employing 41,684 workers, and ran up 13.2 billion in sales. They also accounted for 17% of all Silicon Valley high-technology business owners, 10% of the professional high-technology workforce in the Valley, and 13.5% of the total sales all while accounting for less than 1% of the U.S. population at the time.[116] Self-employment and entrepreneurship Chinese Americans are also noted for their high rates of self-employment, as they have an extensive history of starting and owning their own businesses through various means of self-employment dating back to the California Gold Rush in the 1880s.[117] However, as more recent generations of Chinese Americans who have chose to seek higher education as another gateway to elevate themselves socioeconomically, rates of self-employment have been generally lower than population average.[118] In 2007, there were over 109,614 Chinese-owned employer firms, employing more than 780,000 workers, and generating more than $128 billion in revenue.[119] Among Chinese-owned American firms, 40% were in the professional, scientific, and technical services sector, the accommodation and food services sector, and the repair, maintenance, personal, and laundry services sector. Chinese-owned U.S. firms were 2% of all U.S. businesses in these sectors. Wholesale trade and accommodation and food services accounted for 50.4% of Chinese-owned business revenue. 66,505 or 15.7% of Chinese-owned firms had receipts of $250,000 or more compared with 2% for all U.S. businesses.[119][120][121][122][123][124] Economics With their above average educational attainment rates, Chinese Americans from all socioeconomic backgrounds have achieved significant advances in their educational levels, occupational prestige, personal and household income, life expectancy, and other socioeconomic indicators. As the fulsome financial and socioeconomic opportunities offered by the United States have lifted many Chinese Americans out of poverty, and has allowed much of the community to channel their social mobility by elevating them into the ranks of America's middle and upper middle class, as well as the enjoyment of substantially high wellbeing relative to other minority ethno-racial groups in the United States.[125] However, Chinese American wealth vary greatly by region: For instance, in New York City, 22% of Chinese Americans live in poverty.[126] Chinese Americans are more likely to own homes than the general American population. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 65% of Chinese Americans owned a home, higher than the total population's rate of 54%.[127][128] In 2003, real estate economist Gary Painter of the University of Southern California Lusk Center for Real Estate Research found out that when comparing homeowners with similar income levels Los Angeles, the Chinese American home-ownership rate is 20% higher than Whites; in San Francisco, 23% higher; and in the New York metropolitan area, 18% higher.[129] A 2008 Asian Real Estate Association of America report released on behalf of the American community survey, Chinese Americans living in the states of Texas, New York, and California all had high home ownership rates that were significantly near or above the general population average.[130] According to the 2021 U.S. Census, Chinese American men had a full-time median income of $91,138 and Chinese American women had a median income of $75,148. Chinese Americans also have one of the highest median household incomes relatively in comparison to their fellow East Asian American community counterparts. And also one of the highest among most minority and non-white demographic ethno-racial groups in the United States, which is approximately one-third higher than the US national average, but is slightly lower compared with the general Asian-American population.[104] Median household income: 2021[104] Ethnicity Household income Japanese $87,789 Taiwanese $119,022 Asian $100,572 Chinese $93,007 Korean $82,946 Total U.S. population $69,717 Despite overwhelmingly positive economic indicators and socioeconomic patterns compared to other non-white ethno-racial groups in the United States, a number of economic deterrents have been noted to afflict the Chinese American community including institutionalized discrimination against STEM researchers, engineers, and scientists of Chinese descent. While the median income of Chinese American households remains above most non-white ethno-racial groups in the United States, studies in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis revealed that East Asian men have witnessed the highest rate of persistent long-term unemployment.[131] In addition, studies have shown that Asian Americans have been discriminated in companies with lower pay grades; even in larger high-tech corporate settings such as Google.[132] Genetics Studies on the genetics of Chinese Americans A research on the whole genome patterns of common DNA variation in different human populations (African-American, Asian-American and European American) finds some common single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in these three populations with diverse ancestry.[133] In the samples of Han Chinese in America, 74% of the total SNPs have two alleles, and majority of the segregating SNPs have a minor allele frequency (MAF) greater than 10%. Another noticeable point is that MAFs show similar distributions in European-American and Han Chinese populations. Besides, rarer haplotype is found to be absent in the samples of Han Chinese, and they also possess a high level of redundancy.[citation needed] A study analyzing East Asian Genetic Substructure using genome-wide SNP arrays is carried out with greater than 200,000 genotypes from people of East Asian ancestry.[134] The continental populations are from the Human Genome Diversity Panel (Cambodian, Yi, Daur, Mongolian, Lahu, Dai, Hezhen, Miaozu, Naxi, Oroqen, She, Tu, Tujia, Naxi, Xibo, and Yakut), HapMap (Han Chinese and Japanese), as well as East Asian or East Asian-American subjects of Vietnamese, Korean, Filipino and Chinese ancestry. A clear understanding of the genetic substructure of any population helps in the studies of complex diseases, as well as the design and execution of association tests. Results of this study have identified markers that can not only reduce type 1 errors in future genetic disease studies, but also identify homogeneous groups and hence make this study more powerful. The group of Chinese Americans in the same study consists of subjects with origins from North China, South China and Taiwan. This group is paired with Han Chinese from Beijing, and results indicate that the population differentiation values was small (<0.0025). There is substantially less genetic substructure between Han Chinese and Chinese American, compared with that between Han Chinese, Japanese and Korean groups, yet there is still a substructure in principal component, according to the split half reliability test. Another study aiming to estimate cardiometabolic risk profile of Chinese adults with diabetes is also useful to reveal the personal genomics of Chinese Americans.[135] In this study, all subjects are over 18 years old and non-institutionalized. Results derived from a complex, multistage, probability sampling design show that 12,607 out of 98,658 Chinese adults are suffering from diabetes, based on the criteria of 2010 American Diabetes Association. In addition, the study reaches a conclusion that for those Chinese adults defined with diabetes, cardiometabolic risk factors are highly prevalent, including metabolic syndrome, systolic blood pressure that is higher than 140mmHg, low fruit and vegetable intake, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol that is higher than 110 mg/dL. Diabetes The circumstance of the Asian-American population is informative in a way that some knowledge about Chinese Americans can be inferred from it. The statistics of diabetes in Asian-American population reveals that approximately 10% of the entire population are diabetic, and in which 90–95% are type 2 diabetes.[136] The current situation is that there are some challenges in diagnosing diabetes in many Asian Americans. The main obstacle is that many clinical features along with risks factors associated with diabetes are obtained from studies that focus on Caucasian populations, which might result in misdiagnoses between type 1 and type 2 diabetes for Asian Americans. In fact, the reason why classic features of type 1 and type 2 diabetes in America might not apply to Asian-American population is about shared absence of common HLA DR-DQ genotype, low prevalence of positive anti-islet antibodies and low BMI in both types of diabetes.[137] Some other studies have pointed out that for people of Asian descent and without diabetes, their insulin resistance levels are higher than non-diabetic people of Caucasian descent. Thus, Asian Americans are relatively more predisposed to develop type 2 diabetes. This suggests that insulin resistance, rather than body mass index (BMI) should be targeted while making diagnoses. A potential biomarker to identify diabetes in young Asian-American population is adipocyte fatty acid binding protein that has a strong association with insulin resistance but is independent of adiposity. Nevertheless, more research studies should be carried out in order to confirm such finding. With further applying the above outcome on the population of Chinese Americans, it is rational that there is a higher tendency for type 2 diabetes among this group of people, who also face the challenge of correct diagnosis in America. Mental illness Chinese American psychiatric patient, 1915 Genetic mental illness is stigmatized in China. A study compares the attitude of Chinese Americans towards mental illness with genetic causes and that of European American. It finds out that there is a perception of eugenics existing among Chinese Americans.[138] Consequently, in order to reduce the stigma in the society, more efforts should be devoted to this population. Stigma and eugenics The journal launched by the above study highlights the idea of genetic essentialism, namely, genes are largely deterministic of individual characteristics and behavior. There is a separation between the normal and the deviant, which drives the process of stigma labeling. On the other hand, since genetic diseases can be passed on from one generation to another, some mental illnesses are shared in a family, stigmatizing all members involved. Another viewpoint relevant to genetic essentialism is that, since genes are perceived by the common people as difficult to modify, genetic mental illness is likely to persist, and so is the stigma. As a result, the mindset of many Chinese Americans is formulated as diseases with genetic causes being more serious than those without. The same journal also delivers some hypotheses made on the basis of the long history of eugenics in China. First, Chinese Americans are more in favor of eugenic policies than European Americans. Secondly, more stigma would be generated towards genetic attributions of any diseases in Chinese American population. China used to implement restrictions on marriage licenses to people with genetic illnesses, which has made the attitude of Chinese Americans towards premarital genetic screening more supportive, especially when facing a chance of genetic defects. Moreover, from the perspective of this group of people, knowing whether a marriage partner has family history of mental illness with genetic basis is fairly important. Notable Chinese Americans For a more comprehensive list, see List of Chinese Americans. Iris Chang (28 March 1968 – 9 November 2004), historian, her publishings included: Thread of the Silkworm (1995), The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War Two (1997) Charles Kuen Kao, physicist, winner of Nobel Prize in Physics in 2009 for the work on fiber optics, using laser to transmit digital data through glass fiber. Bruce Lee, martial artist and actor, founder of Jeet Kune Do. Tsung-Dao Lee, physicist, won the Nobel Prize in Physics (1957) with Yang Chen-Ning for their work on the violation of the parity law in weak interactions. Jeremy Shu-How Lin, professional basketball player, played in NBA for several years and a Harvard graduate. Gary Locke, politician and diplomat, the 10th United States ambassador to China (2011–2014), 21st Governor of Washington (1997–2005) and served in the Obama administration as United States Secretary of Commerce (2009–11). Amy Ruth Tan, writer, author of The Joy Luck Club. Samuel Chao Chung Ting, physicist, one of the two winners of Nobel Prize in Physics in 1976 for the work on the discovery of J/ψ meson. Daniel Chee Tsui, physicist, one of the winners of Nobel Prize in Physics in 1998 for the work on the discovery of a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations. Charles B. Wang, businessman, a co-founder and CEO of Computer Associates International, Inc. (later renamed to CA Technologies). Chien-Shiung Wu, physicist who was called by scientists, "The First Lady of Physics" for her experimental discovery of parity violation in weak interaction proposed by Chen-Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee, both of whom won Nobel Prize. She also made the crucial study that showed the problem with Xenon in nuclear reactors for the Manhattan Project. Her work was not publicly recognized except by top scientists until 1978 when she was given the Wolf Prize. Michelle Wu, first Asian-American mayor of Boston, born in the U.S.. Andrew Yang, entrepreneur, politician, lawyer, and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate. Shing-Tung Yau, mathematician, who won the Fields Medal in 1982 before becoming an American citizen in 1990. Eric Yuan, billionaire businessman and founder of Zoom Video Communications. Shiing-Shen Chern, Wolf Prize winner, considered one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century Shiing-Shen Chern, Wolf Prize winner, considered one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century   Steven Chu, Nobel prize winner in physics, 1997 and former United States Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Nobel prize winner in physics, 1997 and former United States Secretary of Energy   Terence Tao, child prodigy, won Fields medal, 2006 Terence Tao, child prodigy, won Fields medal, 2006   Ching W. Tang, inventor of the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and the hetero-junction organic photovoltaic cell (OPV); winner of the 2011 Wolf Prize in Chemistry Ching W. Tang, inventor of the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and the hetero-junction organic photovoltaic cell (OPV); winner of the 2011 Wolf Prize in Chemistry   Roger Y. Tsien, Nobel prize winner in chemistry, 2009 Roger Y. Tsien, Nobel prize winner in chemistry, 2009   Chien-Shiung Wu, pioneer of particle physics and paved the way for the Standard Model Chien-Shiung Wu, pioneer of particle physics and paved the way for the Standard Model   Bruce Lee, famed actor, director and martial artist Bruce Lee, famed actor, director and martial artist   I. M. Pei, architect behind the pyramid of the Louvre, which is its main attraction; also designed the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame museum I. M. Pei, architect behind the pyramid of the Louvre, which is its main attraction; also designed the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame museum Media The World Journal is the most famous Chinese newspapers in the North America. Newspapers San Francisco, city and port, coextensive with San Francisco county, northern California, U.S., located on a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay. It is a cultural and financial centre of the western United States and one of the country’s most cosmopolitan cities. Area 46 square miles (120 square km). Pop. (2010) 805,235; San Francisco–San Mateo–Redwood City Metro Division, 1,776,095; San Francisco–Oakland–Fremont Metro Area, 4,335,391; (2020) 873,965; San Francisco–San Mateo–Redwood City Metro Division, 1,638,407; San Francisco–Oakland–Berkeley Metro Area, 4,749,008. Character of the city South San Francisco South San Francisco South San Francisco, California. San Francisco holds a secure place in the United States’ romantic dream of itself—a cool, elegant, handsome, worldly seaport whose steep streets offer breathtaking views of one of the world’s greatest bays. According to the dream, San Franciscans are sophisticates whose lives hold full measures of such civilized pleasures as music, art, and good food. Their children are to be pitied, for, as the wife of publishing magnate Nelson Doubleday once said, “They will probably grow up thinking all cities are so wonderful.” To San Franciscans their city is a magical place, almost an island, saved by its location and history from the sprawl and monotony that afflicts so much of urban California. Since World War II, however, San Francisco has had to face the stark realities of urban life: congestion, air and water pollution, violence and vandalism, and the general decay of the inner city. San Francisco’s makeup has been changing as families, mainly white and middle-class, have moved to its suburbs, leaving the city to a population that, viewed statistically, tends to be older and to have fewer married people. Now more than one of every two San Franciscans is “nonwhite”—in this case African American, East Asian, Filipino, Samoan, Vietnamese, Latin American, or Native American. Their dreams increasingly demand a realization that has little to do with the romantic dream of San Francisco. But both the dreams and the realities are important, for they are interwoven in the fabric of the city that might be called Paradox-by-the-Bay. Although San Franciscans complain of the congestion, homelessness, and high cost of living that plague the city and talk endlessly of the good old days, the majority still think of San Francisco the way poet George Sterling did, as “the cool grey city of love,” one of America’s most attractive, colourful, and distinctive places to live. Landscape of San Francisco City site Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Aerial view of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco. Hilly and roughly square, San Francisco occupies the northern tip of a peninsula. To its south are the bedroom suburbs of San Mateo county, to the east and northeast is the bay, and to the west and northwest lies the Pacific Ocean. San Francisco San Francisco The most prominent of San Francisco’s hills are Twin Peaks, Mount Davidson, and Mount Sutro, all of which exceed 900 feet (270 metres) in elevation. The best known are Nob Hill, where the wealthy “nobs” (nabobs) built extravagant mansions in the 1870s, and Telegraph Hill, which once looked down on the Barbary Coast, a neighbourhood formerly alive with gaudy wickedness. As a result of the pioneer planners’ prejudice in favour of a squared-off grid, the downtown streets march intrepidly up precipitous slopes, terrifying newly arrived drivers, making the cable cars more than sentimental anachronisms, and providing splendid views of the bay. Alcatraz Island Alcatraz Island Alcatraz Island, in San Francisco Bay, California. San Francisco Bay is a drowned river valley, submerged during the melting of the last glacial ice sheet. Enthusiastic and profitable filling of the tidelands has reduced its area at mean high tide from about 700 square miles (1,800 square km) in 1880 to a mere 435 square miles (1,125 square km). More than half of the bay is still fillable, but in 1965 the state legislature created the Bay Conservation and Development Commission to control further landfill projects. At its widest extent the bay measures 13 miles (21 km) across; its deepest point, 357 feet (109 metres), is in the Golden Gate, a narrow channel between the peninsula and Marin county to the north that connects the bay to the Pacific. The maximum daily flow of water through the Golden Gate into the Pacific is seven times the flow of the Mississippi River at its mouth. Alcatraz Island Alcatraz Island Alcatraz Island, in San Francisco Bay, California. Within the portion of San Francisco Bay lying inside the city limits are the natural islands of Alcatraz and Yerba Buena and man-made Treasure Island, created for a world’s fair in 1939 and later turned into a naval base (1941–93). Alcatraz (Spanish: “Pelican”) was from 1934 to 1963 the most notorious maximum-security, “escape-proof” prison in the United States. In 1969, after the decaying cell blocks had been given up by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a multi-tribal group of Native Americans invaded the island and asserted their rights to abandoned federal property, but they were forcibly evicted in 1971. The island became part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area in 1972 and has become a popular tourist attraction. Climate fog enveloping the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco fog enveloping the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Fog enveloping the Golden Gate Bridge, which spans the entrance to San Francisco Bay in northern California. Winter in San Francisco is rainy and mild, spring sunny and temperate, summer foggy and cool, and autumn sunny and warm. The average minimum temperature is 51 °F (11 °C), and the average maximum is 63 °F (17 °C). The mean rainfall, almost all of which occurs between November and April, is about 21 inches (533 mm). There is sunshine during two-thirds of the possible daylight hours. The most characteristic feature of the weather, however, is the summer fog, which lies low over the city until midday, creating consternation among shivering tourists. This fog is a phenomenon of temperature contrasts, created when warm, moist ocean air comes in contact with cold water welling up from the ocean bottom along the coast. City layout San Francisco San Francisco “painted ladies” “painted ladies” “Painted ladies,” Victorian homes with richly coloured architectural detailing, San Francisco. The central business district, the financial district, North Beach, and Chinatown occupy the site of the gold-rush city, which subsequently was expanded by progressive fillings along the waterfront. The remnants of many ships that were deserted in 1849 now lie under office buildings several blocks inland. To the west, at the approach to the Golden Gate Bridge, lies the Presidio, a two-century-old military installation that became part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area in 1994; it is remarkable for its parklike lawns and wind-sculptured stands of trees. South of the Presidio is Golden Gate Park, reclaimed from a onetime sandy desert. The rest of San Francisco is largely composed of residential neighbourhoods, from Pacific Heights, in which the old, wealthy families reside, to Hunters Point, which is predominantly an African American community. Most are filled with flower-decked houses of pastel stucco and “painted ladies”—frame structures with abundant and often elegant architectural detailing, intricately coloured. San Francisco San Francisco A great change, which has been described as the Manhattanization of San Francisco, became apparent after the late 1960s, and it has been both welcomed and resisted. In the financial district, in particular, one tall building after another has been constructed in a city in which, for generations, few structures were higher than 20 stories. Among the modern skyscrapers are 555 California Street (formerly known as the Bank of America building), the Transamerica Pyramid (which rises to an elongated point), and the Le Méridien San Francisco hotel (formerly the Park Hyatt). The Hyatt Regency is part of the massive Embarcadero Center complex—designed by John Portman in the 1970s—which encompasses six city blocks and houses numerous shops, hotels, and restaurants. San Francisco earthquake of 1906 San Francisco earthquake of 1906 Crowds watching the fires set off by the earthquake in San Francisco in 1906, photo by Arnold Genthe. San Francisco earthquake damage San Francisco earthquake damage Aftermath of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Another concern is one that San Francisco shares with few other U.S. cities—destruction by earthquake. Severe quakes have been felt in 1868, 1898, 1900, 1906, and 1989. But it was the 1906 earthquake that did the most damage and that has become identified with the city. A little after 5:00 AM on April 18 the entire city began to tremble and shake. There was a terrible noise, “like the roar of 10,000 lions,” and San Franciscans knew they were experiencing a nightmarish earthquake. Cable cars jerked to a stop and the $7 million City Hall crumbled like a movie set. The glass roof over the Palace Hotel court splintered and rained down shards. See the catastrophic aftermath of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 See the catastrophic aftermath of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake.See all videos for this article That quake was followed by a massive fire that destroyed the centre of town and burned for four days, until the smouldering ashes were wetted down by rain. Starting in the business section near Montgomery Street and the South of Market district, the inferno swept toward Russian Hill, Chinatown, North Beach, and Telegraph Hill, where Italians poured wine on the flames to save their houses. Gone were 4 square miles (10 square km), making up 512 blocks in the centre of town, along with 28,000 buildings and a total property value of about $350 million. It was originally thought that some 700 people died, though the death toll is now believed to be more than 3,000. In addition, 250,000 were left homeless, and survivors camped in Golden Gate Park. An Eastern journalist, celebrating the survival of a local distillery, composed the verse, “If, as some say, God spanked the town / For being over frisky, / Why did he burn the Churches down / And save Hotaling’s Whisky?” Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989: soil liquefaction Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989: soil liquefaction An automobile crushed under the remains of an apartment building in the Marina District, San Francisco, California. The first and second floors are no longer visible because of structural failure and sinking due to liquefaction during the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. Bay Bridge after the San Francisco–Oakland earthquake of 1989 Bay Bridge after the San Francisco–Oakland earthquake of 1989 Aerial view of the collapsed section of the Bay Bridge following the San Francisco–Oakland earthquake of 1989. Since the 1906 earthquake, seismologists and engineers have warned that it could happen again. Several relatively strong earthquakes (measuring more than 5.0 on the Richter scale) have since then caused little damage. But the quake on October 17, 1989, which measured 7.1 on the Richter scale, killed more than 60 people and caused severe damage to the Marina District and to some freeways and even more devastation to surrounding areas. Modern office towers were largely unaffected, indicating that new building methods may provide some protection for the city. People of San Francisco The pattern of immigration into San Francisco during the latter half of the 19th century was significantly different from that of anywhere else in the United States. The waves of newcomers included not only native-born Americans moving west but also Europeans arriving directly by ship who had not previously lived for a time along the Eastern Seaboard. The demography of the gold-rush city was summed up concisely by a real-estate firm that advertised it could “transact business in the English, French, German, Spanish and Italian languages.” San Francisco remains one of the most Mediterranean of American cities—New Orleans is another—and Italians are still the dominant European minority, followed by Germans, Irish, and British. Jewish immigrants from Europe arrived in the city even before the gold seekers of 1849, and much credit for San Francisco’s culture must be given to them. They founded libraries, symphonies, and theatres and gave the city its first aura of sophistication. Before World War II about 20,000 African Americans lived in the entire Bay Area, about 4,000 of them in San Francisco. The tremendous increase in the black population during the next 30 years was set in motion by the war, which brought at least a half million war workers to the Bay Area’s shipyards and other industries. Among them were tens of thousands from the South, who settled mainly in San Francisco, Oakland, and Richmond. In San Francisco they moved into the old Carpenter Gothic houses in the blocks around Fillmore Street, vacated when the Japanese who had lived there were driven into wartime internment camps. By the 1980s, the character of the district shifted again, as the renovation of these houses and the high cost of property caused rents to skyrocket. Poorer African American residents were forced out of their neighbourhoods and into slum housing in the city’s already crowded southeastern sector. An increasing number of African Americans have become prominent in the city’s life—Willie Brown was elected mayor in 1995 and reelected in 1999—and many others also have won elective office. San Francisco: Chinatown San Francisco: Chinatown Lanterns hanging in Chinatown, San Francisco. Chinatown, which is the best-known Chinese community in the United States, is also probably the least understood minority community in the city. The colourful shops and restaurants of Grant Avenue mask a slum of crowded tenements and sweatshops that has the highest population density in an already densely populated city. Many Chinese residents have increasingly moved into North Beach, hitherto predominantly Italian, onto the nearby slopes of Russian Hill, or into the middle-class neighbourhoods of the Richmond district north of Golden Gate Park, where some of the city’s most popular Chinese restaurants and bakeries are found on Clement Street. Many of those who reside in Chinatown are more recent immigrants, particularly from Hong Kong. Never as large as Chinatown, the Japanese community of San Francisco was wiped out at a single stroke by the infamous Executive Order 9066 of 1942, which sent them, foreign-born and citizen alike, into “relocation centres.” The present centre of the Japanese community is Japantown (Nihonmachi), a few blocks east of Fillmore Street, now an ambitious commercial and cultural centre. Though the rising generation of Japanese Americans go to Japantown as visitors, bound for church services, social or cultural events (such as the annual cherry blossom festival), or to buy imported goods, their own roots are elsewhere. The Hispanic population is the second largest ethnic minority in the city (the Chinese community being the first). Before World War II the Mission District, named for the Mission Dolores, was principally working class and Irish. The Irish were largely replaced by Spanish-speaking Latin American immigrants, mainly from Central America and Mexico, although the neighbourhood saw another influx of white residents through gentrification in the first decades of the 21st century. The Filipino community has grown remarkably since World War II and has spread to all areas of the city, especially the South of Market area. Though not as numerous as in southern California, the Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian communities have grown considerably since the 1980s, which resulted in conflicts with blacks and Hispanics over low-income housing and a proliferation of ethnic restaurants in the troubled Tenderloin area between the Civic Center and Union Square. San Franciscans have historically considered their city to be laissez-faire and open-minded, which is probably why homosexuals have felt comfortable there. The affluent Castro district (technically Eureka Valley near Twin Peaks) has attracted gays and lesbians from throughout the country, becoming perhaps the most famous gay neighbourhood in the world. Its streets are adorned with elegantly restored Victorian homes and landmarks highlighting significant dates in the struggle for gay rights. It is said that no local politician can win an election without the gay community’s vote. Economy The gold rush (1848–49) established San Francisco as the premier city of the West, known from the Oregon border to the pueblo of Los Angeles simply as the City. It is still a great port, the financial and administrative capital of the West, and a substantial centre for commerce and manufacturing. San Francisco is well known for its connection to the technology industry. Some San Franciscans commute to nearby Silicon Valley—a region just south of the bay that is the heart of the nation’s technology industry—to work, but the city itself is home to a number of smaller technology companies and start-ups. Another large portion of the city’s employed work in the area of finance. Other leading areas of employment include business services (personnel supply, building maintenance, security, computers and data processing, and advertising), retail trade, the tourist and convention industry, and professional services. Many companies, such as Levi Strauss & Co., producer of one of San Francisco’s most famous products, blue jeans, have located their national headquarters in the Bay Area. Port From its beginnings as a port of call in the hide-and-tallow trade and, later, as the home port of the Pacific whale fishery, San Francisco has been acutely conscious of the importance of shipping. In the 19th century ships stopped there from their trip around Cape Horn or the Isthmus of Panama, and “steamer day” was a civic institution; after 1914 cargo and passenger vessels arrived from the East by way of the Panama Canal. In 1867 the Pacific Mail Steamship Company opened the first transpacific service, sailing from San Francisco to Yokohama (Japan) and Hong Kong. Imports and exports now passing through the San Francisco Customs District make the combined ports of San Francisco Bay—San Francisco, Oakland, Alameda, Sacramento, and Stockton—one of the most active international ports in the country. Industry and tourism Manufacturing is the main source of income in the Bay Area. In San Francisco, in which manufacturing is a lesser source of income, the principal industries are apparel and other textile products, food processing, and shipbuilding, while the aerospace and electronics industries are strong in the cities of the peninsula. San Francisco San Francisco San Francisco, with Coit Tower in the background. boats at Fisherman's Wharf boats at Fisherman's Wharf Boats docked at Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco. Tourism is a major source of income. The bridges, Coit Tower, the museums, the restaurants, Chinatown, North Beach, the Victorian mansions, crooked Lombard Street, and the dazzling Fairmont Hotel are major attractions; Fisherman’s Wharf, however, is the most popular. Families browse the area, watching fishermen prepare the crab catch and mend their nets amid dozens of souvenir shops, street entertainers, restaurants, and bakeries selling one of the city’s specialties, sourdough bread. Getting to Fisherman’s Wharf on the Powell-Hyde Street cable car is a popular route. beach near Land's End beach near Land's End Beach near Lands End, San Francisco. San Francisco’s waterfront offers whale-watching excursions, provides a boat tour from the wharf to Alcatraz Island, and is home to Ghirardelli Square, the onetime chocolate factory whose shops are famous for their hot-fudge ice cream sundaes; the Cannery, built for the California Fruit Canners Association (now Del Monte Corporation) in 1907, and now a marketplace; Pier 39, reconstructed using timbers from old ships to create a New England look, home to shops and eateries and one of the best seal-watching spots on the coast; the Ferry Building, a ferry terminal on the Embarcadero that also houses a food hall and a farmers market; and the Anchorage, which has a mini-amphitheatre. Nearby is the Marina District, formerly known as Harbor View when its natural amphitheatre was the scene of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Finance A financial centre since the first pinch of gold dust was exchanged for cash, San Francisco is the seat of the Pacific Stock Exchange as well as the headquarters of many banks and other financial services companies, among them Wells Fargo. Though there are no native, independent banks headquartered in San Francisco, the city still ranks among the nation’s largest investment banking centres. Transportation San Francisco: Golden Gate Bridge San Francisco: Golden Gate Bridge Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco. Periodic smog, produced mainly by the automobiles in the area, is a serious concern. Freeway traffic is also a problem, as travel from the East Bay cities of Oakland and Berkeley and from Marin county to the north is confined to two great but overburdened bridges. The world’s longest high-level steel bridge, the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, is 4.5 miles (7.2 km) long; it was completed in 1936 and consists of two back-to-back suspension bridges, a connecting tunnel on Yerba Buena Island, five truss spans, and a cantilever span. The orange-red Golden Gate Bridge, leading north to Marin county, was completed in 1937. It is a pure suspension bridge with a 4,200-foot (1,280-metre) centre span; the spectacular clear span was the longest in the world until 1964 when New York City’s Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opened. At its highest point the bridge is about 260 feet (80 metres) above the bay. Until the ferries were doomed by the bridges, San Francisco was served by a great network of ferry routes, whose splendid vessels were said to deliver more passengers to the Ferry Building at the foot of Market Street than arrived at any other transportation depot except Charing Cross railway station in London. Only after the bridges began to choke with traffic did the ferries return, on a smaller scale, between San Francisco and Marin county. A much greater undertaking was the interurban rapid-transit system known as BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), which began operating in 1972. With service between San Francisco and surrounding communities through an underwater tube more than 3.6 miles (5.8 km) long, BART was the first system of its sort—part subway and part elevated—to be built in half a century. These comfortable, computerized automatic trains run at speeds as high as 80 miles (130 km) per hour. San Francisco, situated at the head of a peninsula, has always been a dead end for rail traffic. Beginning with the arrival of the first westbound train over the tracks of the Central Pacific on September 6, 1869, transcontinental trains began discharging their passengers in Oakland, where ferries or buses carried them to San Francisco. As in the rest of the country, the railroad’s importance as a passenger carrier declined after World War II. San Francisco: cable car San Francisco: cable car Cable car in San Francisco. The instantly recognizable symbol of San Francisco is the beloved cable car. Invented by Andrew Hallidie (because he felt sorry for the dray horses that were often injured on the steep hills), the system was tested in 1873 and soon adopted by other cities. By the 1880s, cities such as Chicago, Kansas City (Missouri), and Los Angeles had variations of Hallidie’s creation. The other cities eventually abandoned cable cars, but San Francisco has stubbornly clung to the picturesque if archaic, and sometimes dangerous, means of negotiating the hills. Rudyard Kipling was awed by the concept: I gave up asking questions about their mechanism.…If it pleases Providence to make a car run up and down a slit in the ground for many miles, and if for two-pence-hapenny I can ride in that car, why should I seek reasons for that miracle? Before the 1906 earthquake 600 cars covered 110 miles (177 km) of the city, but the system was devastated by the quake and much of it was not restored. Today more than two dozen cars operate at peak hours, carrying about 15,000 people daily to limited destinations via three lines. San Francisco International Airport is located about 7 miles (11 km) south of the city-county limits, occupying a filled site on the southwestern shore of the bay. Administration and social conditions Government City Hall, San Francisco City Hall, San Francisco City Hall, San Francisco, California. Unlike any other California city, San Francisco (incorporated 1850) has a consolidated city-county government. The 1932 freeholders’ charter, under which the city-county still operates, provides the mayor with strong executive powers but delegates substantial authority to a chief administrative officer (appointed by the mayor) and a controller. The legislative authority is lodged with an elected board of supervisors. The other key officials, who are both appointed, are the superintendent of schools and the manager of utilities. Public utilities Since 1934 San Francisco’s principal source of water has been the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, 167 miles (269 km) away, in the Sierra Nevada. Other sources are the Calaveras and San Antonio reservoirs in Alameda and Santa Clara counties and reservoirs in San Mateo county to the south. The Hetch Hetchy project required the damming of a scenic valley in Yosemite National Park and the construction of tunnels, one 25 miles (40 km) long, through the Coast Range. In 1902 the first high-voltage line transmitting hydroelectric power was completed between a powerhouse on the Mokelumne River and San Francisco, some 180 miles (290 km) in length. Since then, the Bay Area has developed a network of hydroelectric plants on the rivers of the interior, as well as a steam-powered plant on Monterey Bay. Education San Francisco: California, University of San Francisco: California, University of The Mission Bay campus of the University of California, San Francisco. San Francisco: Golden Gate University San Francisco: Golden Gate University Golden Gate University in San Francisco. The Bay Area is one of the country’s centres of higher learning. Although strictly speaking they cannot be counted as San Francisco institutions, two of the region’s universities—the University of California, located across the bay in Berkeley (campus opened 1873), and Stanford University (opened 1891), neighbour to Palo Alto down the peninsula—are among the nation’s most prestigious schools. Within San Francisco itself are the University of San Francisco, originally a Jesuit academy established in 1855, and San Francisco State University, which was founded as a normal school in 1899, became a four-year college in 1935, and achieved university status in 1972. Other institutions include Golden Gate University (1853), the City College of San Francisco (1935; a two-year public college), and the San Francisco Art Institute (1871). Cultural life Arts A great part of San Francisco’s appeal has been its well-established image as a cultural centre. By 1880 it boasted one of the largest opera houses in the country, the largest hotel, a public park, great churches and synagogues, and a skyline bristling with the mansions of millionaires. Drama and music flourished there, with appearances by such luminaries as Sarah Bernhardt, Edwin Booth, Luisa Tetrazzini, James O’Neill, Lillie Langtry, and Lotta Crabtree. Isadora Duncan, in fact, began teaching modern dance in San Francisco. San Francisco: City Lights bookstore San Francisco: City Lights bookstore Window of City Lights bookstore, San Francisco. The city’s true artistic calling, however, has been as a mecca for writers. One of the first was Mark Twain, who arrived in time for the great silver boom that came some 10 years after the gold boom faded. Other noted writers were Ambrose Bierce, who came to the city after horrendous experiences in the American Civil War, Jack London, Bret Harte, Frank Norris, Gertrude Atherton, and Robert Louis Stevenson, who lived in great poverty in a boarding house; later came Dashiell Hammett, Stewart Edward White, Kathleen Norris, Erskine Caldwell, William Saroyan, and Wallace Stegner. During the mid-1950s, San Francisco became known as a centre of the Beat movement, and poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s City Lights Bookstore, which was the country’s first to sell paperbacks, became one of the movement’s best-known gathering places. More recent Bay Area authors are Amy Tan, Herbert Gold, Anne Lamott, Ethan Canin, Danielle Steele, and Dave Eggers. American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco, California. San Francisco is home to two major musical institutions. The San Francisco Symphony performs in the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall and gives pop concerts in the summer. The San Francisco Opera stages an early season to allow its leading singers to fulfill their commitments at New York City’s Metropolitan Opera. With the exception of American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.), a resident repertory group, the professional theatre is virtually nonexistent in the city. The surviving downtown theatres are largely occupied by the touring casts of successful Broadway shows. San Franciscans believe their city is a haven for the artist. While this would hold true for those who value architecture and public sculpture, the painting collections do not rival those of Los Angeles or the East Coast. Notable, however, are the jades and porcelains in the Asian Museum, the Rodin sculptures at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, the downtown Museum of Modern Art, and the many treasures in such small museums as the Fire Department Pioneer Memorial Museum. While San Francisco’s artistic community does not approach the prominence of its writing establishment, it has produced such notable figures as Wayne Thiebaud and Richard Diebenkorn. Cultural institutions Herzog &amp; de Meuron: de Young Museum Herzog & de Meuron: de Young Museum The de Young Museum, San Francisco, designed by Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, 2005. Bernard Maybeck: Palace of Fine Arts Bernard Maybeck: Palace of Fine Arts Palace of Fine Arts, designed by Bernard Maybeck for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915), San Francisco. Learn about the redesigned de Young Museum of Art, California Learn about the redesigned de Young Museum of Art, California A discussion concerning the redesigned de Young Museum of San Francisco, from the documentary Riches, Rivals, and Radicals: 100 Years of Museums in America. See all videos for this article Several cultural institutions were constructed after the 1906 earthquake, among them the Civic Center (a lovely square sparkling with fountains surrounded by such Renaissance revival-style buildings as City Hall), the public library, and the civic auditorium. Publisher M.H. de Young helped fund the building of the de Young Museum (now under the aegis of Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, as is the Legion of Honor) in Golden Gate Park, and Adolph and Alma de Bretteville Spreckels sponsored the stately California Palace of the Legion of Honor, which overlooks the Golden Gate Bridge. A spectacular reminder of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition is found in the monumental Palace of Fine Arts, located in a little park near the waterfront in the Marina District. Housing the Exploratorium (a science museum), the palace is a giant Neoclassical rotunda, which was designed by the architect Bernard Maybeck and completely restored in the 1960s. The Walt Disney Family Museum, celebrating the life and work of the animation pioneer, producer, and showman, was opened in 2009 in the Presidio. Popular culture A vital part of San Francisco culture is found in its restaurants, bars, and hotels. To this must be added the popular culture of the ethnic enclaves—Chinatown, the Italian community of North Beach, Japantown, the Russian colony along Clement Street, and the Hispanic Mission District. San Francisco’s first topflight professional sports team was the football 49ers, who began play in 1946. The team became one of the most successful in National Football League history, winning five Super Bowl titles. San Francisco became, along with Los Angeles, one of the first two West Coast cities to be home to a Major League Baseball franchise when the Giants relocated to San Francisco from New York City in 1958. San Francisco was home to the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association from 1962 until 1971, when the team relocated across the bay to Oakland; the franchise returned to San Francisco in 2019. Haight-Ashbury Haight-Ashbury Restored Victorian homes in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco, California. In the minds of many, however, San Francisco’s most memorable contribution to the nation’s culture is its past. It was in the late 1960s that the city’s Haight-Ashbury District became a haven for the “flower children” and “hippies” who declared themselves in headlong flight from the established society and who preached the saving graces of peace, love, and hallucinogens. However, by the 1970s Haight-Ashbury had become an ugly and dangerous marketplace for drugs and vice. More recently, with the rise in real estate prices all over the city, a gentrification took place in the district, and Haight-Ashbury now boasts a middle-class population and specialty boutiques, upscale restaurants, used bookstores, and the ubiquitous coffeehouses. History Exploration and early settlement It is extraordinary that the site of San Francisco should have been explored first by land instead of from the sea, for San Francisco Bay is one of the most splendid natural harbours of the world, yet great captains and explorers—Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo (1542–43), Sir Francis Drake (1579), and Sebastián Vizcaíno (1602)—sailed unheeding past the entrance. In 1769 a scouting party from an expedition led by the Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portolá looked down from a hilltop onto a broad body of water; they were the first Europeans known to have seen San Francisco Bay. It was not until August 5, 1775, that the first Spanish ship, the San Carlos, commanded by Lieutenant Juan Manuel de Ayala, turned eastward between the headlands, breasted the ebbing tide, and dropped anchor just inside the harbour mouth. It is possible that Drake may have entered the bay, but most evidence suggests otherwise. Settlers from Monterey, under Lieutenant José Joaquin Moraga and the Reverend Francisco Palóu, established themselves at the tip of the San Francisco peninsula the following year. The military post, which remained in service as the Presidio of San Francisco until 1994, was founded in September 1776, and the Mission San Francisco de Asis, popularly called the Mission Dolores, was opened in October. Almost half a century later, a village sprang up on the shore of Yerba Buena Cove, 2 miles (3 km) east of the mission. The pioneer settler was an Englishman, Captain William Anthony Richardson, who in 1835 cleared a plot of land and erected San Francisco’s first dwelling—a tent made of four pieces of redwood and a ship’s foresail. In the same year, the United States tried unsuccessfully to buy San Francisco Bay from the Mexican government, having heard reports from whalers and captains in the hide-and-tallow trade that the great harbour held bright commercial possibilities. Richard Henry Dana, whose ship entered the bay in 1835, wrote in Two Years Before the Mast (1840) that “If California ever becomes a prosperous country, this bay will be the centre of its prosperity.” The Americans had to wait only another 11 years. After fighting began along the Rio Grande, Captain John B. Montgomery sailed the sloop of war Portsmouth into the bay on June 3, 1846, anchored in Yerba Buena Cove, and later went ashore with a party of sailors and marines to raise the U.S. flag in the plaza. On January 30, 1847, Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco, which was regarded as a more propitious name. The permanent European population of Yerba Buena in 1844 did not exceed 50 persons. By 1846 the settlement had a population of 375, in addition to 83 African Americans, Native Americans, and Sandwich Islanders (Hawaiians). Two years later, just before the discovery of gold on the American River, the town had grown to about 200 shacks and adobes inhabited by about 800 settlers. The growth of the metropolis The city of the ’49ers San Francisco, California, 1849 San Francisco, California, 1849 View of San Francisco, California, in 1849. With the discovery of gold, San Francisco picked up pace and direction. The modest village was at first almost deserted as its population scrambled inland to the Mother Lode, and then it exploded into one of the most extraordinary cities ever constructed. Some 40,000 gold hunters arrived by sea, another 30,000 plodded across the Great Basin, and still another 9,000 moved north from Mexico. By 1851 more than 800 ships rode at anchor in the cove, deserted by their crews. Everybody except the miners got rich. Eggs sold for one dollar apiece, and downtown real estate claimed prices that would almost hold their own against modern-day appreciated values. Until the bubble burst in the panic of 1857, 50,000 San Franciscans became rich and went bankrupt, cheated and swindled one another, and took to violence all too readily. As The Sacramento Union noted in 1856, there had been “some fourteen hundred murders in San Francisco in six years, and only three of the murderers hung, and one of these was a friendless Mexican.” Two vigilance committees in the 1850s responded to the challenge with crude and extralegal justice, hanging eight men as an example to the others. In 1859 silver was discovered in the Nevada Territory. The exploitation in Nevada of the Comstock Lode, which eventually yielded some $300 million, turned San Francisco from a frontier boomtown into a metropolis whose leading citizens were bankers, speculators, and lawyers, all of whom ate and drank in splendid restaurants and great hotels. By 1870 San Francisco boasted a population of nearly 150,000. The city comes of age San Francisco then was by all accounts an intoxicating city whose many charms moved the historian-moralist B.E. Lloyd to advise parents in 1876 To look closer to their daughters, for they know not the many dangers to which they are exposed…and to mildly counsel their sons, for when upon the streets of this gay city they are wandering among many temptations. The 1860s and ’70s marked the birth of the modern San Francisco, which has since then claimed to be the Athens, Paris, and New York City of the West but has never completely lost its mark of a wild beginning. As Rudyard Kipling was to observe after he visited the city in the 1890s, “San Francisco is a mad city, inhabited for the most part by perfectly insane people.” The 20th century Expansion during the world wars San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay Map of the San Francisco Bay area (c. 1900), from the 10th edition of Encyclopædia Britannica. Panama-Pacific International Exposition, 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, 1915 Fountain of Energy and Festival Hall at night, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, California, 1915. While the rest of the world was preparing for World War I, San Francisco held a highly successful World’s Fair—the Panama-Pacific International Exposition—to celebrate the new boost to Western commerce, the opening of the Panama Canal. During the Great Depression, 4,000 longshoremen competed for 1,300 jobs parceled out by the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union. The ILWU fought scabs and union busters at the port on “Bloody Thursday,” July 4, 1934, and then called a citywide general strike, the largest and most successful in the country’s history. World War II made a significant impact on San Francisco’s prosperity, as it served as a major disembarkation for the Pacific theatre. Great shipyards were built around the bay, and some half million people came to work in the area’s war-related industries; many of them stayed on permanently after the war. The United Nations was born there in 1945, the result of the San Francisco Conference, which took place that year from April to June. From peace to protest San Francisco in the 1950s was remarkable, not only for its bohemianism and role in the Beat movement but for the number of performers who came to fame in its clubs and cafés: Lenny Bruce, Jonathan Winters, Woody Allen, Phyllis Diller, Barbra Streisand, and Mort Sahl all had their first successes in North Beach venues. The next decade was marked by drugs, hippies, and the violent protests against the Vietnam War. As one wag said, “If you can remember the ’60s in San Francisco, you weren’t there.” The city emerged as a centre of psychedelic rock music, which largely achieved national prominence because of such local groups as the Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead, and Quicksilver Messenger Service, as well as such individual performers as Janis Joplin. The city also at that time became a centre for environmentalists and advocates of gay and minority rights. San Francisco was one of the first cities in the country to bus students in order to achieve racial integration; the Save the Bay Association and San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission were formed in the mid-1960s; and in 1969 a group of Native Americans, believing they had a right to unused government land, invaded Alcatraz Island and occupied it until 1971. Several violent acts put the city in the news in the 1970s. In September 1975 an assassination attempt was made against President Gerald Ford in a downtown square, and in November 1978 the followers of Jim Jones (whose cultlike ministry was based in San Francisco) died in a mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana. A few days after the Jonestown massacre, Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk were murdered at City Hall. These events had a sobering effect on the city, in contrast to the freewheeling atmosphere of the previous decade. However, the city’s first female mayor, Dianne Feinstein, provided crucial stability after Moscone’s assassination. San Francisco also completed BART, its rapid transit system, in the 1970s and established the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which ultimately comprised some 110 square miles (285 square km) of protected lands in San Francisco, Marin, and San Mateo counties. The late 20th and early 21st centuries Listen to what the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 taught about seismology, early warning system, earthquake preparedness and the role of the Berkeley seismology lab Listen to what the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 taught about seismology, early warning system, earthquake preparedness and the role of the Berkeley seismology lab A discussion of the lessons learned from the Loma Prieta (San Francisco–Oakland) earthquake of 1989. See all videos for this article San Francisco experienced great growth in the 1980s. The city’s population topped 700,000, not least because of the great influx of immigrants from South Asia. The cost of living skyrocketed, which made San Francisco one of the most expensive cities in the country. The number of automobiles doubled, the popular but deteriorating cable cars received a multimillion-dollar face-lift, tourism became the city’s most lucrative business, and the homeless population grew precipitously, as it did throughout the United States. But by far the most momentous event locally, if not nationally, was the earthquake of 1989. A milestone was reached in 1995 when the city’s first African American mayor, Willie L. Brown, Jr., was elected. In 1997 San Franciscans held a candlelight vigil following the death of Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Herb Caen. The “cool grey city of love” had been Caen’s bailiwick for more than 60 years, and with his death San Francisco lost one of its favourite sons. With the city’s close connection to Silicon Valley, it was unsurprising when San Francisco’s economy struggled in the wake of the bursting of the dot-com bubble in the early 2000s. During the tenures of Mayors Gavin Newsom (2004–11) and Ed Lee (2011–17), the city bounced back, especially with the second technology boom of the 2010s. This led to a population influx in the already crowded city, sparking a construction boom and a widespread increase in property values. However, it also exacerbated the long-standing homelessness problem in San Francisco and led to criticisms of gentrification as some historically minority-occupied neighbourhoods such as the Mission District and Chinatown saw the arrival of more high-income white residents. Kenneth Lamott Gladys Cox Hansen Barnaby Conrad
  • Condition: Used
  • Type: Photograph
  • Year of Production: 1940
  • Subject: Model, San Francisco

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