San Jose, California is a city in California.
The San Francisco Bay Area ( referred to locally as the Bay Area ) is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California . San Jose ( [ ˌsæn_hoʊˈzeɪ ] , Spanish for `` Saint Joseph '' ; [ saŋ xoˈse ] ) , officially the City of San José , is the economic , cultural , and political center of Silicon Valley and the largest city in Northern California . San Jose is the county seat of Santa Clara County , the most affluent county in California and one of the most affluent counties in the United States . San Jose is the largest city in both the San Francisco Bay Area and the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland Combined Statistical Area , which contain 7.7 million and 8.7 million people respectively . Results of the 1990 U.S. Census indicated that San Jose had officially surpassed San Francisco as the most populous city in Northern California .