Santa Clara, California

Santa Clara is the name of the county seat and largest city in Santa Clara County, California. According to the results of the United States Census that was conducted in the year 2020, the population of the city was 127,647, which placed it as the seventh most populated city in the Bay Area. The city, which can be located in the southern part of the Bay Area, was established by the Spanish in the year 1777 with the founding of Mission Santa Clara de Ass. Junipero Serra was the commander of the mission at the time.

Santa Clara, which occupies a spot smack dab in the middle of Silicon Valley, is home to the corporate headquarters of a number of major technology firms, including Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, and Intel. In addition, it is the location of Santa Clara University, which is the oldest university in the state of California, as well as Levi's Stadium, which is the home of the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League, and California's Great America Park, which is owned and operated by Cedar Fair. The only communities that border Santa Clara that are not located in San Jose are Sunnyvale and Cupertino, which are located to the west of Santa Clara.

Santa Clara is drained by three seasonal streams, all of which discharge into the southern half of San Francisco Bay; these creeks are San Tomas Aquino Creek, Saratoga Creek, and Calabazas Creek. San Tomas Aquino Creek is the largest of the three.

Within the city limits are a number of significant biological resources, one of which is a habitat for the burrowing owl, a species that is considered to be of special concern in the state of California due to a decline in its habitat brought on by urban development in the latter half of the 20th century. This species of owl makes advantage of the tunnels that are formed by ground squirrels and favours grasslands that are typically flat as well as disturbed regions. In the recent years, there has also been an increase in the number of coyotes that are active in the neighbourhood.

According to the data provided by the United States Census Bureau, the total land area occupied by the city is 18.4 square miles (48 km2) in total.