Northern California

This article is about the northern part of the U.S. state. For the historic region, see Alta California.

Northern California
Region
Golden Gate Bridge Marin County San Jose Lake Tahoe Natural Bridges State Beach San Francisco The California State Capitol in Sacramento Muir Woods National Monument
Northern California counties in red
Country	United States
State	California
Major cities	San Jose San Francisco Sacramento Fresno Oakland Stockton Fremont Modesto Roseville Elk Grove Santa Rosa Salinas Hayward Sunnyvale Visalia Chico Redding San Mateo San Rafael Eureka Susanville
Largest city	San Jose
Area  (10-county)
• Total	107,191 sq mi (277,620 km2)
Population  (2020)
• Total	15,775,319
Demonym	Northern Californian
GDP
• Total	$1.65 trillion (2022)

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Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's 58 counties. One of the 11 megaregions of the United States, Northern California in its largest definition is determined by dividing the state into two parts, the other being Southern California. The region's main population centers include the San Francisco Bay Area, Greater Sacramento, Metropolitan Fresno, and the Monterey Bay Area.

Northern California is coterminous with the natural range of the coast redwood and the giant sequoia, with many well-known old-growth forests and smaller groves. It contains most of the Sierra Nevada, including Yosemite Valley and part of Lake Tahoe, Mount Shasta (the second-highest peak in the Cascade Range after Mount Rainier in Washington), and most of the Central Valley, one of the world's most productive agricultural regions. Northern California is also home to Silicon Valley, the global headquarters for several of the largest and most powerful companies in the world, including Alphabet Inc. (Google), Apple, Meta, and Nvidia.

Evidence of Native American habitation in the area dates from at least 19,000 years ago and successive waves of arrivals led to one of the most densely populated areas of pre-Columbian North America. The arrival of European explorers from the early 16th to the mid-18th centuries did not establish European settlements in northern California. In 1770, the Spanish mission at Monterey was the first European settlement in the area, followed by other missions along the coast—eventually extending as far north as Sonoma County.