California is a state in the Pacific Region of the United States. With 39.6 million residents, California is the most populous U.S. state and the third-largest by area. The state capital is Sacramento. The Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation’s second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, with 18.7 million and 9.7 million residents respectively.
Los Angeles is California’s most populous city, and the country’s second-most populous, after New York City. California also has the nation’s most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The City and County of San Francisco is both the country’s second-most densely populated major city after New York City and the fifth-most densely populated county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs.
California’s $3.0 trillion economy is larger than that of any other state, larger than those of Texas and Florida combined, and the largest sub-national economy in the world If it were a country, California would be the fifth-largest economy in the world (larger than the United Kingdom, France, or India),and the 36th-most populous as of 2017. The Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation’s second- and third-largest urban economies ($1.253 trillion and $907 billion respectively as of 2017), after the New York metropolitan area. The San Francisco Bay Area PSA had the nation’s highest GDP per capita in 2017 (~$94,000) among large PSAs, and is home to three of the world’s ten largest companies by market capitalization and four of the world’s ten richest people.
California is considered a global trendsetter in popular culture, innovation, environmentalism and politics. It is considered the origin of the American film industry, the hippie counterculture, fast food, the Internet, and the personal computer,among others.
