San Mateo is a suburb of San Francisco with a population of 98,391. San Mateo is in San Mateo County and is one of the best places to live in California. Living in San Mateo offers residents an urban suburban mix feel and most residents own their homes. In San Mateo there are a lot of restaurants, coffee shops, and parks. Many families and young professionals live in San Mateo and residents tend to be liberal. The public schools in San Mateo are highly rated.

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The area was first inhabited by Ohlone Indians. A Spanish exploring party (1776) named a creek at the site after St. Matthew, and in 1793 a Spanish mission hospice was established along the creek. After Mexican independence the area was divided between two land grants, Rancho San Mateo and Rancho de Las Pulgas, parts of each of which lie in the modern city. Eventually the ranchos were sold, and in the 1850s an American village grew up there surrounded by farms. After the locality was connected by rail with San Francisco in 1863, men who had amassed fortunes during the Gold Rush bought up farms there to establish their country “estates,” which were gradually subdivided to house a growing number of commuters to San Francisco. In the second half of the 20th century, the proportion of commuters in the population declined because of the growth of San Mateo’s own job base, largely in retail commerce and light industry.