Santa Clara County, California

Santa Clara County, California, officially the County of Santa Clara, is a county in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,781,642. The county seat is San Jose, the tenth-most populous city in the United States.Santa Clara County is part of the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area. Located at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay, the highly urbanized Santa Clara Valley within Santa Clara County is also known as Silicon Valley. Santa Clara is the most populous county in the San Francisco Bay Area region, and one of the most affluent counties in the United States.EtymologySanta Clara County is named after Mission Santa Clara, which was established in 1777, and is also named for Saint Clare of Assisi.