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Where am ILOCATED

Salinas, CA Metro Area

The Salinas, CA metro area is one county in California: Monterey County. About 433,729 people lived there on July 1, 2025 (Census estimate), 1.7% fewer than in April 2020.

Monterey County, centralSalinas
Monterey County in California
Population, July 2025
433,729 1.7% fewer than in April 2020
Type
Metropolitan statistical area
County
Monterey County
Land area
3,282 sq mi (8,500 km²)
Time zone
Pacific TimeUTC-08:00 in January; UTC-07:00 in July
State
California
CBSA code
41500
Open this area in the metro area finder

The county in the Salinas, CA metro area

CountyRolePopulation, July 2025
Monterey CountyCentral433,729

A central county holds the area’s core, an urban area of at least 50,000 people. This area has no outlying counties: no neighboring county sends enough commuters to join it. A county belongs to one metro or micro area at most, and it counts whole, countryside included.

Principal city

  1. Salinas161,761 people

OMB names the area after its largest principal cities. A principal city is the area’s largest city, plus any other city that is very large or a big job center, and smaller ones with at least as many jobs as working residents (2020 Census and commuting figures). People counts are American Community Survey 2020–2024 5-year estimates.

Bordering metro and micro areas, nearest first

Areas with a county on this area’s edge. Distances are straight lines between the areas’ largest cities.

  1. Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA Metro Area30 mi northwest
  2. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA Metro Area43 mi north
  3. Fresno, CA Metro Area102 mi east
  4. San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA Metro Area112 mi southeast
  5. Hanford-Corcoran, CA Metro Area113 mi east

Before using this answer on a form

A metro or micro area is a statistical area that OMB draws for federal statistics. It is not a city, a local government or a mailing address, and it is not a measure of urban and rural: whole counties count, rural parts included. Programs that use metro areas, such as housing income limits or wage rates, can use their own version of these lists; check the program’s own list for an address.

Find the metro area where you are now, find your county, or see every metro and micro area by population.

See this area on Census.gov ↗