Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA Metro Area

The Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA metro area is one county in California: Sonoma County. About 486,444 people lived there on July 1, 2025 (Census estimate), 0.5% fewer than in April 2020.

Sonoma County, centralSanta RosaPetaluma
Sonoma County in California
Population, July 2025
486,444 0.5% fewer than in April 2020
Type
Metropolitan statistical area
County
Sonoma County
Land area
1,575 sq mi (4,080 km²)
Time zone
Pacific TimeUTC-08:00 in January; UTC-07:00 in July
State
California
CBSA code
42220

The county in the Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA metro area

CountyRolePopulation, July 2025
Sonoma CountyCentral486,444

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 cities, largest first

  1. Santa Rosa177,090 people
  2. Petaluma59,247 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. Napa, CA Metro Area24 mi southeast
  2. Vallejo, CA Metro Area34 mi southeast
  3. Clearlake, CA Micro Area36 mi north
  4. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA Metro Area53 mi south
  5. Ukiah, CA Micro Area55 mi northwest

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 ↗