Bakersfield, California

Bakersfield population, 2020 to 2024

Bakersfield added 12,248 residents from July 2020 to July 2024, a change of +3.0%. In the latest year it moved by +2,842. Among 429 California places of 5,000 or more, that growth ranks 74th; the median place changed by -1.1%. The median place of 5,000+ in California has 37,056 people, so Bakersfield is 11.3 times that size.

Bakersfield covers 150.27 square miles of land and 1.46 of water, for 2,778 people per square mile of land. The median California place of 5,000+ has 3,725, so Bakersfield is less dense than the typical town.

What county Bakersfield is in

All of Bakersfield's residents live in Kern County, which had 922,529 residents in 2024. Bakersfield holds 45.3% of the county's population. The shaded shape is on the map above; dots mark the eight nearest places.

ZIP codes in Bakersfield

10 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) overlap Bakersfield by at least 10% of the ZCTA's or the city's land: 93301, 93304, 93305, 93306, 93307, 93309, 93311, 93312, 93313, 93314. ZCTAs are Census approximations of USPS ZIP code delivery areas. The list comes from the 2020 ZCTA to place relationship file, so a city that annexed land after 2020 may reach into ZIP codes not listed here.

Where Bakersfield is

The Census internal point of Bakersfield is at 35.353200, -119.037900. Sacramento, the capital, is 260.7 miles NNW in a straight line. The nearest larger place is Los Angeles, CA (3,878,704 people), 98.8 miles away. The nearest city of 100,000 or more is Lancaster, CA, 66.8 miles away. The ground at the internal point is about 117 m (384 ft) above sea level.

Daylight in Bakersfield

At 35.35° N, Bakersfield gets about 14 h 33 min of daylight around the June solstice and 9 h 46 min around the December solstice, a swing of 4 h 47 min. Figures are sunrise to sunset from the SunCalc model for June 21 and December 21, 2026. Month-by-month sunrise and sunset times are on the Bakersfield daylight page.

Places near Bakersfield

The eight nearest incorporated places of 1,000+ in California, measured between internal points. The closest is Shafter, 12.7 miles away, with 22,754 people.