San Luis Obispo, California

San Luis Obispo population, 2020 to 2024

San Luis Obispo added 2,538 residents from July 2020 to July 2024, a change of +5.4%. In the latest year it moved by +619. Among 429 California places of 5,000 or more, that growth ranks 40th; the median place changed by -1.1%. The median place of 5,000+ in California has 37,056 people, so San Luis Obispo is 1.3 times that size.

San Luis Obispo covers 13.64 square miles of land and 0.15 of water, for 3,646 people per square mile of land. The median California place of 5,000+ has 3,725, so San Luis Obispo is close to the typical town.

What county San Luis Obispo is in

All of San Luis Obispo's residents live in San Luis Obispo County, which had 281,843 residents in 2024. San Luis Obispo holds 17.6% of the county's population. The shaded shape is on the map above; dots mark the eight nearest places.

ZIP codes in San Luis Obispo

2 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) overlap San Luis Obispo by at least 10% of the ZCTA's or the city's land: 93401, 93405. 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 San Luis Obispo is

The Census internal point of San Luis Obispo is at 35.266200, -120.668400. Sacramento, the capital, is 233.3 miles N in a straight line. The nearest larger place is Santa Maria, CA (111,346 people), 26.3 miles away.

Daylight in San Luis Obispo

At 35.27° N, San Luis Obispo gets about 14 h 32 min of daylight around the June solstice and 9 h 47 min around the December solstice, a swing of 4 h 46 min. Figures are sunrise to sunset from the SunCalc model for June 21 and December 21, 2026.

Places near San Luis Obispo

The eight nearest incorporated places of 1,000+ in California, measured between internal points. The closest is Pismo Beach, 7.8 miles away, with 7,984 people.