Most S.F. workers don't live in the city. Here's where they live instead

Of all people whose main work office is in San Francisco, how many actually live in the city?

About a third, the Chronicle found - a notably lower share than 20 years ago.

The Chronicle analyzed workforce data collected by the U.S. Census, which provides estimates about where people live and work. The latest data is from 2023, which means it may not capture recent changes to the city's workforce driven by AI .

Still, the data reveals how San Francisco's workforce dynamics have shifted over the last two decades.

The change is stark. In 2003, 44% of people who worked in San Francisco also lived in the city. Two decades later, the number of people with San Francisco-based jobs increased by more than 230,000, while the share of those workers who lived in the city dropped by ten percentage points - partially a sign of how remote work has changed commuting patterns.

Even though the share of workers that lived in S.F. declined from 2003 to 2013, the boom in overall jobs still led to an increase in the number of city workers living within its borders. But that wasn't true from 2013 to 2023. While the total number of jobs in the city increased by about 100,000 in that time, the number of city workers didn't budge. That meant that the share of San Francisco workers living in the city dropped slightly, from 39% to 33.5%.

Santa Clara County saw the largest increase in S.F. city workers. In 2013, just 3.7% of San Francisco workers lived in Santa Clara county. By 2023, that increased to almost 7%. Alameda County also saw a one percentage point increase since 2013.

With San Francisco's yearslong affordability crisis , a lack of housing options has forced people into super-commutes that begin before dawn . Many people also prefer the space and suburban lifestyle more easily found outside of the city.

San Francisco workers living in Los Angeles increased slightly as well, from 3.7% in 2013 to 5% in 2023. Other far-flung regions increased too, though overall shares remained very low - workers living in San Diego and Orange counties saw slight bumps, but remained under 2%. People living in all other locations also increased by a percentage point.

The fact that people employed by companies in San Francisco live well beyond a reasonable commuting distance from the city is made possible by remote work. Even before the pandemic made it the norm, people in flexible lines of work like tech could work for companies based in San Francisco but never set foot in the office.

While the data is only broken out into three income categories, with the highest encompassing the vast majority of all workers, it does reveal that those making the bottom 20% of wages are more likely to live in the city . That could be a number of reasons: People who have long worked in lower wage jobs may have moved to the city years ago and remained in rent-controlled units; other lower wage workers may benefit from affordable housing developments or live in cramped, multigenerational homes with several other people.

On the flip side, about 45% of people living in San Francisco in 2023 were employed outside of the county. About 13% of workers living in San Francisco commuted to jobs in San Mateo County, and another 10% to Santa Clara County. Just over 8% went to jobs in Alameda County.