San Francisco has second-lowest share of children among large counties
San Francisco County has 13.1% of residents under 18, second-lowest among large counties. The shrinking child base is pressuring SFUSD and family-retention efforts.
In San Francisco County, 13.1% of residents were under 18, the second-lowest share among 150 large U.S. counties, behind only Manhattan.
San Francisco’s age 0-24 population fell about 5% over the last decade, from roughly 184,000 people in 2010 to 175,200 in 2020, even as the city overall grew 8%. The share of residents ages 0-24 slipped from 22.8% to 20.2%, and the city recorded 6,869 live births in 2024 after births fell over the past 10 years.
SFUSD said in December 2024 that it was working through budget updates amid enrollment-related financial strain, and in 2024 SFUSD planning included school closures, mergers and co-locations as enrollment continued to decline. Fewer children means fewer students to fill classrooms, but it also puts pressure on child care centers, youth programs, staffing and building maintenance.
California’s birthrate fell 31% from about 15.6 births per 1,000 people in 2007 to 10.7 in 2022, CDC-based data put, and San Francisco has tracked that same slide. The city was predominantly working-age adults in Bay Area Metro’s 2020 population profile, with residents 65 and older making up a larger share than those under 18.
In a 2020 San Francisco Census fact sheet, many neighborhoods still had high concentrations of young children, while SoMa, the Mission District and Bayview/Hunters Point were hard-to-reach neighborhoods for census outreach.
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