Stockton, California,  iis the seat of San Joaquin County (the 5th largest agricultural county in the United States). A  2006 estimate shows 668,265 people live in the Stockton Metropolitan Statistical Area.

In the past decade, Stockton and the nearby communities of Tracy, Manteca and Lodi have experienced a population boom. This is largely due to thousands of people settling in the area to escape the relatively high cost of living of the San Francisco Bay Area. This influx of new residents, however, resulted in a sharp increase in the cost of living of Stockton, although it is still significantly lower than any Bay Area city of comparable size.

Twice Stockton was named an "All-America City".