13 Facts About Santa Clara County

1. Santa Clara County contains Ulistac Natural Area, a volunteer maintained natural open space.

2. Santa Clara County has an extensive park system, much of it founded in the major park expansion of the late 1970s.

3. Santa Clara County has no commercial seaports, although small boats can access San Francisco Bay from several points.

4. Santa Clara County has an extensive freeway system and a separate expressway system.

5. Santa Clara County has consolidated its transportation services into the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, which operates a bus system.

6. Santa Clara County pays the $340,000 salary and benefits of the California state Department of Social Services director, which is reimbursed by the state, skirting the $165,000 state law cap for the position.

7. Santa Clara County is one among three counties in California to establish a separate department, the Santa Clara County Department of Corrections, to deal with corrections pursuant to California Government Code §23013.

8. Santa Clara County has five elected supervisors, elected within their districts.

9. Santa Clara County does not share a border with San Joaquin and Monterey counties, but it comes within a few miles of those counties.

10. Santa Clara County was one of the original counties of California, formed in 1850 at the time of statehood.

11. Santa Clara County is named after Mission Santa Clara, which was established in 1777 and was in turn named for Saint Clare of Assisi.

12. Home to Silicon Valley, Santa Clara County is a global economic center for high technology and has the third highest GDP per capita in the world, according to the Brookings Institution.

13. Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is California's 6th most populous county, with a population was 1,781,642, as of the 2010 census.