About Berkeley, California

Berkeley is a mid-sized city in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. Situated in the East Bay, the city is renowned for its world-class university, liberal politics, 1960s Free Speech Movement roots, and cultural and culinary pursuits. The City is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley.

For a city of just 112,000 people, Berkeley’s has a super-sized presence. The City has a strong reputation for its liberal politics, which are rooted in the Free Speech Movement of the 1960s. Berkeley is also home to the oldest campus in the University of California system, the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which is managed and operated by the University. It also has the Graduate Theological Union, one of the largest religious studies institutions in the world.

Visitors will find an eclectic mix of cultures and attitudes in free-thinking Berkeley. Today’s Berkeley is not as radical as the one found in modern American history books, but the sense of vitality that pervades much of the city can be attributed to the variety of students, scientists, activists, hippies, and yuppies that call it home.