Oakland, CA Elevation & Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Oakland, California, shaded from sea level level on San Francisco Bay to 1,770 ft on the northeast edge, below higher ground just outside
Elevation
1,770 ft 540 m1,320 ft 405 m1,100 ft 335 m660 ft 200 m220 ft 65 m0 ft 0 m
Contours every 500 ft, bold every 2,500 ft
USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau
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How to use this mapviews, tools and data
Elevation
Ground colored by height from green (lowest) to white (highest), with contour lines every 40–500 ft (USGS data).
Satellite
A 2016 satellite photo at 33 ft (10 m) detail; contours off.
3D
Tilt and turn the terrain; hills are raised 1.5×, or set ×1 for true height.
Click or tap anywhere
The exact elevation of that spot in ft and m.
Measure
Pick two points for the climb, descent and grade along a straight line.
City area
Fades everything outside the official city limits (US Census).

Elevation Data

Oakland sits at about 70 ft (21 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.

Typical elevation
70 ft 21 m
most residents: 21–390 ft
Lowest
0 ft 0 m
at sea level on San Francisco Bay
Highest
1,770 ft 540 m
on the northeast edge, below higher ground just outside
Average
300 ft 90 m
all land inside city limits

Oakland spans about 1,770 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where its people live, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.

FigureElevation
Typical
Where people live: half of residents higher, half lower
70 ft21 m
Highest point
Inside city limits, on the northeast edge, below higher ground just outside
1,770 ft540 m
Lowest point
Where the land meets San Francisco Bay
0 ft0 m
Town center
USGS map point for Oakland
42 ft13 m
Airport (SFO)
FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 7.7 mi southwest of the city limits
13 ft4 m
Average of all land300 ft90 m

Elevation profile, west to east

9.7 mi west to east through the town center.

Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Oakland, California, shaded from sea level level on San Francisco Bay to 1,770 ft on the northeast edge, below higher ground just outside
City limits (dashed) over shaded terrain, with contours every 100 ft (30 m).
Location
City in Alameda County, California, United States
Population
443,554 2024 est.
Land area
56.0 sq mi + 22.1 sq mi water
Density
7,926 per sq mi
Coordinates
37.8044° N, 122.2708° W
Time zone
Pacific UTC−8 / −7
Landform region
Pacific Border
Drains to
Pacific Ocean
Airport
San Francisco International (SFO) 13 ft
ZIP codes 16
94601 94602 94603 94605 94606 94607 94608 94609 94610 94611 94612 94613 94618 94619 94621 94705
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WebP, 1200 × 900. Free to use: credit “ElevationOf.com” with a link to this page.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS, FAA

Nearby Places

Nearby towns by typical elevation

  1. Orinda720 ft
  2. Moraga680 ft
  3. Kensington600 ft
  4. Piedmont280 ft
  5. Berkeley190 ft
  6. El Cerrito110 ft
  7. Oakland70 ft
  8. Albany58 ft
  9. San Leandro38 ft
  10. Emeryville18 ft
  11. Alameda15 ft

Rankings by typical elevation

Peaks and hills nearest, by height

  • Mount Diablo3,864 ft
  • Sunol Peak2,191 ft
  • Rocky Ridge2,020 ft
  • Scarpet Peak1,930 ft
  • Vollmer Peak1,916 ft
How we measure
  • Typical elevation: the population-weighted median: every 2020 Census block inside the city limits, at its USGS 3DEP height, weighted by the people who live there. Half of residents live higher, half lower.
  • Lowest, highest, average: USGS 3DEP bare-earth heights on a 1 arc-second (≈100 ft, 30 m) grid, land only, inside the Census city limits (TIGER, Jan 1 2026).
  • Pits: the lowest point is the lowest ground outside closed hollows (quarry floors, mine pits, terrain-model artifacts): any hollow under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²), and any hollow under 2 sq mi (5 km²) whose floor is more than 100 ft (30 m) below its rim; and outside patches below sea level of under 0.4 sq mi (1 km²). The single lowest 3DEP cell, −23 ft at 37.8260° N, 122.2968° W, is in such a hollow or patch and is not counted; this coastal land's lowest point is sea level on the coast.
  • Nearby Places: nearby towns and rankings use each town's typical elevation, so every town is compared like for like. Rankings count every city, town, township and census-designated place, including places inside a town. Peaks and hills: the nearest summits with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence within 62 mi (100 km), then federal (GNIS) summits within 16 mi (25 km) when there are fewer than 5; each is the 3DEP top on a ~7 ft (2 m) window, or the NGS published height when a usable survey mark sits within 160 ft (50 m) of it (shown as published).
  • Rounding: computed heights are rounded to 10 ft (5 m), or to 1 ft (1 m) under 100 ft; 3DEP is good to about a meter, not a foot. Published figures (FAA airport elevation, NGS survey heights) are shown as their publisher gives them.
  • Datum: North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88). NGS plans to replace NAVD 88 with a new datum (NAPGD2022); heights will then shift slightly.
  • Sources: USGS 3DEP, GNIS, Watershed Boundary Dataset and physiographic provinces; U.S. Census Bureau (boundaries, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, Gazetteer areas, ZIP code areas); FAA airport data; BTS time zones; NOAA NGS survey heights. All public domain.