Biohazard Cleanup Near Downtown Berkeley Berkeley, CA

Berkeley grew up around the University of California, which was chartered in 1868 as the state's first land-grant university and the founding campus of the University of California system.

The town site and university were named for the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley, and the UC campus opened its doors in Berkeley in 1873.

The communities of Ocean View and Berkeley merged and incorporated together as the Town of Berkeley in 1878.

UC Berkeley enrolled 45,882 students in the fall of 2024, drawn from its historic 178-acre core campus in the heart of the city.

Berkeley became a national symbol of 1960s campus activism when the Free Speech Movement erupted at UC Berkeley in 1964, led by students including Mario Savio.

Alice Waters opened Chez Panisse on Shattuck Avenue in 1971, launching the farm-to-table movement and California cuisine from the North Berkeley food district now known as the Gourmet Ghetto.

In 2001 Gourmet magazine named Chez Panisse the best restaurant in America.

Waters also founded the Edible Schoolyard Project in 1995 at Berkeley's Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, a garden-and-kitchen school program that has since spread to thousands of schools.

The 2020 census counted 124,321 residents in Berkeley, packed at roughly 11,900 people per square mile, making it one of California's most densely populated cities.

Berkeley has about 47,000 households, averaging only about 2.3 people each, reflecting its large population of students and renters.