Stockton, the county seat of San Joaquin County, is the 13th-largest city in California in population and one of the largest in area in the Central Valley. Stockton has an estimated population of 290,141, making it about the 61st largest city in the U.S. The city is located in Northern California south of the state capital of Sacramento and north of Modesto.

Stockton is along Interstate 5, State Route 99 and State Route 4 amid the farmland of the California Central Valley. It is connected westward with San Francisco Bay by the San Joaquin River's 78-mile (126 km) channel, and is, with Sacramento, one of the state's two inland sea ports. In and around Stockton are thousands of miles of waterways and rivers that make up the California Delta.