Modesto is the county seat of Stanislaus County in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 188,856. Current census estimates place the population at 206,300. According to the California State Department of Finance 1/6/06 estimate, 514,370 people live in the Modesto Metropolitan Statistical Area.

One and a half hours from Sacramento, California's capital city, and two hours from both San Jose and San Francisco, Modesto's location has turned the agriculturally based city into a bedroom community. Over twenty percent of the workforce travels outside of the county to their place of employment. The area is plagued by some of the worst air quality in the nation, on occasion surpassing even that of Los Angeles. It is also reported to have the highest car theft per capita rate in the United States for at least two years.