El Cerrito (Spanish for "The Little Hill") is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, and forms part of the San Francisco Bay Area.

The communities of Stege Junction, Rust, Schmidtville, and Schindler were all included in the new city.

[10] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 3.7 square miles (9.6 km2), all of it land.

[11] El Cerrito is located on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in the extreme southwest corner of Contra Costa County.

The hilly areas of El Cerrito provide views of San Francisco and of the Golden Gate Bridge.

The 2010 racial makeup of El Cerrito was:[20] Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2,621 persons (11.1%).

At home the percentages of the languages residents speak are English 70.47%, Spanish 6.26%, Chinese 5.96%, Japanese 2.70%, Mandarin 1.80%, Cantonese 1.57%, Persian 1.43%, Tagalog 1.30%, Korean 1.08%, French 0.90%, German 0.83%, Formosan 0.73%, Italian 0.66%, Vietnamese 0.57%, Urdu 0.50%, and 3.23% of people spoke some other language which represented less than 0.50% of the population.

[23] San Pablo Avenue stretches the length of El Cerrito and is the primary commercial and retail corridor of the city, though there is a segment in which the businesses on the west side of the avenue are actually in Richmond Annex but have an El Cerrito postal address.

The city is nominally home to Arhoolie Records (actually located in Richmond Annex), part of the Smithsonian Institution.

As of the last quarter of 2023, the top 25 sales tax producers in El Cerrito are: Barnes & Noble, Chevron, CVS Pharmacy, El Cerrito Honda, Exxon, Harbor Freight Tools, Ifshin Violins, Jack in the Box, JoAnn Fabrics & Crafts, Lucky Supermarket, Marshalls, McDonald’s, Nug, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Pastime Hardware, Pet Food Express, Petco, Petvet Petfood, Ross, Safeway, STIIIZY El Cerrito, T Mobile, Trader Joe’s, Verizon Wireless, and Walgreens.

The city is home to a 2.6-mile (4.2 km) segment of the Ohlone Greenway (named after the Native American Ohlone people), a trail that runs the length of the City along a former railroad grade underneath the BART right-of-way that is popular with walkers, runners, and bicyclists, as well as the blind, deaf, and mute population.

The City Council consists of five members elected at large for four-year, overlapping terms.

The City contracts with East Bay Sanitary for garbage and green waste collection service through a franchise agreement.

[25] Interstate 80 runs north–south through El Cerrito, with San Pablo Avenue serving as the primary surface artery.

Bay Area Rapid Transit serves two stations in the city – El Cerrito del Norte and El Cerrito Plaza – while AC Transit operates local bus service.

The Ohlone Greenway is part of a regional north–south active transportation route, and is a popular path for bike commuters and recreational cyclists and pedestrians.