San Francisco covers an area of 185 square kilometres (71 sq mi)[1] and recorded a population of 446,757 in the 2011 Venezuelan census.

It borders the municipalities of Maracaibo to the north, Jesús Enrique Lossada to the west, and La Cañada de Urdaneta to the south.

[3] In his 1830 atlas of Venezuela, Agustín Codazzi recorded a Punta de San Francisco located between the towns of Maracaibo and La Cañada.

[3] San Francisco is the western terminus of the Troncal 3 highway, which crosses the Tablazo Strait over the General Rafael Urdaneta Bridge and connects Maracaibo to Coro, the capital of Falcón, and the town of Morón in Carabobo.

San Francisco also lies on the Troncal 6 highway, which runs north-south through Zulia from the border crossing to Colombia at Paraguachón to La Fría in Táchira.