El Centro, California

El Centro is a city in southeastern California and the county seat of Imperial County, in the United States. Its Spanish name means The Center. It is the most populous city in the Imperial Valley and the principal city of the El Centro metropolitan area, which covers all of Imperial County, and it anchors the east end of the Southern California Border Region. El Centro is also the most populous city in the country that lies entirely below sea level, at about 42 feet below. It sits roughly 113 miles from San Diego and less than 20 miles from the Mexican city of Mexicali. W. F. Holt and C. A. Barker founded it in 1906, and the 2020 census counted 44,322 residents.