is a city located in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 108,452 in 47018 households and a population density of 520 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Sanda City is located in southeast Hyōgo Prefecture, about to the north of the city of Kobe beyond the Rokkō Mountains and about northwest of the city of Osaka. The highest elevation point in the city is 697meters at Mt. Mine, and the lowest elevation point is 116 meters. The northern and eastern parts of the city are mountainous. In the past, it had the appearance of a typical farming village with rural scenery, but due to the development of large-scale housing complexes since the 1980s and the convenience of double-track electrification of the JR Fukuchiyama Line, it has rapidly become a satellite city of Osaka and Kobe. Rivers The Muko River runs through Sanda from Sasayama City in the north to Osaka Bay in the southeast. The size of the drainage basin is 496 km2. The river is host to events and festivals throughout the year. Neighbouring municipalities Hyōgo Prefecture Kobe Takarazuka Miki Katō Takarazuka Miki Tamba-Sasayama Inagawa Climate Sanda has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification Cfa) with hot summers and cool to cold winters. Precipitation is significantly higher in summer than in winter, though on the whole lower than most parts of Honshū, and there is no significant snowfall. The average annual temperature in Sanda is . The average annual rainfall is with July as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around , and lowest in January, at around . The highest temperature ever recorded in Sanda was on 8 August 1994; the coldest temperature ever recorded was on 23 December 2005. Demographics Per Japanese census data, the population of Sanda in 2020 was 109,238 people. Sanda has been conducting censuses since 1920. History The area of Sanda was part of ancient Settsu Province, and has been inhabited since the Japanese Paleolithic period. The name "Sanda" has been in use since long ago. Records found within a Buddhist Maitreya statue in the ancient Konshin-ji Temple read: "These areas are decreed as Matsuyama's land, which includes Onden, Hiden and Keiden, which are three rice fields, and the land is thus renamed Sanda." In Japanese, "san" means three and "ta" (pronounced "da" following "n")