Los Angeles County, California


Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of the U.S. state of California, is the most populous county in the United States, with more than ten million inhabitants as of 2018. As such, it is the largest non–state level government entity in the United States. Its population is larger than that of 41 individual U.S. states, as well as the combined population of the 10 least populous states. It is the third-largest metropolitan economy in the world, with a Nominal GDP of over $700 billion—larger than the GDPs of countries such as Belgium and Norway. It has 88 incorporated cities and many unincorporated areas and, at, it is larger than the combined areas of Delaware and Rhode Island. The county is home to more than one-quarter of California residents and is one of the most ethnically-diverse counties in the U.S. Its county seat, Los Angeles, is also California's most populous city and the second most populous city in the U.S., with about four million residents.

History

Los Angeles County is one of the original counties of California, created at the time of statehood in 1850. The county originally included parts of what are now Kern, San Bernardino, Riverside, Inyo, Tulare, Ventura, and Orange counties. In 1851 and 1852, Los Angeles County stretched from the coast to the state line of Nevada. As the population increased, sections were split off to organize San Bernardino County in 1853, Kern County in 1866, and Orange County in 1889.
Prior to the 1870s, Los Angeles County was divided into townships, many of which were amalgamations of one or more old ranchos. They were:
before the secession of Orange County in 1889

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of, of which is land and is water. Los Angeles County borders of coast on the Pacific Ocean and encompasses mountain ranges, valleys, forests, islands, lakes, rivers, and desert. The Los Angeles River, Rio Hondo, the San Gabriel River and the Santa Clara River flow in Los Angeles County, while the primary mountain ranges are the Santa Monica Mountains and the San Gabriel Mountains. The western extent of the Mojave Desert begins in the Antelope Valley, in the northeastern part of the county.
Most of the population of Los Angeles County is located in the south and southwest, with major population centers in the Los Angeles Basin, San Fernando Valley and San Gabriel Valley. Other population centers are found in the Santa Clarita Valley, Pomona Valley, Crescenta Valley and Antelope Valley.
The county is divided west-to-east by the San Gabriel Mountains, which are part of the Transverse Ranges of southern California, and are contained mostly within the Angeles National Forest. Most of the county's highest peaks are in the San Gabriel Mountains, including Mount San Antonio ) at the Los Angeles-San Bernardino county lines, Mount Baden-Powell, Mount Burnham and Mount Wilson. Several lower mountains are in the northern, western, and southwestern parts of the county, including the San Emigdio Mountains, the southernmost part of Tehachapi Mountains and the Sierra Pelona Mountains.
Los Angeles County includes San Clemente Island and Santa Catalina Island, which are part of the Channel Islands archipelago off the Pacific Coast.

Lakes and reservoirs

Los Angeles County had a population of 9,818,605 in the 2010 United States Census. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 583,364 people and an decrease due to net migration of 361,895 people. Immigration resulted in a net increase of 293,433 people, and migration from within the U.S. resulted in a net decrease of 655,328 people.
The racial makeup of Los Angeles County was 4,936,599 White, 1,346,865 Asian, 856,874 African American, 72,828 Native American, 26,094 Pacific Islander, 2,140,632 from other races, and 438,713 from two or more races.
Non-Hispanic whites numbered 2,728,321, or 28% of the population. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race numbered 4,687,889 ; 36% of Los Angeles County's population was of Mexican ancestry; 3.7% Salvadoran, and 2.2% Guatemalan heritage.
The county has a large population of Asian Americans, being home to the largest numbers of Burmese, Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Indonesian, Korean, Sri Lankan, Taiwanese, and Thai outside their respective countries. The largest Asian groups of the 1,346,865 Asians in Los Angeles County are 4.0% Chinese, 3.3% Filipino, 2.2% Korean, 1.0% Japanese, 0.9% Vietnamese, 0.8% Indian, and 0.3% Cambodian.

Race and ancestry

The racial makeup of the county is 48.7% White, 11.0% African American, 0.8% Native American, 10.0% Asian, 0.3% Pacific Islander, 23.5% from other races, and 4.9% from two or more races. 44.6% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. The largest European-American ancestry groups are German, Irish, English and Italian. 45.9% of the population reported speaking only English at home; 37.9% spoke Spanish, 2.22% Tagalog, 2.0% Chinese, 1.9% Korean, 1.87% Armenian, 0.5% Arabic, and 0.2% Hindi.
The county has the largest Native American population of any county in the nation: according to the 2000 census, it has more than 153,550 people of indigenous descent, and most are from Latin America.
As estimated by the Public Policy Institute of California in 2008, Los Angeles County is home to more than one-third of California's undocumented immigrants, who make up more than ten percent of the population.
Los Angeles County is home to the largest Armenian population outside of Armenia.

2000

At the census of 2000, there were 9,519,338 people, 3,133,774 households, and 2,137,233 families in the county. The population density was 2,344 people per square mile. There were 3,270,909 housing units at an average density of 806 per square mile.
Of the 3,133,774 households 37% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48% were married couples living together, 15% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32% were non-families. 25% of households were one person and 7% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.98 and the average family size was 3.61.
The age distribution was 28% under the age of 18, 10% from 18 to 24, 33% from 25 to 44, 19% from 45 to 64, and 10% 65 or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females, there were 97.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.0 males.

Income

The median personal earnings for all workers 16 and older in Los Angeles County are $30,654, slightly below the US median; earnings, however vary widely by neighborhood, race and ethnicity, and gender. The median household income was $42,189 and the median family income was $46,452. Males had a median income of $36,299 versus $30,981 for females. The per capita income for the county was $20,683. There are 14.4% of families living below the poverty line and 17.9% of the population, including 24.2% of under 18 and 10.5% of those over 64.
Los Angeles County has the highest number of millionaires of any county in the nation, totaling 261,081 households as of 2007.
The homeownership rate is 47.9%, and the median value for houses is $409,300. 42.2% of housing units are in multi-unit structures. Los Angeles County has the largest number of homeless people, with "48,000 people living on the streets, including 6,000 veterans.", in 2010.
the number of homeless in the county of Los Angeles increased to nearly 58,000.

Religion

In 2015, there were over two thousand Christian churches, the majority of which are Catholic. Roman Catholic adherents number close to 40% of the population. There were 202 Jewish synagogues, 145 Buddhist temples, 48 Muslim mosques, 44 Bahai worship centers, 37 Hindu mandirs, 28 Tenrikyo churches and fellowships, 16 Shinto worship centers, and 14 Sikh gurdwaras in the county. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has approximately 5 million members and is the largest diocese in the United States. In 2014, the county had 3,275 religious organizations, the most out of all US counties.

Law, government and politics

Government

The Government of Los Angeles County is defined and authorized under the California Constitution, California law and the Charter of the County of Los Angeles. Much of the Government of California is in practice the responsibility of local governments such as the Government of Los Angeles County.
The county's voters elect a governing five-member Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. The small size of the board means each supervisor represents over 2 million people. The board operates in a legislative, executive, and quasi-judicial capacity. As a legislative authority, it can pass ordinances for the unincorporated areas. As an executive body, it can tell the county departments what to do, and how to do it. As a quasi-judicial body, the Board is the final venue of appeal in the local planning process, and holds public hearings on various agenda items.
As of 2020, the Board of Supervisors oversees a $35.5 billion annual budget and over 112,000 employees. The county government is managed on a day-to-day basis by a Chief Executive Officer and is organized into many departments, each of which is enormous in comparison to equivalent county-level departments anywhere else in the United States. Some of the larger or better-known departments include:
Courthouse.
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, despite its name, is a County department. Technically it is a state-mandated county transportation commission that also operates bus and rail.

Politics

YearGOPDEMOthers
201622.41% 769,74371.76% 2,464,3645.83% 200,201
201227.83% 885,33369.69% 2,216,9032.48% 78,831
200828.82% 956,42569.19% 2,295,8531.99% 65,970
200435.60% 1,076,22563.10% 1,907,7361.30% 39,319
200032.35% 871,93063.47% 1,710,5054.19% 112,719
199630.96% 746,54459.34% 1,430,6299.70% 233,841
199229.04% 799,60752.54% 1,446,52918.43% 507,267
198846.88% 1,239,71651.89% 1,372,3521.23% 32,603
198454.50% 1,424,11344.35% 1,158,9121.14% 29,889
198050.18% 1,224,53340.15% 979,8309.67% 235,822
197647.78% 1,174,92649.69% 1,221,8932.53% 62,258
197254.75% 1,549,71742.04% 1,189,9773.20% 90,676
196847.65% 1,266,48046.02% 1,223,2516.33% 168,251
196442.52% 1,161,06757.43% 1,568,3000.06% 1,551
196049.45% 1,302,66150.25% 1,323,8180.30% 8,020
195655.38% 1,260,20644.29% 1,007,8870.32% 7,331
195256.21% 1,278,40742.71% 971,4081.09% 24,725
194846.51% 804,23247.00% 812,6906.48% 112,160
194442.68% 666,44156.75% 886,2520.57% 8,871
194040.58% 574,26658.13% 822,7181.29% 18,285
193631.62% 357,40167.00% 757,3511.39% 15,663
193238.55% 373,73857.19% 554,4764.27% 41,380
192870.22% 513,52628.71% 209,9451.07% 7,830
192465.51% 299,6757.33% 33,55427.16% 124,228
192069.10% 178,11721.59% 55,6619.31% 23,992
191650.59% 135,55442.58% 114,0706.83% 18,297
19121.32% 2,18133.34% 55,11065.34% 108,005
190856.77% 41,48330.21% 22,07613.02% 9,518
190466.50% 32,50720.52% 10,03012.98% 6,346
190055.10% 19,20037.76% 13,1587.15% 2,490
189649.62% 16,89147.13% 16,0433.25% 1,108
189244.89% 10,22635.64% 8,11919.47% 4,434
188854.64% 13,80540.02% 10,1105.34% 1,349
188451.67% 5,59543.24% 4,6835.09% 551
188047.90% 2,91446.90% 2,8535.19% 316

Overview

Los Angeles County tends to favor the Democratic Party. Even when California was a state that favored the Republican Party, the county would go for the Democratic nominee. It has voted for the Democratic candidate in every presidential election cycle since 1988. However, it did vote twice for Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan the latter two of whom were California politicians. From 1920 to 1984 it was a bellwether county that always voted for the eventual national winner. Since 1984, it has only voted against the national popular vote winner in 1988 and 2004. In 2008 and 2012, sixty percent of the electorate voted for Democrat Barack Obama. In 2016, Democrat Hillary Clinton won 71% of the vote, marking both the largest margin of any Democratic victory in the county as well as the largest percentage of the electorate ever won by a single candidate in the county.

Voter registration

In the United States House of Representatives, Los Angeles County is split between 18 congressional districts:
In the California State Senate, Los Angeles County is split between 15 legislative districts:
In the California State Assembly, Los Angeles County is split between 24 legislative districts:
On November 4, 2008, Los Angeles County was almost evenly split over Proposition 8 which amended the California Constitution to ban same-sex marriages. The county voted for the amendment 50.04% with a margin of 2,385 votes.

Legal system

The Los Angeles Superior Court, is the county's court of general jurisdiction, while the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California may hear cases where federal jurisdiction is present. Both are headquartered in a large cluster of government buildings in the city's Civic Center.
Historically, the courthouses were county-owned buildings that were maintained at county expense, which created significant friction since the trial court judges, as officials of the state government, had to lobby the county Board of Supervisors for facility renovations and upgrades. In turn, the state judiciary successfully persuaded the state Legislature to authorize the transfer of all courthouses to the state government in 2008 and 2009. Courthouse security is still provided by the county government under a contract with the state.
Unlike the largest city in the United States, New York City, all of the city of Los Angeles and most of its important suburbs are located within a single county. As a result, both the county superior court and the federal district court are respectively the busiest courts of their type in the nation.
Many celebrities like O. J. Simpson have been seen in Los Angeles courts. In 2003, the television show Extra found itself running so many reports on the legal problems of local celebrities that it spun them off into a separate show, Celebrity Justice.
State cases are appealed to the Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District, which is also headquartered in the Civic Center, and then to the California Supreme Court, which is headquartered in San Francisco but also hears argument in Los Angeles. Federal cases are appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which hears them at its branch building in Pasadena. The court of last resort for federal cases is the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.

Crime

The following table includes the number of incidents reported and the rate per 1,000 persons for each type of offense.

Cities by population and crime rates

Other statistics

Crime in 2013
Los Angeles County is commonly associated with the entertainment and digital media industry; all five major film studios—Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, and Walt Disney Studios—are located within the county. Numerous other major industries also define the economy of Los Angeles County, including international trade supported by the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach, music recording and production, aerospace and defense, fashion, and professional services such as law, medicine, engineering and design services, financial services and more. High-tech sector employment within Los Angeles County is 368,500 workers, and manufacturing employment within Los Angeles County is 365,000 workers.
The following major companies have headquarters in Los Angeles County:

Education

The Los Angeles County Office of Education provides a supporting role for school districts in the area. The county office also operates two magnet schools, the International Polytechnic High School and Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. There are a number of private schools in the county, most notably those operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese.

Colleges

The county's most visited park is Griffith Park, owned by the city of Los Angeles. The county is also known for the annual Rose Parade in Pasadena, the annual Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Los Angeles Zoo, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the La Brea Tar Pits, the Arboretum of Los Angeles, and two horse racetracks and two car racetracks, also the RMS Queen Mary located in Long Beach, and the Long Beach Grand Prix, and miles of beaches—from Zuma to Cabrillo.
Venice Beach is a popular attraction whose Muscle Beach used to attract throngs of tourists admiring "hardbodies". Today, it is more arts-centered. Santa Monica's pier is a well known tourist spot, famous for its ferris wheel and bumper car rides, which were featured in the introductory segment of the television sitcom Three's Company. Further north in Pacific Palisades one finds the beaches used in the television series Baywatch. The fabled Malibu, home of many a film or television star, lies west of it.
In the mountain, canyon, and desert areas one may find Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park, where many old Westerns were filmed. Mount Wilson Observatory in the San Gabriel Mountains is open for the public to view astronomical stars from its telescope, now computer-assisted. Many county residents find relaxation in water skiing and swimming at Castaic Lake Recreation Area – the county's largest park by area – as well as enjoying natural surroundings and starry nights at Saddleback Butte State Park in the eastern Antelope Valley – California State Parks' largest in area within the county. The California Poppy Reserve is located in the western Antelope Valley and shows off the State's flower in great quantity on its rolling hills every spring.

Museums

Other areas

Major highways

Air

, located in the Westchester district, is the primary commercial airport for commercial airlines in the county and the Greater Los Angeles Area. LAX is operated by Los Angeles World Airports, an agency of the City of Los Angeles.
Other important commercial airports in Los Angeles County include:
The following general aviation airports also are located in Los Angeles County:
The U.S. Air Force operates three airports in Los Angeles County:
Los Angeles is a major freight-railroad transportation center, largely due to the large volumes of freight moving in and out of the county's sea port facilities. The ports are connected to the downtown rail yards and to the main lines of Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe headed east via a grade-separated, freight rail corridor known as the Alameda Corridor.
Passenger rail service is provided in the county by Amtrak, Los Angeles Metro Rail and Metrolink.
Amtrak has the following intercity Amtrak service at Union Station in the city of Los Angeles:
Union Station is also the primary hub for Metrolink commuter rail, which serves much of the Greater Los Angeles Area.
Light rail, subway, and long-distance bus service are all provided by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Sea

The county's two main seaports are the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach. Together they handle over a quarter of all container traffic entering the United States, making the complex the largest and most important port in the country, and the third-largest port in the world by shipping volume.
The Port of Los Angeles is the largest cruise ship center on the West Coast, handling more than 1 million passengers annually.
The Port of Long Beach is home to the Sea Launch program, which uses a floating launch platform to insert payloads into orbits that would be difficult to attain from existing land-based launch sites.
Ferries link the Catalina Island city of Avalon to the mainland.

Communities

Cities

There are 88 incorporated cities in Los Angeles County. According to the 2018 Estimate, the most populous are:

Unincorporated areas

Census designated places

The population ranking of the following table is based on the 2010 census of Los Angeles County.
† county seat
RankCity/Town/etc.Municipal typePopulation
1† Los AngelesCity3,792,621
2Long BeachCity462,257
3GlendaleCity191,719
4Santa ClaritaCity176,320
5LancasterCity156,633
6PalmdaleCity152,750
7PomonaCity149,058
8TorranceCity145,438
9PasadenaCity137,122
10East Los AngelesCDP126,496
11El MonteCity113,475
12DowneyCity111,772
13InglewoodCity109,673
14West CovinaCity106,098
15NorwalkCity105,549
16BurbankCity103,340
17ComptonCity96,455
18South GateCity94,396
19CarsonCity91,714
20Santa MonicaCity89,736
21WhittierCity85,331
22HawthorneCity84,293
23AlhambraCity83,089
24LakewoodCity80,048
25BellflowerCity76,616
26Baldwin ParkCity75,390
27LynwoodCity69,772
28Redondo BeachCity66,748
29Florence-GrahamCDP63,387
30Pico RiveraCity62,942
31MontebelloCity62,500
32Monterey ParkCity60,269
33GardenaCity58,829
34Huntington ParkCity58,114
35South WhittierCDP57,156
36ArcadiaCity56,364
37Diamond BarCity55,544
38ParamountCity54,098
39Hacienda HeightsCDP54,038
40RosemeadCity53,764
41GlendoraCity50,073
42CerritosCity49,041
43Rowland HeightsCDP48,993
44La MiradaCity48,527
45CovinaCity47,796
46AzusaCity46,361
47AltadenaCDP42,777
48Bell GardensCity42,072
49Rancho Palos VerdesCity41,643
50La PuenteCity39,816
51San GabrielCity39,718
52Culver CityCity38,883
53MonroviaCity36,590
54WillowbrookCDP35,983
55Temple CityCity35,558
56BellCity35,477
57Manhattan BeachCity35,135
58ClaremontCity34,926
59West HollywoodCity34,399
60Beverly HillsCity34,109
61San DimasCity33,371
62LawndaleCity32,769
63WestmontCDP31,853
64La VerneCity31,063
65WalnutCity29,172
66MaywoodCity27,395
67South PasadenaCity25,619
68West Whittier-Los NietosCDP25,540
69CudahyCity23,805
70San FernandoCity23,645
71CalabasasCity23,058
72ValindaCDP22,822
73LennoxCDP22,753
74West Puente ValleyCDP22,636
75West CarsonCDP21,699
76DuarteCity21,321
77South San Jose HillsCDP20,551
78Agoura HillsCity20,330
79LomitaCity20,256
80La Cañada FlintridgeCity20,246
81South El MonteCity20,116
82La Crescenta-MontroseCDP19,653
83Hermosa BeachCity19,506
84CastaicCDP19,015
85Stevenson RanchCDP17,557
86El SegundoCity16,654
87ArtesiaCity16,522
88Santa Fe SpringsCity16,223
89Walnut ParkCDP15,966
90VincentCDP15,922
91Avocado HeightsCDP15,411
92East Rancho DominguezCDP15,135
93East San GabrielCDP14,874
94Hawaiian GardensCity14,254
95Palos Verdes EstatesCity13,438
96San MarinoCity13,147
97CommerceCity12,823
98MalibuCity12,645
99Lake Los AngelesCDP12,328
100Sun VillageCDP11,565
101View Park-Windsor HillsCDP11,075
102Signal HillCity11,016
103Sierra MadreCity10,917
104Quartz HillCDP10,912
105CitrusCDP10,866
106Del AireCDP10,001
107East Whittier CDP9,757
108Charter OakCDP9,310
109Marina del ReyCDP8,866
110West AthensCDP8,729
111Alondra ParkCDP8,592
112TopangaCDP8,289
113Westlake VillageCity8,270
114South San GabrielCDP8,070
115Rolling Hills EstatesCity8,067
116ActonCDP7,596
117South Monrovia IslandCDP6,777
118Ladera HeightsCDP6,498
119East PasadenaCDP6,144
120West Rancho DominguezCDP5,669
121Mayflower VillageCDP5,515
122La Habra HeightsCity5,325
123AvalonCity3,728
124North El MonteCDP3,723
125Agua DulceCDP3,342
126Rose HillsCDP2,803
127Val VerdeCDP2,468
128Desert View HighlandsCDP2,360
129San PasqualCDP2,041
130Rolling HillsCity1,860
131Hidden HillsCity1,856
132Elizabeth LakeCDP1,756
133Leona ValleyCDP1,607
134IrwindaleCity1,422
135LittlerockCDP1,377
136Hasley CanyonCDP1,137
137BradburyCity1,048
138Green ValleyCDP1,027
139Lake HughesCDP649
140IndustryCity219
141VernonCity112