Los Angeles County, California

Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is the most populous non–state-level government entity in the United States. Its population is greater than that of 40 individual U.S. states. At and with 88 incorporated cities and many unincorporated areas, it is home to more than one-quarter of California residents and is one of the most ethnically diverse counties in the United States. Its county seat, Los Angeles, is also California's most populous city and the second-most populous city in the United States, with about 3.9 million residents. In recent times, statewide droughts in California have placed great strain on the County’s (and the City of Los Angeles's) water security.

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:
* Azusa (encompassed the foothill communities east of the San Gabriel River, including present-day Covina and Duarte)
* El Monte (encompassed communities in the Whittier Narrows area, including present-day El Monte, La Puente, as well as Monterey Park)
** Azusa and El Monte Townships were merged for the 1870 census.
* City of Los Angeles (then consisting solely of its four-league Spanish land grant)
* Los Angeles Township (consisted of areas surrounding the City of Los Angeles, including the San Fernando Valley and present-day West Los Angeles and East Los Angeles. Most of this area has now been annexed to the city of Los Angeles.)
* Los Nietos (consisted of areas south of the Whittier Narrows and Puente Hills south to present-day Long Beach, centered on the early settlement at Los Nietos. Some of this area is now in Orange County.)
* San Jose (consisted of the eastern portions of the county drained by San Jose Creek, including what is now the cities of Pomona, Claremont and Walnut)
* San Gabriel (consisted of the western San Gabriel Valley and foothill communities, including present-day Alhambra and Pasadena. Centered on the Mission San Gabriel)
* Santa Ana (consisted of what is now northern and central Orange County, including what is now Fullerton, Huntington Beach and City of Orange. Centered on Santa Ana).
** For the 1870 census, Anaheim district was enumerated separately.
* San Juan (consisted of what is now southern Orange County. Centered on Mission San Juan Capistrano).
* San Pedro (consisted of the present-day South Bay communities, Compton and western Long Beach. Centered on the wharf of San Pedro. Renamed Wilmington Township by 1870).
* Tejon (consisted of all of northern Los Angeles County and what is now southern Kern County. Centered on Fort Tejon)
** When Kern County was formed, the portion of the township remaining in Los Angeles County became Soledad Township More recently, statewide droughts in California have further strained Los Angeles County’s water security.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of , of which (85%) is land and (15%) 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, Ballona Creek, 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 resides 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

* Bouquet Reservoir
* Castaic Lake
* Crystal Lake
* Elizabeth Lake
* Holiday Lake
* Hollywood Reservoir
* Hughes Lake
* Jackson Lake
* Las Virgenes Reservoir
* Malibou Lake
* Morris Reservoir
* Munz Lakes
* Lake Palmdale
* Puddingstone Reservoir
* Pyramid Lake
* Quail Lake
* Silver Lake Reservoir
* Stone Canyon Reservoir
* Tweedy Lake
* Westlake in City of Westlake Village
* Lake Lindero

Major divisions of the county

* East: Eastside, San Gabriel Valley, portions of the Pomona Valley
* West: Westside, Beach Cities
* South: South Bay, South Los Angeles, Palos Verdes Peninsula, Gateway Cities, Los Angeles Harbor Region
* North: San Fernando Valley, Crescenta Valley, portions of the Conejo Valley, portions of the Antelope Valley and Santa Clarita Valley
* Central: Downtown Los Angeles, Mid-Wilshire, Northeast Los Angeles

National protected areas

* Angeles National Forest (part)
* Los Padres National Forest (part)
* Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (part)

Demographics

2020 census

''Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race.''

In 2019, the median household income in the county was $72,797.

2010 Census

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 (i.e., 1,152,564 births minus 569,200 deaths) and a decrease due to net migration of 361,895 people. Immigration resulted in a net increase of 293,433 people, and migration from within the United States resulted in a net decrease of 655,328 people.

The racial makeup of Los Angeles County was 4,936,599 (50%) White, 1,346,865 (13.7%) Asian, 856,874 (9%) African American, 72,828 (0.7%) Native American, 26,094 (0.3%) Pacific Islander, 2,140,632 (21.8%) from other races, and 438,713 (4.5%) 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 (48%); 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, Indonesian, Korean, Sri Lankan, Taiwanese, and Thai outside their respective countries. The largest Asian groups 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.

Racial and Ethnic Composition since 1960

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 (6%), Irish (5%), English (4%) and Italian (3%). 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.

Los Angeles County contains the largest Iranian population outside of Iran of any other county or county equivalent globally.

2000

At the 2000 census, there were 9,519,338 people, 3,133,774 households, and 2,137,233 families in the county. The population density was . There were 3,270,909 housing units at an average density of .

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 people in the county 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, 38 Muslim mosques, 44 Baháʼí Faith worship centers, 37 Hindu temples, 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 (ordinances that affect the whole county, like posting of restaurant ratings, must be ratified by the individual city). 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 (and even many state-level) departments anywhere else in the United States. Some of the larger or better-known departments include:

* Los Angeles County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs – offers consumers in the county a variety of services including: consumer and real estate counseling, mediation, and small claims counseling investigates consumer complaints, real estate fraud and identity theft issues. The department also provides small business certifications and helps entrepreneurs navigate the process of opening a business.
* Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services – administers foster care
* Los Angeles County Fire Department – provides firefighting services for the unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County, as well as 58 cities.
* Los Angeles County Department of Health Services – operates several county hospitals and a network of primary care clinics,
* Los Angeles County Department of Public Health – administers public health programs including STD programs, smoking cessation, and restaurant inspection. In the majority of the county LACDPH puts letter grades relating to the food cleanliness and safety of a restaurant in the front window of restaurants.
* Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services – administers many federal and state welfare programs
* Los Angeles County Department of Public Works – operates countywide flood control system, constructs and maintains roads in unincorporated areas
* Los Angeles County District Attorney – prosecutes criminal suspects.
* Los Angeles County Office of the Public Defender – Defends indigent people accused of criminal offenses.
* Los Angeles County Probation Department
* Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department – provides law enforcement services for the unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County, as well as 42 cities.

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

Overview

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 County 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 (so that judges would have direct control over their own courthouses). 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 have been seen in Los Angeles courts. In 2003, the television show ''Extra'' (based in nearby Glendale) 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 (again, in the Civic Center). 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
* Homicides: 386
* Thefts: 54,971
* Burglaries: 17,606
* Car Thefts: 15,866
* Robberies: 10,202
* Violent Crimes: 20,318
* Rapes: 843
* Assaults: 8,976
* Murders: 297

Ecology

According to the authors of ''Wild L.A.'', a book about urban biodiversity, “Los Angeles is the birdiest county in the country with over 500 recorded species.” L.A.’s amenable climate supports a large number of introduced, tropical and migratory species. Because of the county’s wide range of biomes it is possible to see desert bighorn sheep and green sea turtles in the same day, without crossing the county line. The range of habitats in the county is “greater than in many states, with mountains, wetlands, desert, ocean, meadows and chaparral, each with its own endemic species.”

Economy

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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. 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. The county's public education sector is run by numerous school districts with the Los Angeles Unified School District being the largest one running public schools primarily within the city of Los Angeles and it's immediately neighboring cities.

Colleges

* Antelope Valley College, Lancaster
* Art Center College of Design, Pasadena
* The Art Institute of California – Los Angeles (AICALA), Santa Monica
* Azusa Pacific University, Azusa
* Biola University, La Mirada
* California Institute of the Arts, Santa Clarita
* Cerritos College, Norwalk
* Citrus College, Glendora
* Claremont Colleges, Claremont
** Claremont McKenna College
** Harvey Mudd College
** Pitzer College
** Pomona College
** Scripps College
* Claremont School of Theology, Claremont
* College of the Canyons, Santa Clarita
* DeVry University, Long Beach and West Hills (Los Angeles)
* East Los Angeles College, Monterey Park
* El Camino College