The Los Angeles Westside is an urban

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...

in western Los Angeles County, California. It has no official definition, but sources like '' LA Weekly'' and the Mapping L.A. survey of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' place the region on the western side of the

Los Angeles Basin The Los Angeles Basin is a sedimentary Structural basin, basin located in Southern California, in a region known as the Peninsular Ranges. The basin is also connected to an wikt:anomalous, anomalous group of east-west trending chains of mountai ...

south of the

Santa Monica Mountains The Santa Monica Mountains is a coastal mountain range in Southern California, next to the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Transverse Ranges. Because of its proximity to densely populated regions, it is one of the most visited natural areas in ...

Geography

''LA Weekly''

According to the '' LA Weekly'', there are different perspectives on where the Westside ends and the Eastside begins. Generally, the Westside is the area south of the

and

Sepulveda Pass Sepulveda Pass (elevation ) is a low mountain pass through the Santa Monica Mountains in Los Angeles. It is named after the Sepúlveda family of California, a prominent Californio family that owned the land where the pass lies. It connects the ...

, and west of either: * Downtown Los Angeles – a historic definition supported by UCLA urban and cultural historian Eric Avila. Most of the number streets and big boulevards get a “west” before their names west of Main Street and an east if they are “east” of Main Street. * The 110 Freeway *

La Cienega Boulevard La Cienega Boulevard is a major north–south arterial road that runs between El Segundo Boulevard in Hawthorne, California on the south and the Sunset Strip/ Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood to the north. It was named for Rancho Las Cienega ...

* The

405 Freeway Interstate 405 (I-405) is a major north–south auxiliary Interstate Highway in Southern California. The entire route is known as the northern segment of the San Diego Freeway. I-405 is a bypass auxiliary route of I-5, running along the ...

Mapping L.A. boundaries

''Los Angeles Times'' readers submitted more than 300 maps, with borders ranging from

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

to La Brea and beyond. The most common east/west dividing lines were: Downtown,

(the most common street cited), and the 405 freeway (the most common answer). The ''Times'' analyzed the results and no one definition approached a majority. Ultimately, the ''Los Angeles Times'' Mapping Project settled on a definition comprising , encompassing not only districts in the city of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

but also two

unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to: * Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality * Unincorporated entity, a type of organization * Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...

neighborhoods, plus the cities of

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. ...

, Culver City, and

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to i ...

, but excluding all of the city of

West Hollywood West Hollywood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated in 1984, it is home to the Sunset Strip. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 35,757. It is considered one of the most prominent gay villages ...

– even areas west of La Cienega Boulevard.Mapping L.A.: Regions. The Westside.
''Los Angeles Times'', Mapping L.A.

Neighborhoods and districts

Map of Westside area, Los Angeles County

According to the Mapping L.A. survey of the ''Los Angeles Times'' the Westside includes all of the below neighborhoods: * Bel Air *

Beverly Crest Beverly Crest is a neighborhood in the Santa Monica Mountains, in the Westside area of the city of Los Angeles, California. History Developer George Read purchased the 80-acre area in 1923. After the streets were paved and underground utilities ...

* Beverlywood * Beverly Grove * Brentwood * Century City * Del Rey *

Cheviot Hills The Cheviot Hills (), or sometimes The Cheviots, are a range of uplands straddling the Anglo-Scottish border between Northumberland and the Scottish Borders. The English section is within the Northumberland National Park. The range includes T ...

* Mar Vista * Pacific Palisades * La Cienega Heights * Palms *

Pico-Robertson Pico-Robertson is a relatively densely-populated neighborhood in the Westside of Los Angeles, California, flanked on the north, northeast, and west by Beverly Hills, on the east by Carthay and Mid-City, on the south by Mid-City, Beverlywood and ...

Playa del Rey Playa del Rey (Spanish for "Beach of the King") is a seaside community in the Santa Monica Bay and the Westside region of Los Angeles, California. It has a ZIP code of 90293 and area codes of 310 and 424. As of 2018, the community had a populat ...

Playa Vista Playa Vista is a neighborhood in the Westside area of Los Angeles, California. The area was the headquarters of Hughes Aircraft Company from 1941 to 1985 and the site of the construction of the Hughes H-4 Hercules "Spruce Goose" aircraft. The ...

Rancho Park Rancho Park is a residential neighborhood in the Westside of the city of Los Angeles, California with mostly single family homes and tree lined streets. The community is nestled between West Los Angeles and Cheviot Hills. This enclave draws young ...

* Sawtelle *

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

West Los Angeles West Los Angeles is an area within the city of Los Angeles, California. The residential and commercial neighborhood is divided by the Interstate 405 freeway, and each side is sometimes treated as a distinct neighborhood, mapped differently by di ...

* Westchester * Westwood

Other cities

* Culver City * Malibu *

Unincorporated areas

Ladera Heights Ladera Heights is a community and unincorporated area in Los Angeles County, California. The population was 6,634 at the 2020 census. Culver City lies to its west, the Baldwin Hills neighborhood to its north, the View Park-Windsor Hills co ...

Marina del Rey Marina del Rey (Spanish language, Spanish for "Marina of the King") is an unincorporated area, unincorporated seaside community in Los Angeles County, California, with an eponymous harbor that is a major boating and water recreation destination ...

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

Population

In the 2000 census, the Westside (as defined by the ''Los Angeles Times'' Mapping Project) had a population of 529,427. In 2000, non-Hispanic whites made up 63% of the population. The areas within the city of Los Angeles that ''Los Angeles Almanac'' recognized as part of the Westside had a population of 413,351.

Education

Fifty-three percent of West Los Angeles residents aged 25 and older had earned a 4-year degree by 2000, according to Census Bureau figures quoted by the ''Los Angeles Times.'' They included 89,620 people with

master's degrees A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

or higher and 117,695 with

bachelor's degrees A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

. In addition, 95,187 people in that age range had some college experience. There were 46,823 with high school diplomas but 40,451 who had

dropped out Dropping out refers to leaving high school, college, university or another group for practical reasons, necessities, inability, apathy, or disillusionment with the system from which the individual in question leaves. Canada In Canada, most ind ...

before graduating. As of 2019, the median income of the neighborhood was about $96,300. The Westside is home to the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

(UCLA), a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

research university A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are the most important sites at which knowledge production occurs, along with "intergenerational kn ...

in the Westwood neighborhood. It is the second-oldest of the ten campuses of the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

system. UCLA is considered a

flagship campus A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the f ...

of the University of California system, along with

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...

. It offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines. With an approximate enrollment of 28,000 undergraduate and 12,000 graduate students, UCLA is the university with the largest enrollment in the state of California and the most popular university in the United States by number of applicants. Other post-secondary schools in the Westside are as follows: *

Otis College of Art and Design Otis College of Art and Design is a private art and design school in Los Angeles, California. Established in 1918, it was the city's first independent professional school of art. The main campus is located in the former IBM Aerospace headquarte ...

Santa Monica College Santa Monica College (SMC) is a public, community college in Santa Monica, California. Founded as a junior college in 1929, SMC enrolls over 30,000 students in more than 90 fields of study. Although initially serving primarily pre-college high sc ...

, first opened in 1929 as Santa Monica Junior College. Current enrollment is over 30,000 students in more than 90 fields of study. *

West Los Angeles College West Los Angeles College (West L.A. College or WLAC) is a public community college in Ladera Heights, Los Angeles County, California. It is part of the California Community Colleges System and the Los Angeles Community College District. It is ac ...

, which offers associate degrees, vocationally oriented programs and transfer programs to four-year universities.

References

External links

* {{authority control Los Angeles County, California regions Populated coastal places in California