Demographics of Los Angeles
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A person from Los Angeles is called an Angeleno. The demographics of Los Angeles are determined by population surveys such as the American Community Survey and the United States Census. According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates,
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 ...
' population was 3,979,576 in 2019.


Race, ethnicity, and national origin

The 1990 United States Census and
2000 United States Census The United States census of 2000, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2 percent over the 248,709,873 people enumerated during the 1990 cen ...
found that non-Hispanic whites were becoming a minority in Los Angeles. Estimates for the
2010 United States Census The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators servi ...
results find
Latinos Hispanic and Latino Americans ( es, Estadounidenses hispanos y latinos; pt, Estadunidenses hispânicos e latinos) are Americans of Spaniards, Spanish and/or Latin Americans, Latin American ancestry. More broadly, these demographics include a ...
to be approximately half (47–49%) of the city's population, growing from 40% in 2000 and 30–35% in 1990 census. The racial/ethnic/cultural composition 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 ...
as of the 2005–2009 American Community Survey was as follows: *
Hispanic or Latino ''Hispanic'' and '' Latino'' are ethnonyms used to refer collectively to the inhabitants of the United States who are of Spanish or Latin American ancestry (). While the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, for example, by the United States ...
(of any race): 47.5% *
Non-Hispanic Whites Non-Hispanic whites or Non-Latino whites are Americans who are classified as "white", and are not of Hispanic (also known as "Latino") heritage. The United States Census Bureau defines ''white'' to include European Americans, Middle Eastern Ame ...
: 29.4% *Other: 25.2% *
Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...
: 10.7% * Black or African American: 9.8% *
Two or more races 2 (two) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 1 and preceding 3. It is the smallest and only even prime number. Because it forms the basis of a duality, it has religious and spiritual significance in many cultur ...
: 2.8% * Native American: 0.5% * Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander: 0.2% Approximately 59.4% of Los Angeles' residents were born in the United States, and 0.9% were born in Puerto Rico, US territories, or abroad to American parents. 39.7% of the population were foreign-born. The majority of those born overseas (64.5%) came from Latin America. A large minority (26.3%) were born in Asia. Smaller numbers were born in Europe (6.5%), Africa (1.5%), Northern America (0.9%), and Oceania (0.3%).


Languages

According to the 2006-2008 American Community Survey, the linguistic composition of Los Angeles was as follows out of a population of 3,473,790 people over the age of 5: * Language other than English: 59.8% (2,076,235) ** Speak English less than "very well": 30.5% (1,058,358) *
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
: 43.6% (1,513,106) ** Speak English less than "very well": 23.2% (806,252) *
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
: 40.2% (1,397,555) *
Asian languages A wide variety of languages are spoken throughout Asia, comprising different language families and some unrelated isolates. The major language families include Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Caucasian, Dravidian, Indo-European, Afroasiatic, Tur ...
and Pacific Islander languages: 7.9% (275,109) ** Speak English less than "very well": 4.0% (140,058) * Other
Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...
: 7.0% (242,461) ** Speak English less than "very well": 2.8% (98,907) * Other languages: 1.3% (45,559) ** Speak English less than "very well": 0.4% (13,141).


Households and educational attainment

According to the 2006-2008 American Community Survey, the types of households were as follows out of 1,275,534 total: * Family households: 61.1% (778,991) * With own children under 18 years: 30.9% (394,253) * Married-couple family: 39.1% (498,998) * With own children under 18 years: 19.6% (250,054) * Male householder, no wife present, family: 6.9% (88,600) * With own children under 18 years: 3.0% (38,239) * Female householder, no husband present, family: 15.0% (191,393) * With own children under 18 years: 8.3% (105,960) * Non-family households: 38.9% (496,543) * Householder living alone: 30.2% (385,843) * 65 years and over: 8.0% (102,016) *Households with one or more people under 18 years: 34.6% (441,723) *Households with one or more people 65 years and over: 21.1% (268,624) * Average household size: 2.87 * Average family size: 3.67 According to the same survey, the educational status of residents over 25 years (2,407,775 total) was as follows: * Less than 9th grade: 15.9% (383,385) * 9th to 12th grade, no diploma: 11.1% (267,833) * High school graduate: 21.1% (509,021) * Some college, no degree: 16.7% (402,973) * Associate degree: 5.9% (141,764) * Bachelor's degree: 19.2% (462,701) * Graduate or professional degree: 10.0% (240,098) * Percent high school graduate or higher: 72.9% * Percent bachelor's degree or higher: 29.2%


Income and poverty

According to the 2006-2008 American Community Survey, the income status of residents was as follows: * Median household income: $48,610 * Mean household income: $76,557 * Median family income: $53,008 * Mean family income: $83,965 * Median non-family income: $38,227 * Mean non-family income: $61,155 According to the same survey, the poverty status of residents was as follows: * All families: 15.6% * Married-couple families: 10.2% * Families with female householder, no husband present: 30.1% * All people: 18.9% * Under 18 years: 27.8% * 18 years and over: 16.0% * 18 to 64 years: 16.5% * 65 years and over: 12.9%


Employment

According to the 2006-2008 American Community Survey, the employment status of residents was as follows * Population 16 years and over: 2,923,315 * In labor force: 65.8% (1,924,833) * Civilian labor force: 65.8% (1,923,236) * Employed: 61.3% (1,792,596) * Unemployed: 4.5% (130,640) * Armed Forces: 0.1% (1,597) * Not in labor force: 34.2% (998,482)


Additional information

According to a 2014 study by the Pew Research Center,
Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
is the most prevalently practiced religion in Los Angeles (65%). 32% of these 65% belonged to the Roman Catholic Church, 30% to various Protestant denominations and the last 3% to other Christian persuasions (including Orthodox Christians, Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons). 25% of the population was not affiliated with any religion (with 4% self-identifying as atheists and another 4% self-identifying as agnostics), 9% of the inhabitants adhered to non-Christian religions (primarily Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism) and a remaining 1% answered 'don't know'. The city has the most Druze living anywhere in the world outside
Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...
or Syria. The world's largest population of
Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
n expatriates (est. 20,000) according to the Saudi Embassy of the USA. About 15,000
Louisiana Creole Louisiana Creole ( lou, Kréyòl Lalwizyàn, links=no) is a French-based creole language spoken by fewer than 10,000 people, mostly in the state of Louisiana. It is spoken today by people who may racially identify as White, Black, mixed, and N ...
persons of Acadian and
Cajun The Cajuns (; French: ''les Cadjins'' or ''les Cadiens'' ), also known as Louisiana ''Acadians'' (French: ''les Acadiens''), are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the U.S. state of Louisiana. While Cajuns are usually described as ...
background from
Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
and the U.S. Gulf coast, many live in south-central L.A. alone. In the 1980 and 1990 Census, Bosnians established themselves in fairly large numbers in L.A. before the breakup of the former
Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
and Bosnian War of the 1990s. However, Yugoslav immigration was present in Los Angeles and Southern California (i.e. San Pedro, Los Angeles) since the turn of the 20th century.
Salvadoran Americans Salvadoran Americans ( or ) are Americans of full or partial Salvadoran descent. As of 2010, there are 2,195,477 Salvadoran Americans in the United States, the fourth-largest Hispanic community by nation of ancestry.Salvadoran Civil War The Salvadoran Civil War ( es, guerra civil de El Salvador) was a twelve year period of civil war in El Salvador that was fought between the government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front The Farabundo Ma ...
which was part of the
Central American Crisis The Central American crisis began in the late 1970s, when major civil wars and communist revolutions erupted in various countries in Central America, causing it to become the world's most volatile region in terms of socioeconomic change. In partic ...
.
Armenians Armenians ( hy, հայեր, '' hayer'' ) are an ethnic group native to the Armenian highlands of Western Asia. Armenians constitute the main population of Armenia and the ''de facto'' independent Artsakh. There is a wide-ranging diasp ...
made an ethnic presence in Silver Lake/Elysian Park and Los Feliz/Hollywood. The city has a sizable Puerto Rican community (50,000 out of 145,000 in California), with just as many in
San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...
, the largest west of the Mississippi River and also Puerto Rico. Once a tradition the descendants of original Anglo-American settlers who represented civic leaders and economic influence in the city of L.A. held Iowa picnics in MacArthur Park, but that's no longer held since the early 1970s. Many neighborhoods in West Hollywood, California, West Hollywood and parts of Long Beach, California, Long Beach are known for having majority LGBT communities. Persons of the Baháʼí Faith, Mormons in the Latter-Day Saints churches, Seventh-day Adventist Church, Seventh-day Adventists with their church-operated Loma Linda University, and the Church of Scientology headquarters are large theological/religious influences in Los Angeles and throughout Southern California. Los Angeles has the largest Roman Catholic Archdiocese (Archdiocese of Los Angeles) in the US. Cherokee Indians, among other Native American tribes such as the Apache, Choctaw, Comanche, Hopi, Muscogee (Creek), Navajo people, Navajo, Nez Perce people, Nez Perce, Northern Paiute, Paiute, Shawnee and Zuni people, Zuni made Los Angeles probably have the largest Urban Indian population. L.A. along with Pasadena, California, Pasadena in the turn of the 20th century were one of two earliest world-known retirement communities to attracted a large number of senior citizens looked for a warmer climate to better fight health ailments. L.A. hosts the fourth largest number of Muslims in the United States. When the estimated 500,000 Muslims living in the greater Los Angeles area are included, Los Angeles hosts the second largest number of Muslims among U.S. cities. There are around 50,000 Romani people living in the Los Angeles area, making it one of the cities with the highest Roma concentration in the U.S. More than 1.2 million Los Angeles residents are of Mexican ancestry. Mexican influences can be seen in the city’s culture. Mexican Americans are the largest ethnic group in Los Angeles. Greeks began immigrating to Los Angeles in the 1890s. There was a small population of Greeks living in the Boyle Heights area, along with other immigrant groups including Russians, Syrians, Armenians, and East European Jews by the late 1890s. The History of the Greek Community of Los Angeles
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See also

* List of people from Los Angeles, List of notable people from Los Angeles * Greater Los Angeles * History of Mexican Americans in Los Angeles * History of Armenian Americans in Los Angeles * History of Chinese Americans in Los Angeles * History of Iranian Americans in Los Angeles


References

{{Demographics of the United States by state Demographics of Los Angeles, Culture of Los Angeles Geography of Los Angeles Economy of Los Angeles Demographics by city in the United States, Los Angeles