Los Angeles is an enormous coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of California. With a population of 3,849,297 people and 1181 constituent neighborhoods, Los Angeles is the largest community in California.
Housing costs in Los Angeles are among some of the highest in the nation, although real estate prices here don't compare to real estate prices in the most expensive communities in California.
Of important note, Los Angeles is also a city of artists. Los Angeles has more artists, designers and people working in media than 90% of the communities in America. This concentration of artists helps shape Los Angeles’s character.
Also of interest is that Los Angeles has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US.
A relatively large number of people in Los Angeles telecommute to their jobs. Overall, about 12.37% of the workforce works from home. While this may seem like a small number, as a fraction of the total workforce it ranks among the highest in the country. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes.
Los Angeles is a popular destination for single career-starters. One thing that you will notice when you are out and about town is that there is a large population of people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile career starters out at restaurants, listening to live music, and enjoying other activities. They are a real visible part of the culture of Los Angeles. This makes Los Angeles a good place to live for young professionals. With so many people in this demographic, Los Angeles presents many opportunities for single professionals to enjoy themselves, socialize, and to create lasting relationships.
One of the nice things about Los Angeles is that it is nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Because of this, visitors and locals will often go to these areas to take in the scenery or to enjoy waterfront activities.
One downside of living in Los Angeles is that it can take a long time to commute to work. In Los Angeles, the average commute to work is 32.36 minutes, which is quite a bit higher than the national average. On the other hand, local public transit is widely used in the city, so leaving the car at home and taking transit is often a viable alternative.
One of the benefits of being a big city like Los Angeles is having a public transportation system, but in Los Angeles the transit system is the mode of choice for lots of people getting to and from work every day. You will find many people using the bus for their daily commute, even though other transportation options exist. If you ask these commuters, many will tell you that not having to drive in the snarl of big city traffic is one of main reasons for leaving the car at home, or even not owning a car at all. With so many people taking the bus Los Angeles benefits from a reduction in air pollution and traffic.
The education level of Los Angeles citizens is very high relative to the national average among all cities (21.84%): 36.17% of adults in Los Angeles have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.
The per capita income in Los Angeles in 2018 was $39,378, which is middle income relative to California, and upper middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $157,512 for a family of four. However, Los Angeles contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Los Angeles is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Los Angeles home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. People of Hispanic or Latino origin are the most prevalent group in Los Angeles, accounting for 48.44% of the city’s residents (people of Hispanic or Latino origin can be of any race). The greatest number of Los Angeles residents report their race to be White, followed by Asian. Important ancestries of people in Los Angeles include German, Irish, English, Italian, and Armenian.
In addition, Los Angeles has a lot of people living here who were born outside of the US (36.24%).
The most common language spoken in Los Angeles is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Tagalog.