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 3,822,238 people and 1181 associated 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.
One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 15.05% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. 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 one of the most attractive larger cities for people who are young, single, educated, and upwardly-mobile career starters. This makes it a good place to live for young singles in their 20s and 30s and who have undergraduate or graduate degrees and are starting their professional careers. Although Los Angeles is a large city, this demographic is significant enough that young professionals will find many others like themselves here, with really good opportunities for friendships, recreation, romance, and more.
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 32.11 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.
Los Angeles, like many big cities in America, has a public transportation system, but the citizens of Los Angeles are lucky because theirs is one of the most extensive and widely used. Many commuters choose to leave their cars at home and instead use the bus to get to and from work. In fact, for some people it is feasible to forgo car ownership entirely, avoiding the cost and headache of driving in heavy traffic. The benefits include reduced air pollution and load on the road network.
The education level of Los Angeles citizens is very high relative to the national average among all cities (21.84%): 36.71% of adults in Los Angeles have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree.
The per capita income in Los Angeles in 2022 was $43,527, 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 $174,108 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 48.07% 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 (35.97%).
The most common language spoken in Los Angeles is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Korean.