Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles is the most populous city in the state of California and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City, with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621.[5] It has an area of 468.67 square miles (1,213.8 km2), and is located in Southern California. The city is the focal point of the larger Los Angeles–Long Beach–Santa Ana metropolitan statistical area and Greater Los Angeles Area region, which contain 12,828,837 and nearly 18 million people respectively as of 2010, making it one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world[6] and the second largest in the United States.[7] Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated and one of the most ethnically diverse counties[8] in the United States, while the entire Los Angeles area itself has been recognized as the most diverse of the nation’s largest cities.[9]

Nicknamed the City of Angels, Los Angeles is a leading world center of business, international trade, entertainment, culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, and education, and has been ranked the third richest city and fifth most powerful and influential city in the world.[15] [16] The city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. The Los Angeles combined statistical area (CSA) has a gross metropolitan product (GMP) of $831 billion (as of 2008), making it the third largest economic center in the world, after the Greater Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas.[17] As the home base of Hollywood, it is also known as the “Entertainment Capital of the World,” leading the world in the creation of motion pictures, television productions, stage productions, video games, and recorded music. The importance of the entertainment business to the city has led many celebrities to call Los Angeles and its surrounding suburbs home. Additionally, Los Angeles hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984.

The city is divided into over 80 districts and neighborhoods,[63] many of which were incorporated places or communities that were annexed by the city.[64] Greater Los Angeles includes a number of enclaves and nearby communities. Generally, the city is divided into the following areas: Downtown Los Angeles, East Los Angeles and Northeast Los Angeles, South Los Angeles, the Harbor Area, Greater Hollywood, Wilshire, the Westside, and the San Fernando and Crescenta Valleys.

Some well-known communities within Los Angeles include West Adams, Watts, Leimert Park, Baldwin Hills, Venice, the Downtown Financial District, Silver Lake, Hollywood, Koreatown, Westwood and the more affluent areas of Bel Air, Benedict Canyon, Hollywood Hills, Los Feliz, Hancock Park, Pacific Palisades, Century City, and Brentwood.

Important landmarks in Los Angeles include Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Angels Flight, the Kodak Theatre, the Griffith Observatory, the Getty Center, the Getty Villa, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, the Hollywood Sign, the Bradbury Building, Hollywood Boulevard, the Capitol Records Building, Los Angeles City Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, the Theme Building, the Watts Towers, the Staples Center, Dodger Stadium, and La Placita Olvera/Olvera Street.

Los Angeles is often billed as the “Creative Capital of the World”, due to the fact that one in every six of its residents works in a creative industry. [65] According to the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation, “there are more artists, writers, filmmakers, actors, dancers and musicians living and working in Los Angeles than any other city at any time in the history of civilization.”[66]

Los Angeles is home to Hollywood, globally recognized as the epicenter of the motion picture industry. A testament to its preeminence in film, the city plays host to the annual Academy Awards, the oldest and one of the most prominent award ceremonies in the world. Finally, Los Angeles is home to the USC School of Cinematic Arts, the oldest film school in the United States.[67] There are 841 museums and art galleries in Los Angeles County.[69] In fact, Los Angeles has more museums per capita than any other city in the world.[69] Some of the notable museums are the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (the largest art museum in the Western United States[70]), the Getty Center (part of the larger J. Paul Getty Trust, the world’s wealthiest art institution[71]), and the Museum of Contemporary Art. A significant number of art galleries are located on Gallery Row, and tens of thousands attend the monthly Downtown Art Walk there.[72] Los Angeles is the home of the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball, the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League, the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association, the Los Angeles D-Fenders, an NBA Development team owned by the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women’s National Basketball Association. Los Angeles is also home to the USC Trojans and the UCLA Bruins in the NCAA, both of which are Division I teams in the Pacific-12 Conference. The Los Angeles Galaxy and Club Deportivo Chivas USA of Major League Soccer are based in Carson.

The economy of Los Angeles is driven by international trade, entertainment (television, motion pictures, video games, recorded music), aerospace, technology, petroleum, fashion, apparel, and tourism. Los Angeles is also the largest manufacturing center in the western United States. [87] The contiguous ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach together comprise the fifth-busiest port in the world and the most significant port in the Western Hemisphere and is vital to trade within the Pacific Rim.[87] Other significant industries include media production, finance, telecommunications, law, healthcare, and transportation. The Los Angeles–Long Beach–Santa Ana metropolitan statistical area (MSA) has a gross metropolitan product (GMP) of $735.7 billion (as of 2010),[88] making it the third largest economic center in the world, after the Greater Tokyo Area and the New York-Newark-Bridgeport CSA.[17] If counted as a country, the surrounding CSA has the 15th largest economy in the world in terms of nominal GDP.[89] Los Angeles has been classified an “Alpha world city” according to a 2010 study by a research group at Loughborough University in England.[90]

The city is home to seven Fortune 500 companies. They are aerospace contractor Northrop Grumman, energy company Occidental Petroleum, healthcare provider Health Net, metals distributor Reliance Steel & Aluminum, engineering firm AECOM, real estate group CBRE Group and builder Tutor Perini.

Other companies headquartered in Los Angeles include California Pizza Kitchen, Capital Group, Capstone Turbine, The Cheesecake Factory, Cathay Bank, City National Bank, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, DeviantArt, Far East National Bank, Farmers Insurance Group, Fox Entertainment Group, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Guess?, Hanmi Bank, Herbalife, J2 Global Communications, The Jim Henson Company, KB Home, Korn/Ferry, Latham & Watkins, Mercury Insurance Group, Oaktree Capital Management, O’Melveny & Myers, Pabst Brewing Company, Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, Premier America, Premiere Radio Networks, Rentech, Sunkist, The TCW Group, Tokyopop, Triton Media Group, United Online, and VCA Antech.

The metropolitan area is home to the headquarters of many companies who moved outside of the city of Los Angeles to escape its high taxes and high crime rate while keeping the benefits of remaining in close proximity. For example, Los Angeles charges a gross receipts tax based on a percentage of business revenue, while many neighboring cities charge only small flat fees.[91]

The University of Southern California (USC) is the city’s largest private sector employer and contributes $4 billion annually to the local economy. [92]

According to the city’s 2010 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top ten employers in the city as of 2009 are, in descending order, the City of Los Angeles, the County of Los Angeles, University of California, Los Angeles, University of Southern California, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente, Fox Entertainment Group, Farmers Insurance Group, TeamOne,and Northrop Grumman.[93]

There are three public universities located within the city limits: California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA), California State University, Northridge (CSUN) and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Private colleges in the city include the American Film Institute Conservatory, Alliant International University, Syracuse University (Los Angeles Campus), American InterContinental University, American Jewish University, The American Musical and Dramatic Academy – Los Angeles campus, Antioch University’s Los Angeles campus, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising’s Los Angeles campus (FIDM), Los Angeles Film School, Loyola Marymount University (LMU is also the parent university of Loyola Law School located in Los Angeles), Marymount College, Mount St. Mary’s College, National University of California, Occidental College (“Oxy”), Otis College of Art and Design (Otis), Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), Southwestern Law School, and University of Southern California (USC).

State of California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state,[15] and the third most extensive (after Alaska and Texas). It is home to the nation’s 2nd and 6th largest census statistical areas (Los Angeles metropolitan area and San Francisco Bay Area, respectively), and eight of the nation’s fifty most populated cities (Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Sacramento, Long Beach and Oakland).[16] The capital city is Sacramento.

The United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of California was 37,691,912 on July 1, 2011, a 1.2% increase since the 2010 United States Census.[8] Between 2000 and 2009, there was a natural increase of 3,090,016 (5,058,440 births minus 2,179,958 deaths).[57] During this time period, international migration produced a net increase of 1,816,633 people while domestic migration produced a net decrease of 1,509,708, resulting in a net in-migration of 306,925 people.[57] The State of California’s own statistics show a population of 38,292,687 for January 1, 2009.[16]

With regard to demographics, California has the largest population of White Americans in the U.S., an estimated 22,2000,000 residents, although most demographic surveys do not measure actual genetic ancestry. The state has the 5th largest population of African Americans in the U.S., an estimated 2,250,000 residents. California’s Asian American population is estimated at 4.4 million, about a third of the nation’s 13 million Asian Americans. Cal in 2011.[74] Approximately 26% of California’s public school students in the 2011–12 school year identified themselves as white (non-Hispanic), and 52% of the state’s students identified themselves as Hispanic or Latino. The following ethnic groups that made up the statewide public school student body were Asians (11%), African Americans (7%), Native Americans (0.7%), and Pacific Islanders (0.6%). Students of mixed race made up 2% of the public schools. Hispanics made up the majority of the state’s public schools since 2010. Los Angeles Unified School District, the largest school district in California and second largest in the nation, is 73% Hispanic, 10% African American, 9% non-Hispanic Caucasian, 6% Asian, 0.5% Native American, and 0.4% Pacific Islander.[75]

Were California an independent country, its gross domestic product would be ranked between eighth and eleventh in the world.[89]

As of 2010, the gross state product (GSP) is about $1.9 trillion, the largest in the United States.[90] California is responsible for 13 percent of the United States’ gross domestic product (GDP). As of 2010[update], California’s GDP is larger than all but eight countries in the world (all but eleven countries by Purchasing Power Parity).[19]

In terms of jobs, the five largest sectors in California are trade, transportation, and utilities; government; professional and business services; education and health services; and leisure and hospitality. In terms of output, the five largest sectors are financial services, followed by trade, transportation, and utilities; education and health services; government; and manufacturing.[91]

California currently has the 5th highest unemployment rate in the nation at 12.5% as of January 2010[update] and had continued to rise, up significantly from 5.9% in 2007.[92][93]

California’s economy is very dependent on trade and international related commerce accounts for approximately one-quarter of the state’s economy. In 2008, California exported $144 billion worth of goods, up from $134 billion in 2007 and $127 billion in 2006.[94] Computers and electronic products are California’s top export, accounting for 42 percent of all the state’s exports in 2008.[94]

Agriculture is an important sector in California’s economy. Farming-related sales more than quadrupled over the past three decades, from $7.3 billion in 1974 to nearly $31 billion in 2004.[95] This increase has occurred despite a 15 percent decline in acreage devoted to farming during the period, and water supply suffering from chronic instability. Factors contributing to the growth in sales-per-acre include more intensive use of active farmlands and technological improvements in crop production.[95] In 2008, California’s 81,500 farms and ranches generated $36.2 billion products revenue.[96]

Per capita GDP in 2007 was $38,956, ranking eleventh in the nation.[97] Per capita income varies widely by geographic region and profession. The Central Valley is the most impoverished, with migrant farm workers making less than minimum wage. Recently, the San Joaquin Valley was characterized as one of the most economically depressed regions in the U.S., on par with the region of Appalachia.[98] Many coastal cities include some of the wealthiest per-capita areas in the U.S. The high-technology sectors in Northern California, specifically Silicon Valley, in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, have emerged from the economic downturn caused by the dot-com bust.

In 2010, there were more than 663,000 millionaires in the state, more than any other state in the nation.[99]