A county is personal to 88 incorporated cities and many unincorporated city-like areas. A coastal part of the county is heavy urbanized, though there is a large expanse of lesser populated desert inland in the Santa Clarita Valley, and especially in the Antelope Valley which encompasses the northeastern area of the county & adjacent eastern Kern County, lying upright northward of Los Angeles County. in between a big waste portions of a county - which produce higher around 40 by a cent of its acreage - & the heavy urbanised exchange & southern portions sits the San Gabriel Mountains containing Angeles National Forest. 100% of southern Los Angeles County, as much as all about a center of the county, is heavy urbanised.

This county holds virtually all of a main cities encompassing the Greater Los Angeles Area, and is a first of the 5 counties that produce higher the metropolitan area. When of 2004, a county's people is big than a populations of 43 states.

Law, government and politics

A county is governed per 5-member Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, who come elected per county's elector. A little size of the board means apiece supervisor is terminated Two million humans. the board operates within each a legislative, executive, & quasi-judicial capacity. As a legislative authority, it could pass ordinances for a unincorporated areas (ordinances that affect the whole county, such as posting of eating house ratings, virtually all must become ratified per single city). As an executive immune system, it potty tell a county departments what to wash, you bet to bonk. As a quasi-judicial system, a Board is the final venue of appeal in the local planning run, & holds public hearings in various decisions.

the county government is operated by a Chief Administrative Officer (presently David Janssen) & is organized into several departments, both of which is tremendous compared to to tantamount county-level (& possibly state-level) departments anywhere else in the United States. Occasionally of the big or even better-known departments include: Los Angeles County Coroner - Performs autopsies and determines a stimulate of dying for people world health organization die forswearing medical supervising. Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services - administers foster care & kid support Los Angeles County Fire Department Los Angeles County Fire Department Lifeguard Division- the Baywatch people Los Angeles County Department of Health Services - operates several county hospitals & a network of primary care clinics, & besides diarrhea the public health body, which has a requirement that 100% eating house in the unincorporated County & the majority of independent cities conspicuously post their food safety review grade in their front window Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation - administers public parks and a big public golf course patterns in the U.S. Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services - administers many federal & state welfare programs Los Angeles County Department of Public Works - operates countywide flood control system, constructs & maintains roads within unincorporated areas Los Angeles County District Attorney - prosecutes criminal suspects Los Angeles County Museum of Art - public art museum Los Angeles County Public Defender - defends indigent criminal suspects Los Angeles County Public Library - operates a big network of branch libraries Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department - provides law enforcement services to unincorporated areas and cities that do not have their own police departments, and operates the huge county jails

A Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, despite its name, is non the County department. Technically these are the state-mandated county transport commission that too operates bus & rail.

Geography
By having 4,061 square miles (10,517 klick²), it borders on a Pacific Ocean & has the ensuing streams, lakes, and wells throughout: Los Angeles River, Rio Hondo, the San Gabriel River and the Santa Clara River. A primary mountain chain come a Santa Monica Mountains and the San Gabriel Mountains. It includes a westmost section of the Mojave Desert, San Clemente Island and Santa Catalina Island.

Major divisions of the county
Santa Clarita Valley Greater Los Angeles Area East: East Los Angeles, San Gabriel Valley, Pomona Valley West: West Los Angeles, Beach Cities To the south: South Bay, Palos Verdes Peninsula, South Los Angeles, Gateway Cities Northward: San Fernando Valley, portions of the Antelope Valley Telephone exchange: Downtown Los Angeles, Mid-Wilshire, South Los Angeles

List of adjacent counties
Ventura County, California Kern County, California San Bernadino County, California Orange County, California

Watch likewise: List of California counties

Largest Cities
Ace Los Angeles 3,847,400 Deuce Long Beach 461,522 Threesome Glendale 205,300 Iv Santa Clarita 151,088 Quintuplet Pomona 149,473 Half a dozen Palmdale 143,227 Seven Torrance 137,946 Ogdoad Pasadena 133,936 Nina from carolina Lancaster 129,019 Tenner El Monte 119,918

Other Cities
Agoura Hills Alhambra Arcadia Artesia Avalon Azusa Baldwin Park Bell Bell Gardens Bellflower Beverly Hills Bradbury Burbank Calabasas Carson Cerritos Claremont Commerce Compton Covina Cudahy Culver City Diamond Bar Downey Duarte El Segundo Gardena Glendora Hawaiian Gardens Hawthorne Hermosa Beach Hidden Hills Huntington Park Industry Inglewood Irwindale La Cañada Flintridge La Habra Heights La Mirada La Puente La Verne Lakewood Lawndale Lomita Lynwood Malibu Manhattan Beach Maywood Monrovia Montebello Monterey Park Norwalk Palos Verdes Estates Paramount Pico Rivera Rancho Palos Verdes Redondo Beach Rolling Hills Rolling Hills Estates Rosemead San Dimas San Fernando San Gabriel San Marino Santa Fe Springs Santa Monica Sierra Madre Signal Hill South El Monte South Gate South Pasadena Temple City Vernon Walnut West Covina West Hollywood Westlake Village Whittier

Census-designated places which are not cities
A ensuing areas come unincorporated regions of the county which fall directly under the county government's jurisdiction. By using there is no city government, residents one areas must petition a appropriate member of a Board of Supervisors whilst it have a grievance all about the quality of local services.

Numerous one communities use town councils which are then a official consultive bodies for the supervisor in the community. Often these town councils come elected from either the residents within a given area & have a straight channel to the supervisor & his staff to communicate concerns. Presently, Acton, Agua Dulce, Altadena, Castaic, Hacienda Heights, Quartz Hill, Rowl& Heights, Topanga, and Val Verde use at times active town councils, though it might not become known as by that title.

Look at: [http://www.losangelesalmanac.com/topics/Geography/ge30c.htm Los Angeles Almanac MAP: Unincorporated Areas and Communities of Los Angeles County]

Acton Agua Dulce Alondra Park Altadena Avocado Heights Castaic Charter Oak Citrus Del Aire Desert View Highlands East Compton East La Mirada East Los Angeles East Pasadena East San Gabriel Florence-Graham Hacienda Heights La Crescenta-Montrose Ladera Heights Lake Hughes Lake Los Angeles Lennox Leona Valley Littlerock Llano Marina del Rey Mayflower Village North El Monte Pearblossom Quartz Hill Rowland Heights South San Gabriel South San Jose Hills South Whittier Topanga Val Verde Valinda Valyermo View Park-Windsor Hills Vincent Walnut Park West Athens West Carson West Compton West Puente Valley West Whittier-Los Nietos Westmont Willowbrook

Understand likewise: List of districts and neighborhoods of Los Angeles

Economy
A major industries of Los Angeles County come motion picture and television program production, music recording and production, aerospace, professional services like law and medicine, and activities on to the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach.

Although a City of Los Angeles is usually associated by using a show biz, 100% of the major studios, except Paramount Pictures, are nowadays placed outside of its boundaries (within neighboring Culver City, Burbank & Glendale). Paramount Pictures is the only major studio that is inside Hollywood (a district of Los Angeles City).

For major corporations headquartered in a City of Los Angeles, & adjacent cities, understand the Economy section of the Los Angeles, California article.

A resulting major corporations keep close at hand headquarters around Los Angeles County cities non adjacent to the city of Los Angeles: Cerritos, California Memorex Isuzu Motors America Irwindale, California Ready Pac La Mirada, California Makita Monrovia, California Trader Joe's Westlake Village, California JD Power and Associates Dole Food Company

Education
A county is front yard to numbers of colleges & universities. It besides has the vast total of public school territory & numbers of buck private schools.

Colleges and universities
Colleges

Art Center College of Design Pasadena The Art Institute of California - Los Angeles, Santa Monica Antelope Valley College, Lancaster California Institute of the Arts, Santa Clarita Citrus College, Glendora Cerritos College, Norwalk College of the Canyons, Santa Clarita Claremont Colleges (5Cs), Claremont El Camino College, Torrance Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena Glendale College ITT Technical Institute San Fernando Valley (Los Angeles) Los Angeles City College (LACC), Los Angeles Los Angeles Pierce College (Pierce), Woodland Hills Long Beach City College, Long Beach The Master's College, Santa Clarita Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut Otis School of Fine Art, Westchester (Los Angeles Occidental College (Oxy), Los Angeles Pasadena City College Santa Monica College, Santa Monica Whittier College, Whittier West Los Angeles College, Culver City

Universities

Azusa Pacific University, Azusa Biola University, La Mirada California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona), Pomona California State University, Dominguez Hills California State University, Bakersfield Antelope Valley center, Lancaster California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), Long Beach California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA), Los Angeles California State University, Northridge (CSUN), Northridge (Los Angeles) DeVry University San Fernando Valley (Los Angeles) Loyola Marymount University (LMU), Westchester (Los Angeles) Pepperdine University, Malibu Southwestern University School of Law, Los Angeles University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Westwood (Los Angeles) University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles Woodbury University, Burbank

Sites of interest
A county's virtually all visited park is Griffith Park, owned by the City of Los Angeles . A county is likewise known for the annual Rose Parade in Pasadena, the annual Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Los Angeles Zoo, the Natural History Museum, the La Brea Tar Pits, the Arboretum of Los Angeles, & 2 horse raceway & the car raceway, and miles of beaches--from either Zuma to Cabrillo.

Venice Beach is a popular attraction where its Muscle Beach used to find multitude of tourer admiring "hardbodies". In todays world these are supplementary arts-centered. Santa Monica's pier is a swell known holidaymaker spot, celebrated for its ferris wheel and bumper car rides, which were featured in the introductory segment of the television sitcom ''Three's Company. Farther northward within Pacific Palisades one finds the beaches utilized in the television series Baywatch. A legendary Malibu, home of many the film or even television star, lies west of it.

In the mountain, canon, & waste areas a single will call for Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park, where numbers of old westerns, a original television series Star Trek and The Flintstones'' movies were filmed. Mount Wilson Observatory in the San Gabriel Mountains is open for the public to view astronomic stars from its telescope, now computer-assisted. Numerous county residents call for relaxation inside water skiing and swimming at Castaic Lake Recreation Area - a county's big park by front yard - too when enjoying natural surroundings & starry nights at Saddleback Butte State Park in the eastern Antelope Valley - California State Parks' largest around front yard inside a county. A California Poppy Reserve is located in a american Antelope Valley & swank the State's flower around dandy quantity in its rolling hills each spring.

Museums
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Mid-City Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Downtown Los Angeles (founded in 1950) Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena (19th & early 20th Century art) Pasadena Museum of California Art Pasadena J. Paul Getty Museum, Brentwood (Ancient Roman, Greek, and European Renaissance Art) Geffin Contemporary, Downtown Los Angeles (founded in 1980) Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica (Contemporary art) Huntington Library, San Marino Museum of Science and Industry, Los Angeles Museum of Tolerance Museum of Jurassic Technology, Culver City Long Beach Museum of Art Museum of Latin American Art Los Angeles Children's Museum Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County George C. Page Museum at La Brea Tar Pits Museum of the American West (Gene Autry Museum), in Griffith Park Southwest Museum

Entertainment
La Brea Tar Pits Griffith Park Los Angeles Zoo Staples Center Los Angeles Farmers Market Griffith Observatory Descanso Gardens Huntington Gardens (the evidence of Huntington library) Olvera Street Exposition Park Venice Beach Third Street Promenade

Music venues
Disney Concert Hall Pantages Theatre Universal Amphitheatre The Wiltern Hollywood Bowl House of Blues Sunset Strip John Anson Ford Amphitheatre The Roxy Theatre El Rey Theatre Whisky A Go-Go

Amusement Parks
Six Flags Magic Mountain Universal Studios

Other attractions
U.S. Bank Tower Central Los Angeles Library Wayfarers Chapel Hsi Lai Temple Queen Mary

Outside the city
Ridge Route Angeles National Forest Mount Wilson Observatory Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park Plant 42's Blackbird Airpark and Heritage Airpark Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve Saddleback Butte State Park Antelope Valley Indian Museum State Historic Park Arthur B. Ripley Desert Woodland State Park

History

Los Angeles County was one of a original counties of California, created at a instance of statehood around 1850. Area of the county's territory were given to San Bernardino County in 1853, to Kern County in 1866 and to Orange County in 1899.

Virtually all of the County's history is recounted in the Wikipedia articles covering its constitutional cities & their neighborhoods.

Demographics
When of the census² of 2000, there are 9,519,338 people, 3,133,774 households, and 2,137,233 families residing in the county. A population density is 905/km² (2,344/mi²). There are 3,270,909 housing units at an typical density of 311/km² (806/mi²). A racial makeup of the county is 48.71% White (31.1% is non-Hispanic White), 9.78% African American, 0.81% Native American, 11.95% Asian, 0.28% Pacific Islander, 23.53% from other races, and 4.94% from two or more races. 44.56% of the sum people is of Hispanic or Latino origin, regardless of race.

Los Angeles is one of the pack counties in the Americthe in which Latinos come a plurality, & might shortly exist as a majority.

There are 3,133,774 home away from which 36.80% own toddlers under a age of Eighteen accept the two, 47.60% come married couples living together, 14.70% have a female homeowner by having there is no married man present, & 31.80% come non-families. Xxiv.60% of a lot family come manufactured higher of people & Sevener.10% use mortal residing alone world health organization is 65 years aged or even older. A typical family size is Two.98 & a typical personal size is Terzetto.61.

In a county the people is spread retired by using Twenty-eight.00% under a age of Eighteen, Decade.30% from either 18 to 2 dozen, 32.60% from either 25 to 44, Nineteen.40% from either 45 to 64, & Nine.70% world health organization come 65 years aged or even older. A median age is 32 years. For each Century females there are 97.Lxx males. For each Centred females age Xviii & all over, there are 95.00 males.

the median income for a house in the county is $42,189, & the median income for a personal is $46,452. Males have a median income of $36,299 versus $30,981 for females. A per capita income for the county is $20,683. Xvii.90% of the people & Fourteen.40% of families come beneath a poverty line. Away from a sum people, Xxiv.20% of people under a age of 18 & 10.50% of victims 65 & older come dwelling in a image below the poverty level.

Housing
A homeownership rate is 47.9%, a median for houses is $209,300. 42.2% of housing units come inside multi-unit structures.

Transportation

Air
A county's primary commercial aviation drome is Los Angeles International Airport. More crucial airdrome include a Long Beach Municipal Airport and Bob Hope Airport. Palmdale Regional Airport is planned for expanded commercial service. There are besides general aviation airdrome at Van Nuys, Santa Monica, Compton, Torrance, Pacoima, & Lancaster.

Train
A county has a as punishment intercity Amtrak service at Union Station in the city of Los Angeles. The Pacific Surfliner to Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, or San Diego. The Coast Starlight to Seattle, Washington The Southwest Chief to Chicago, Illinois The Sunset Limited to New Orleans and Orlando, Florida

Union Station is too a primary hub for Metrolink commuter rail, which serves much of the greater Los Angeles area.

Lightly rail, subway (heavily rail), & long-few feet away bus company come completely provided per Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro).

Road
the county has a freeway network of legendary size and complexness, which is maintained by Caltrans and patrolled by the California Highway Patrol. It too has the big street network, most of which is maintained by city governments. the county & virtually all cities usually clean a the right way job of maintaining & washing streets. For additional principles all about a primary exception, understand a Transportation in Los Angeles article.

Each a expressway & streets come ill-famed for severe traffic congestion, and a region's freeway-to-freeway interchanges regularly rank among a top Tenner virtually all engorged points in the united states.

Additionally to Tube Bus company, many cities in a county too work their have bus service & shuttle lines.

Sea
A county's 2 independent seaports are a Port of Los Angeles & the Port of Long Beach. Together it call over over the for of the container traffic entering a United States.

A Port of Long Beach is besides at home to the Sea Launch program, which uses the swimming launch platform to insert payloads into orbits that would become hard to attain from either existing land-depending launch web sites.

There are a few ferry services to nearby island towns like Avalon, California.

Navigating in the county
Thomas Guide - The virtually all popular series of map books among Los Angeles residents.