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 3,820,914 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.Unlike some cities, Los Angeles isn’t mainly white- or blue-collar. Instead, the most prevalent occupations for people in Los Angeles are a mix of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Los Angeles is a city of professionals, service providers, and sales and office workers. There are especially a lot of people living in Los Angeles who work in management occupations (10.99%), office and administrative support (9.80%), and sales jobs (8.98%). 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. Telecommuters are a relatively large percentage of the workforce: 17.32% of people work from home. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce it is high relative to the nation. 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 also nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Such areas are often places that visitors and locals go for waterfront activities or taking in the scenery. In Los Angeles, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 31.95 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average. One bright side is that local public transit is widely used, so it may be an option to avoid the headache of driving in the heavy traffic by leaving the car at home and taking transit. 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 citizens of Los Angeles are very well educated compared to the average community in the nation: 37.82% of adults in Los Angeles have a bachelor's degree or even advanced degree. The per capita income in Los Angeles in 2022 was $46,270, which is upper middle income relative to California and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $185,080 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 47.23% 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. Foreign born people are also an important part of Los Angeles's cultural character, accounting for 35.81% of the city’s population. The most common language spoken in Los Angeles is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Tagalog.
