Los Angeles

Los Angeles, often called LA or L.A., is California’s most populous city and serves as the commercial, financial, and cultural hub of Southern California. Within its city limits live an estimated 3.87 million people, making it the second-most populous city in the United States after New York City and the largest city in the Western United States. Its population is ethnically and culturally diverse, and it is the main city of a metropolitan area that, as of 2024, holds 12.9 million residents. The broader Greater Los Angeles region—a combined statistical area that includes the Los Angeles and Riverside–San Bernardino metropolitan areas—is a sprawling metropolis home to over 18 million people.

Most of the city sits in the Los Angeles Basin, bordering the Pacific Ocean to the west and extending partly through the Santa Monica Mountains and north into the San Fernando Valley, with the San Gabriel Valley to its east. Covering about 469 square miles, it is the county seat and most populous city of Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the United States, with an estimated 9.86 million residents. In 2023, it was the third-most visited city in the U.S., after New York City and Miami, attracting over 3.6 million visitors.

The area that became Los Angeles was originally inhabited by the indigenous Tongva people. Spanish explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claimed it for Spain in 1542. The city was founded on September 4, 1781, under Spanish governor Felipe de Neve, on the site of the Tongva village of Yaanga. It became part of the First Mexican Empire in 1821 after the Mexican War of Independence. In 1848, following the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were acquired by the United States through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The city was incorporated as a municipality on April 4, 1850, five months before California became a state. The discovery of oil in the 1890s spurred rapid growth, and the completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, which brings water from Eastern California, further expanded the city.

Los Angeles has a diverse economy spanning many industries. Although film production has declined, it remains the oldest and one of the largest centers for film and television production. It also has one of the busiest container ports in the Americas. Despite an exodus of commerce, Downtown Los Angeles is evolving into a cultural center, featuring the world’s largest collection of architecture designed by Frank Gehry. In 2024, the Los Angeles metropolitan area had a gross metropolitan product of over $1.295 trillion, making it the city with the third-largest GDP in the world, after New York and Tokyo. Los Angeles hosted the Summer Olympics in 1932 and 1984 and will host them for a third time in 2028.

Toponymy

On September 4, 1781, a group of 44 settlers known as “Los Pobladores” founded the town they called El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río Porciúncula, though the original name is disputed. The Guinness Book of World Records lists this full version, while other sources use shorter or alternate forms. The local English pronunciation of the city’s name has changed over time. A 1953 article in the journal of the American Name Society states that the pronunciation “Los Angeles” (with a hard “g”) was established after the city’s 1850 incorporation, and that from the 1880s onward, a trend in California toward Spanish or Spanish-sounding names led to the pronunciation “Los Angeles” (with a soft “g”).

In 1908, librarian Charles Fletcher Lummis, who argued for the hard “g” pronunciation, reported at least 12 pronunciation variants. In the early 1900s, the Los Angeles Times promoted a pronunciation approximating Spanish, printing a respelling under its masthead for years, but it did not catch on. Since the 1930s, the pronunciation “Los Angeles” (with a soft “g”) has been most common. In 1934, the United States Board on Geographic Names decreed this pronunciation for federal use, and in 1952, a jury appointed by Mayor Fletcher Bowron endorsed it as the official pronunciation.

History

Indigenous history

The indigenous Tongva people (also known as the Gabrieleño after Spanish colonization) dominated the Los Angeles Basin and San Fernando Valley. Their historic center of power was the settlement of Yaanga (Tongva: Iyáangẚ), meaning “place of the poison oak,” which later became the site of the Spanish Pueblo de Los Ángeles. Iyáangẚ has also been translated as “the valley of smoke.”

Spanish rule

In 1542, maritime explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claimed the area for the Spanish Empire during a military expedition along the Pacific coast from New Spain. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2, 1769. In 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. On September 4, 1781, 44 settlers known as “Los Pobladores” founded the town.

Today, the city has the largest Roman Catholic archdiocese in the United States. Two-thirds of the Mexican (or New Spain) settlers were mestizo or mulatto, of mixed African, indigenous, and European ancestry. One Asian Filipino from Manila, Antonio Miranda Rodríguez, was reassigned to nearby Santa Barbara, a fortress needing his gunsmithing skills. The settlement remained a small ranch town for decades; by 1820, its population had grown to about 650. The historic district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street now commemorates the original pueblo.