Los Angeles

The Tongva lived in the Los Angeles Basin for thousands of years, and their village of Yaanga stood where the city began. Gaspar de Portolà's Spanish expedition passed in 1769, and on 4 September 1781 a group of 44 settlers known as Los Pobladores founded El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles. The plaza and Olvera Street mark the oldest part of the city. Los Angeles passed to Mexico in 1821 and to the United States after the Mexican–American War, and it was incorporated in 1850.

The Los Angeles Aqueduct, completed under William Mulholland in 1913, brought water from eastern California and led many neighbouring communities to join the city. Hollywood merged with Los Angeles in 1910, and over the following decades the film industry made the city's name known worldwide. The city hosted the Summer Olympics in 1932 and again in 1984.

Aircraft factories and wartime industry drew huge numbers of new residents, and freeways and suburbs spread across the basin and the San Fernando Valley after 1945. The city's history has also been marked by unrest: the Watts riots of 1965, in which 34 people died, and the riots of April 1992 after the acquittal of police officers filmed beating Rodney King. The Northridge earthquake of 1994 killed 72. In 2022 Karen Bass became the city's first woman mayor. In January 2025 wildfires driven by fierce winds swept through the region; the Palisades Fire, which began on 7 January and was contained on 31 January, destroyed much of Pacific Palisades. In June 2025 raids by federal immigration agents led to protests and riots. The city is due to host the Summer Olympics for a third time in 2028.

Hollywood has been the centre of the American film industry since the early 20th century, and the Los Angeles area is also the centre of the country's television industry. Studios, sound stages and production offices are spread across Hollywood, Culver City and other parts of the region, and film shoots on public streets are part of everyday life. The city is equally important for music, from the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and summer concerts at the Hollywood Bowl to West Coast hip-hop and a large live-music scene.

Los Angeles is one of the most diverse cities in the world. Hispanic and Latino residents make up nearly half the population, and more than half of residents speak a language other than English at home. Neighbourhoods carry the names of the communities that settled them: Koreatown, Little Tokyo, Chinatown, Historic Filipinotown, Little Armenia, Little Ethiopia and Thai Town, while South Los Angeles districts such as Leimert Park and Crenshaw are centres of African American culture.

Sport is followed passionately. The Dodgers play baseball at Dodger Stadium, the Lakers and Clippers basketball, and the Rams and Chargers football at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. The 2026 FIFA World Cup brought eight matches to the region, and the city is preparing for the 2028 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, which will make it the third city to host the Games three times, after London and Paris.

An estimated 3.87 million people lived in the city in 2025, and about 12.9 million in the metropolitan area in 2024. The city covers about 469 square miles of basin, valley and mountains, and Los Angeles County is the most populous county in the United States. The city has lost a small share of its population since the 2020 census.

The economy is very broad: entertainment, technology, tourism, international trade through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, aerospace, petroleum, fashion and apparel. Most residents drive, and only about 6 per cent of workers commute by public transport, though Metro Rail has expanded steadily since its first line opened in 1990. Most of the city is low-rise, with towers clustered in downtown, Century City, Koreatown, Hollywood and Westwood.

Housing is the city's most pressing issue. In January 2024 there were about 45,000 homeless people in the city, with the largest concentration in Skid Row. Wildfire, drought and earthquake risk shape daily life, and in the wake of the January 2025 fires, rebuilding the burned neighbourhoods has become a long-term task.

Los Angeles eats on the street as much as in restaurants. Mexican and other Latin American immigrants brought tacos, burritos, quesadillas, tortas, tamales and enchiladas, served from food trucks, stands, taquerías and cafés across the city, and the taco truck is an institution. Korean barbecue fills Koreatown, Little Tokyo and the Sawtelle district are centres of Japanese food, and almost every cuisine in the world has a following somewhere in the basin.

Some of the city's food landmarks are old. Philippe the Original, near Union Station, has been open since 1908 and claims to have invented the French dip, a roast beef sandwich dipped in its own juices. Grand Central Market downtown has operated since 1917, and the Original Farmers Market at Fairfax and 3rd Street has been feeding visitors since 1934.

At the other end of the scale, the Michelin Guide recognised 20 starred restaurants in the city in 2025. Asian restaurants, many of them immigrant-owned, are found throughout the city, with hotspots in Chinatown, Koreatown and Little Tokyo.