Los Angeles

About

Los Angeles (often shortened as LA or L.A.) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of California, the county seat of Los Angeles County, which is the most populous county in the United States with an estimated 9.86 million residents as of 2022,

and the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Southern California. With an estimated 3.87 million residents within the city limits as of 2025, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, behind New York City, and the largest city in the Western United States. The city has an ethnically and culturally diverse population, and is the principal city of a metropolitan area of 12.9 million people (2024). Greater Los Angeles, a combined statistical area that includes the Los Angeles and Riverside–San Bernardino metropolitan areas, is a sprawling metropolis of over 18 million residents.