LOS ANGELES BRIEF HISTORY & DEMOGRAPHICS (Demographics Table of Contents)
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The Los Angeles Population
Los Angeles's population expanded rapidly during the 1980s as immigration from Asia and Latin America, especially Mexico, boomed and the city continued to draw people from other parts of the country. The population increased from 2,966,850 in 1980 to 3,485,398 in 1990. The population was 3,597,556 in 1998. But the metropolitan region continued to grow through this period. The Los Angeles-Long Beach metropolitan area reached an estimated population of 9,138,789 in 1995, an increase of 3.1 percent from 1990. The larger five-county consolidated metropolitan area reached an estimated 15,362,165 people in 1995, an increase of 5.7 percent from 1990.
According to the 1990 census, whites are 52.9 percent of the population, blacks 13.9 percent, Asians and Pacific Islanders 9.8 percent, and Native Americans 0.5 percent. The remainder are of mixed heritage or did not report ethnicity. Hispanics, who may be of any race, are 39.3 percent of the people. Hispanics of Mexican heritage form the largest ethnic group in Los Angeles, numbering more than 925,000. The next largest Hispanic group are Salvadorans, at 185,000, many of whom moved to the city to escape political turmoil in El Salvador. Blacks, at 488,000, are the second largest minority in Los Angeles. Blacks began to migrate to Los Angeles in large numbers during the economic boom of World War II (1939-1945), lured to the city by good jobs available in war-production plants. Asians have been immigrating to California since the middle of the 19th century, and many of them have made homes in Los Angeles. The largest groups among those of Asian heritage are Filipino (88,000), Korean (73,000), Chinese (67,000), and Japanese (45,000). According to the 1990 census, 38 percent of the city's residents were born outside the United States.