City North America
Los Angeles
Los Angeles is a huge city in California, by the Pacific Ocean. It has beaches, mountains and sunshine. Many movies are made there.
Los Angeles is the second-biggest city in the United States, spread across a wide plain between the mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Founded in 1781 as a small farming village, it grew into a world center of movies and music. About 3.9 million people lived there in 2020.
Los Angeles, founded in 1781 as El Pueblo de la Reina de los Ángeles, had no natural harbor and little water, yet became the second most populous U.S. city: 3,898,747 people on 1,207 km² in 2020, at the heart of a metropolitan area of 13.2 million. Aqueducts, railroads, freeways and Hollywood shaped its growth.
Photo: Tuxyso, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Discover Los Angeles
Los Angeles is a very big city in California.
It is next to the Pacific Ocean. Mountains rise behind it. The weather is often sunny and mild. People from all over the world live there.
Los Angeles, often called L.A., is in southern California. It is the second-largest city in the United States after New York City, with about 3.9 million people in 2020. Its metropolitan area, the city and the towns around it, held about 13.2 million.
The city sprawls across a wide coastal plain between mountains and the Pacific Ocean. People who live there are called Angelenos. Daily life depends on the car, a house of one's own is a common dream, and most of the skyline is low and spread out rather than tall. Los Angeles is famous for its mild climate, its beaches and Hollywood.
Los Angeles, seat of Los Angeles County, sprawls across a broad coastal plain between mountains and the Pacific. Britannica stresses that city and county are interwoven: the county holds some 90 other incorporated cities, including Beverly Hills, Pasadena and Long Beach, plus two Channel Islands, Mount San Antonio (3,062 m), more than 2,330 km² of desert and 120 km of coast. The city covers 1,207 km² and had 3,898,747 residents in 2020; the Los Angeles–Long Beach–Anaheim metropolitan area had 13,200,998.
Britannica notes that at the start of the 20th century Los Angeles was considered merely a large village, and that it lacked basic building blocks of a city, such as a natural harbor. Its lifestyle relies on the automobile, idealizes the single-family home and favors informality; its skyline is mostly horizontal; and immigration has made it a place of extraordinary ethnic and racial diversity, with a growing gap between rich and poor.
- Country
- United States (California)
- People (2020 census)
- 3,898,747
- Area of the city
- 1,207 km²
- Metropolitan area (2020)
- about 13.2 million people
Famous places
In Hollywood, the sidewalk has pink stars with famous names on them. This is the Walk of Fame.
Los Angeles also has long, sandy beaches. Big concerts happen in an outdoor theater called the Hollywood Bowl. A famous concert hall downtown is home to a big orchestra.
Hollywood, a district of Los Angeles, is the center of the movie industry. Along its sidewalks runs the Hollywood Walk of Fame, with stars set in the pavement honoring famous entertainers. The first stars were shown in 1958, and the Walk was dedicated in 1960.
Music lovers head to the Hollywood Bowl, an outdoor amphitheater from 1916, or to the Walt Disney Concert Hall, designed by Frank Gehry and opened in 2003, home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The coast of Los Angeles County has famous beaches, and mountains rise to the north.
The Hollywood Walk of Fame grew from a 1953 proposal by E. M. Stuart of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce: eight sample stars were unveiled on Hollywood Boulevard on August 15, 1958, construction began on February 8, 1960, and the Walk was dedicated on November 23, 1960. Hollywood produces about half of all films shot in the United States, and the Academy Awards are broadcast from Los Angeles.
The city's cultural map includes outdoor amphitheaters such as the Hollywood Bowl (1916) and the Greek Theatre (1929–30); the downtown Music Center, with the Ahmanson Theatre and Mark Taper Forum (1967) and Frank O. Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall (2003), home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, founded in 1919; a cathedral by José Rafael Moneo (2002); and Los Angeles State Historic Park on a former rail yard. Olvera Street, Chinatown and Little Tokyo keep the memory of the old pueblo and its immigrant communities.
- Hollywood Walk of Fame
- dedicated November 23, 1960
- Hollywood Bowl
- outdoor amphitheater, 1916
- Walt Disney Concert Hall
- opened 2003, designed by Frank Gehry
- Mount San Antonio
- 3,062 m, highest in the county
From pueblo to metropolis
Long ago, Native American people lived in villages here.
In 1781, a small group of settlers started a farming village by a river. Later, trains came, and then water was brought from far away. The little village grew into a giant city.
For many centuries, the Tongva and Chumash peoples lived in villages here, hunting, fishing and trading. In 1781, 44 settlers sent by Spain founded a small farming village by a river and named it El Pueblo de la Reina de los Ángeles. The name was later shortened to Los Angeles. It belonged to Spain, then Mexico, and became part of the United States after 1848.
The town grew quickly once railroads arrived in 1876 and 1885. In 1913 a 375-kilometer aqueduct began bringing water from the Sierra Nevada. In the 1920s the movie and aircraft industries took off, and the city hosted the Olympic Games in 1932 and again in 1984.
Some 5,000 to 10,000 Tongva (Gabrielino) and Chumash people lived in villages in the region. A Spanish expedition under Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo sailed into Santa Monica Bay in 1542, and Franciscan missions were founded at San Gabriel (1771) and San Fernando (1797). In the fall of 1781 Governor Felipe de Neve and 44 settlers from Sonora and Mazatlán founded a pueblo near the Tongva village of Yang-na; diseases brought by the newcomers devastated the Native population. Mexico made the pueblo a city in 1835, and after the Mexican-American War (1846–48) California passed to the United States.
Modern growth began with the Southern Pacific link to San Francisco in 1876 and the Santa Fe line from Chicago in 1885. Huntington's Pacific Electric (1901–11) laid more than 1,600 km of trolley track, and William Mulholland's Los Angeles Aqueduct (1904–13), 375 km long and gravity-fed from the Owens Valley, gave the city's 300,000 people enough water for millions; it was built after aggressive dealings with Owens Valley ranchers and business owners. The 1920s brought oil, aircraft and film; the city hosted the Olympics in 1932 and 1984, and Britannica says that by its 1981 bicentennial it had become a world-class city.
Getting around Los Angeles
Most people in Los Angeles get around by car.
Wide roads called freeways cross the whole city. There are also buses and trains. Giant airplanes take off from the big airport, and huge ships come to the harbor.
Los Angeles is famous for its freeways, wide, fast roads with many lanes. The first one opened at the end of 1939, and by the 1970s the freeway system was mostly finished. Most people drive, which leads to traffic jams and smog.
To help, the region has built a subway, light-rail lines and fast bus routes, and since 1992 the Metrolink trains have linked L.A. with neighboring counties. Los Angeles International Airport, called LAX, is one of the world's largest airports, and the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach together were the third-largest harbor in the world in the early 2000s.
Los Angeles once relied on the Pacific Electric Railway's Big Red Cars; unable to compete with automobiles, the lines were dismantled and the last Red Car ran in 1961. The Arroyo Seco Parkway opened on the last day of 1939, the Hollywood Freeway (1948) soon carried nearly 200,000 cars a day, and by the 1970s the freeway system was largely complete. Rising traffic and smog renewed interest in transit: in 1993 the state created the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which by the early 21st century had built a subway from Union Station to North Hollywood, several light-rail lines and dedicated busways; Metrolink commuter rail opened in 1992.
Air travel is the region's most important outside link; LAX handles tens of millions of passengers a year. The city annexed Wilmington and San Pedro in 1909–10 to create a harbor, and in the early 21st century the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach handled nearly two-thirds of the West Coast's foreign import cargo, together forming the world's third-largest harbor by volume after Singapore and Hong Kong.
- First freeway
- Arroyo Seco Parkway, opened December 31, 1939
- Metrolink commuter rail
- opened 1992
- Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach
- together the third-largest harbor in the world (early 2000s)
Weather and seasons
Los Angeles is warm and sunny most of the year.
There are two seasons: a long dry time and a cooler, wetter time in winter. The beach is cooler than the middle of the city. In winter, mountain roads can get icy.
Los Angeles has a mild, Mediterranean-type climate with two seasons. From about April to November it is dry and warm, and from November to April it is cooler and wetter, but rarely freezing. The average temperature for the whole year is about 18 °C.
Where you are makes a big difference. In August, the hottest month, days reach about 29 °C on average and nights fall to about 18 °C, and beach areas are often 5 to 8 °C cooler than downtown. Mountains shield the city from desert heat and cold, but they also trap air in a bowl, which helps smog form.
Britannica classes the climate as semiarid or Mediterranean, the result of three conditions: a latitude far enough south to weaken the worst North Pacific winter storms, a cooling layer of marine air that tempers the summer sun, and tall mountains that shield the basin from desert heat and cold. The dry, moderately warm season lasts roughly from April to November and the wet, moderately cool one from November to April; the city's mean temperature is about 18 °C.
Local differences are large: in summer the San Fernando Valley can be about 5.5 °C warmer than Santa Monica, and beach areas run 5.5 to 8 °C cooler than downtown. In August, the hottest month, average highs are about 29 °C and lows about 18 °C (World Meteorological Organization normals, 1981–2010); on the plains temperatures rarely drop below 4 °C. The same warmth and bowl-like ring of mountains favor photochemical smog, present since the 1940s; strict controls on vehicle and industrial emissions have improved air quality, though it remains a serious issue.
- Average for the year
- about 18 °C
- August, average high and low
- about 29 °C and 18 °C
- Seasons
- dry April–November, wet November–April
Living in Los Angeles
People in Los Angeles come from all over the world.
They make movies, music and cartoons. Families go to the beach, the mountains and big parks. Families have come from many different countries.
Los Angeles is extraordinarily diverse, because people have moved here from many countries. Many neighborhoods, such as Chinatown, Little Tokyo and Boyle Heights, keep their own names and identities.
Entertainment is a giant business. Hollywood makes about half of all the films shot in the United States, most big music companies have offices here, and the Disney and Universal studios run theme parks too. Angelenos also love the outdoors, from the beaches to the Santa Monica Mountains.
Britannica describes Los Angeles as a place of extraordinary ethnic and racial diversity owing largely to immigration, and as a series of widely dispersed settlements loosely tied to downtown; most residents work, shop and play in suburbs, linked by freeways. Downtown remains the hub of government and commerce, with Bunker Hill's towers, the Civic Center, the Music Center, Chinatown, Olvera Street and Little Tokyo.
The media business, with film at its core, employs several hundred thousand people directly; virtually all major record labels are based or have facilities here, and Disney (Burbank) and Universal (Studio City) span film, television and theme parks. The Los Angeles Philharmonic, founded in 1919, ranks among the country's finest orchestras. Open-space campaigns created the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area in 1978 and are turning parts of the concrete Los Angeles River channel back into wetlands, parks and trails.
Los Angeles on the map
Find Los Angeles on the globe.
It is in California, on the west coast of the United States. The big Pacific Ocean is right next to it. Mountains stand behind the city.
Los Angeles is in southern California, on the west coast of North America, beside the Pacific Ocean. The city climbs from sea level at the beach in Venice to more than 1,550 meters on Mount Lukens.
Mountains ring much of the Los Angeles area. The San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains rise to the north and northeast, and the Santa Monica Mountains cross the city. The Los Angeles River, now mostly a concrete channel, flows south to the ocean.
Los Angeles lies at about 34.0° N and 118.2° W, in a county where nearly half the land is mountains, most running east–west, with a dynamic history of earthquakes, fires and mudslides. The San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains lie to the north and northeast; in front of them, the Santa Monica Mountains and lines of hills divide the San Fernando, San Gabriel and San Bernardino valleys.
The Los Angeles River, shifted by a flood in 1825 to empty into San Pedro Bay, is now largely confined in concrete. The city began in 1781 as a 73 km² village and grew through annexations: the harbor towns of Wilmington and San Pedro in 1909–10, the San Fernando Valley by 1917, and 34 areas and five cities between 1922 and 1928, after it secured water from the Owens River, about 370 km to the northeast.
- Latitude
- about 34.0° north
- Longitude
- about 118.2° west
- Highest point in the city
- Mount Lukens, above 1,550 m
- Owens River water source
- about 370 km northeast
Amazing facts
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Los Angeles's long first name means the Village of the Queen of the Angels.
The settlers of 1781 called their village El Pueblo de la Reina de los Ángeles. The name was later shortened to Los Angeles.
Founded as El Pueblo de la Reina de los Ángeles ("The Village of the Queen of the Angels") in 1781, the settlement's name was later shortened to Los Angeles.
-
Water reaches Los Angeles from mountains far away, with no pumps.
The Los Angeles Aqueduct, finished in 1913, carried water 375 kilometers using only gravity.
Mulholland's 375 km aqueduct (1904–13) moved water entirely by gravity through canals, pipes and tunnels; it was then the world's longest.
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A flood once changed where the Los Angeles River goes.
In 1825 a huge flood moved the Los Angeles River so that it flowed into a different bay.
A deluge in 1825 permanently shifted the Los Angeles River's outlet from Santa Monica Bay to San Pedro Bay.
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The first stars on the Walk of Fame were shown in 1958.
Eight sample stars were unveiled on Hollywood Boulevard in 1958, two years before the Walk of Fame was dedicated.
On August 15, 1958, eight stars were unveiled at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue to show what the Walk would look like; it was dedicated on November 23, 1960.
-
The beach can be much cooler than the middle of Los Angeles.
Beach areas in Los Angeles are often 5 to 8 °C cooler than downtown, which is only a short drive inland.
Beach areas tend to run 5.5 to 8 °C cooler than downtown, and in summer the San Fernando Valley can be 5.5 °C warmer than Santa Monica.
Words to know
- metropolitan area
- a big city together with the towns and suburbs around it
- freeway
- a wide, fast road with several lanes and no traffic lights
- aqueduct
- a channel, pipe or bridge that carries water a long way
- pueblo
- the Spanish word for a village or town
- smog
- dirty air, a mix of smoke or pollution and fog or haze
- Mediterranean climate
- a climate with warm, dry summers and mild, wet winters
- harbor
- a sheltered area of water where ships can dock safely
Discovery challenge
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Which ocean is next to Los Angeles?
Which ocean lies beside Los Angeles?
Los Angeles sprawls across a coastal plain between mountains and which ocean?
- The Pacific Ocean
- The Atlantic Ocean
- The Indian Ocean
Show the answer
The Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean! L.A. has long beaches on it.
The Pacific Ocean, on the west coast of North America.
The Pacific; Los Angeles County has about 120 km of seacoast.
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What is Hollywood famous for?
Hollywood, a district of Los Angeles, is famous for which industry?
Hollywood produces about half of all U.S. films. Which industry is at the core of its media business?
- Making movies
- Growing rice
- Mining coal
Show the answer
Making movies
Making movies! Stars on the sidewalk honor famous people.
Making movies. Hollywood makes about half of all the films shot in the United States.
Filmmaking, which with music and television employs several hundred thousand people directly.
-
How did Los Angeles get enough water to grow?
What did Los Angeles build to bring water from the Sierra Nevada in 1913?
What did William Mulholland design and build from 1904 to 1913?
- A long aqueduct
- A huge dam on the ocean
- A desalination ship
Show the answer
A long aqueduct
A long aqueduct carried water from far away.
The Los Angeles Aqueduct, 375 kilometers long, finished in 1913.
The gravity-fed Los Angeles Aqueduct from the Owens Valley, then the world's longest.
-
How do most people in Los Angeles get around?
Los Angeles is famous for which kind of road?
Which road type, beginning with the Arroyo Seco Parkway in 1939, came to define Los Angeles?
- Freeways
- Canals
- Cable cars
Show the answer
Freeways
By car, on big roads called freeways!
Freeways, wide fast roads; the first opened in 1939.
The freeway; the system was largely finished by the 1970s.
-
Which year did Los Angeles start as a village?
In which year was Los Angeles founded?
In which year did Governor Felipe de Neve and 44 settlers found the pueblo?
- 1781
- 1913
- 1984
Show the answer
1781
1781! It was a small farming village.
1781. The aqueduct came in 1913, and the second Olympics in 1984.
1781, near the Tongva village of Yang-na.
Nearby places
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Natural wonder
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park lies in California's Sierra Nevada mountains. Its granite cliffs, rounded domes and tall waterfalls were shaped by rivers and then by glaciers, which turned narrow canyons into wide U-shaped valleys. It is also home to giant sequoia trees and hundreds of black bears.
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City
San Francisco
San Francisco sits on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay in California. Spanish settlers arrived in 1776, the Gold Rush that began in 1848 turned it into a booming port, and today it is famous for the Golden Gate Bridge, its cable cars, its steep hills and its summer fog.
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Landmark
Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge crosses the Golden Gate, the strait where San Francisco Bay meets the Pacific Ocean. Built from 1933 to 1937, it hangs from two huge steel cables slung over towers 746 feet (227 meters) above the water, and it is painted a color called International Orange.
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Natural wonder
Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is a huge, steep-sided canyon in Arizona carved by the Colorado River. It is about 447 kilometers long and, on average, 1.6 kilometers deep, and its walls show layers of rock almost two billion years old.
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Natural wonder
Bryce Canyon National Park
Bryce Canyon National Park, in southern Utah, is not really a canyon. It is a row of giant bowls, called amphitheaters, carved into the edge of a high plateau and filled with colorful rock spires called hoodoos. The park says it has the largest collection of hoodoos in the world. Ice and rain shaped them from rocks first laid down in an ancient lake.
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Natural wonder
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains, or Rockies, stretch about 4,800 kilometers from northern Canada to New Mexico in the United States. They include more than 100 separate ranges, and their highest peak, Mount Elbert in Colorado, is 4,399 meters tall. Glaciers carved their peaks and valleys, and famous parks such as Banff, Jasper and Yellowstone protect their lakes, hot springs and wildlife.
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Natural wonder
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park sits on top of a giant volcano in the western United States. Heat from melted rock deep underground powers more than 10,000 hot springs, geysers, mudpots and steam vents, and the park is home to bison, wolves and two kinds of bears.
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Landmark
Mount Rushmore
Mount Rushmore is a granite mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota. From 1927 to 1941, nearly 400 workers carved the faces of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Lincoln into it, each about 60 feet (18 meters) tall. Most of the rock was removed with dynamite.
Explore next
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Country
United States
The United States is a large country in North America made of 50 states, from icy Alaska to the warm islands of Hawaii. It has the Grand Canyon, the Mississippi River and Yellowstone, and about 342 million people live there.
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Landmark
Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge crosses the Golden Gate, the strait where San Francisco Bay meets the Pacific Ocean. Built from 1933 to 1937, it hangs from two huge steel cables slung over towers 746 feet (227 meters) above the water, and it is painted a color called International Orange.
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City
San Francisco
San Francisco sits on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay in California. Spanish settlers arrived in 1776, the Gold Rush that began in 1848 turned it into a booming port, and today it is famous for the Golden Gate Bridge, its cable cars, its steep hills and its summer fog.
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City
New York City
New York City sits where the Hudson River meets a great harbor on the Atlantic coast. It has been the largest city in the United States since 1790. About 8.8 million people lived in its five boroughs in 2020, among skyscrapers, bridges and parks.
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City
Chicago
Chicago, in the state of Illinois, is the third-biggest city in the United States, with about 2.7 million people (2025). It grew fast beside Lake Michigan, rebuilt itself after the Great Fire of 1871 and became famous for its skyscrapers, railways, museums and music.
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City
Mexico City
Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, sits 2,240 meters high in the Valley of Mexico. It was founded in 1521 on the ruins of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that stood on an island in a lake. About 9.2 million people lived there in 2020, and more than 23 million in the wider metropolitan area.
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City
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada. It stands where three rivers meet, beside the Ottawa River, which divides the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It began as a lumber town called Bytown, became the capital in 1857, and had 1,017,449 people at the 2021 census.
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City
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., is the capital of the United States, on the Potomac River. It was planned from scratch in the 1790s, with wide avenues, the U.S. Capitol, the White House and a long green park called the National Mall. About 690,000 people lived there in 2020.
For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Locate Los Angeles on the Pacific coast of southern California between mountains and the sea.
- Explain how railroads, an aqueduct and freeways helped a small village become a huge city.
- Describe a Mediterranean climate and why the beach is cooler than downtown.
- Discuss how a car-centered city tries to add public transit.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Los Angeles had little water, so it brought water from far away. What problems might that cause for the places the water came from?
- Why do you think the beach is cooler than downtown in summer?
- Most people in Los Angeles drive. What are the good and bad sides of a city built for cars?
Try at home or in class
- Build a small aqueduct from paper straws or a folded strip of foil on a slope, and see how gravity alone moves water downhill.
- Draw a map of your neighborhood and mark how you would add a train line or bus lane to help people travel without cars.
Key vocabulary: metropolitan area, freeway, aqueduct, pueblo, smog, Mediterranean climate, harbor
Where these facts come from
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Natural Earth vector data , Natural Earth (NACIS) (Public domain)
- Los Angeles , Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Los Angeles: Landscape and climate , Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Los Angeles: City layout , Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Los Angeles: Transportation , Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Los Angeles: The entertainment industry , Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Los Angeles: Cultural life , Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Los Angeles: History , Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Los Angeles: Inventing a city , Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Los Angeles: The 1920s and '30s , Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Los Angeles: The contemporary city , Encyclopaedia Britannica
- History of the Walk of Fame , Hollywood Walk of Fame (Hollywood Chamber of Commerce)
- Los Angeles, California: climatological information , World Meteorological Organization, World Weather Information Service
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file (public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA); see each media record)
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated October 27, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.