With an estimated population of over 18.3 million (U.S. Census Bureau, 2023),[2] it is the second-largest metropolitan area in the country, behind New York, as well as one of the largest megacities in the world.

[6] In addition to being the nexus of the global entertainment industry, including films, television, and recorded music, Greater Los Angeles is also an important center of international trade, education, media, business, tourism, technology, and sports.

[7] It is the third-largest metropolitan area by nominal GDP in the world with an economy exceeding $1 trillion in output, behind New York City and Tokyo.

This pattern of growth continued ever outward, more so when the freeway system was built starting in the 1950s; thus Greater Los Angeles was the earliest large American metropolitan area with a decentralized structure.

[22] Although the area still has abundant amount of open space and land, almost all of it was put aside and mandated never to be developed as part of the master plan of each city.

[30] Furthermore, since the COVID-19 pandemic Downtown Los Angeles has experienced staggering commercial vacancy rates, urban blight, homelessness, drug use, and crime.

For example, Santa Monica and Beverly Hills (which is almost completely surrounded by Los Angeles) are considered part of the Westside, while Hawthorne and Inglewood are associated with South L.A.

[40] As an international center for finance, entertainment, media, culture, education, tourism, and science, Los Angeles is considered one of the world's most powerful and influential global cities.

Today, Orange County is known for its tourist attractions, such as Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, its several pristine beaches and coastline, and its wealthier areas, featured in television shows such as The O.C.

[44] The development of a regional freeway system facilitated the expansion of suburbs and human migration linking the Inland Empire and rest of Greater Los Angeles.

Despite being primarily suburban, the Inland Empire is also home to important warehousing, shipping, logistics and retail industries, centered on the subregion's major cities of Riverside, San Bernardino and Ontario.

This interconnectivity, provided by one of the most extensive freeway systems in the world, as well as economic, social and media ties, has blended boundaries between these regions and the urbanized Los Angeles and Inland Empire areas.

To the north, Interstate 15 crosses desolate desert landscape after passing Barstow, linking Greater Los Angeles with Las Vegas, with Baker being the only significant outpost along the route.

Central and southern Ventura County formerly consisted of small towns along the Pacific Coast until the expansion of U.S. Route 101 drew in commuters from the San Fernando Valley.

[54] The explosive growth of the region in the 20th century can be attributed to its favorable Mediterranean climate, the availability of land and many booming industries such as oil, automobile and rubber, motion pictures, intermodal, logistics, and aerospace which in turn attracted millions of people from all over the United States and world.

The six largest Asian ancestries with respect to all of Greater LA's population were Chinese: ~ 6.1% , Filipino: ~ 3.1%, Vietnamese: ~ 2.0%, Korean ~ 1.9%, Indian ~ 1.1% , and Japanese ~ 0.8%.

The largest Pacific Islander ancestries were Samoan, Native Hawaiian, and Guamanian or Chamorro, and Tongan Non-Hispanic Multiracial people make up 3.3% of the population.

The largest Hispanic or Latino ancestry was by far Mexican, with other important groups being Salvadoran, Guatemalan, Honduran, Peruvian, Puerto Rican, Colombian, and Cuban.

Ethnic enclaves like Chinatown, the Byzantine-Latino Quarter, Historic Filipinotown, Little Saigon, Little Armenia, Little Ethiopia, Little Bangladesh, Little Moscow (in Hollywood), Little Tokyo, Croatian Place and Via Italia in San Pedro, several Koreatowns, Tehrangeles in West Los Angeles, the Chinese enclaves in the San Gabriel Valley and Thai Town provide examples of the polyglot multicultural character of Los Angeles.

[73][74] This is evident when comparing the coast with the Inland Empire, a large component of the five-county combined statistical area (CSA) that nevertheless contributes a far smaller portion to regional gross metropolitan product but still dominates in industry.

)[76] The economy of the Los Angeles metropolitan area is famously and heavily based on the entertainment industry, with a particular focus on television, motion pictures, interactive games, and recorded music – the Hollywood district of Los Angeles and its surrounding areas are known as the "movie capital of the United States" due to the region's extreme commercial and historical importance to the American motion picture industry.

Other companies headquartered in Los Angeles include American Apparel, City National Bank, 20th Century Studios, Latham & Watkins, Univision, Metro Interactive, LLC, Premier America, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, DeviantArt,[77] Guess?, O'Melveny & Myers; Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, Tokyopop, The Jim Henson Company, Paramount Pictures, Sunkist Growers, Incorporated, Tutor Perini, Fox Sports Net, Capital Group, and The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.

Acting as a major gateway for U.S.-Asian trade, the port occupies 3,200 acres (1,295 hectares) of land with 25 miles (40 kilometres) of waterfront in the city of Long Beach, California.

[citation needed] In 2014, the population of the Long Beach–Los Angeles–Anaheim metropolitan statistical area (MSA) reached 13,262,220 and ranked second in the United States – a 1 percent increase from 2013.

[86] Archived February 12, 2018, at the Wayback Machine Los Angeles and Orange counties have separate medical service department but both work jointly.

The Blue and Gold Lines run mostly at grade, with some street-running, elevated, and underground stretches in the more densely populated areas of Los Angeles.

It also provides long-distance routes, including the Coast Starlight which goes to the San Francisco Bay Area, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington; the Southwest Chief which goes to Flagstaff, Arizona, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Kansas City, Missouri and Chicago; and the Sunset Limited which provides limited service (three days a week) to Tucson, El Paso, Houston, and New Orleans.

Metrolink operates to 67 stations on eight lines within Southern California which mostly (except for the Inland Empire–Orange County Line and Arrow) radiate from Los Angeles Union Station As a whole, the Los Angeles area has more national championships, all sports combined (college and professional), than any other city in the United States, with over four times as many championships as the entire state of Texas, and just over twice that of New York City.

Other professional venues include: The Greater Los Angeles area also has three well-known horse racing facilities: Santa Anita Park, Los Alamitos Race Course and the former Hollywood Park Racetrack and three major motorsport venues: Auto Club Speedway, Long Beach street circuit, and Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.

On January 12, 2016, the Rams were approved to move to Los Angeles and build the venue eventually known as SoFi Stadium with the Chargers or Raiders given the option to join them.