Los Angeles is the largest city in the U.S. state of California and the second most populous city in the United States, after New York City. It occupies a broad coastal basin in Southern California, bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the west and ringed by mountain ranges, including the Santa Monica Mountains and the San Gabriel Mountains, to the north and east.

Where Is Los Angeles Located?

Los Angeles sits on the Pacific coast of Southern California, roughly midway between San Diego to the south and Santa Barbara to the north. The city’s built-up area covers 469.49 square miles of land, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and is part of the much larger Los Angeles metropolitan region that extends across Los Angeles County and into neighboring counties. The city proper is divided by low hills and river channels into recognizable sections, including the San Fernando Valley in the north, the central basin around downtown, and a coastal strip that runs from the Santa Monica Bay south toward the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

North of the urban area, the Angeles National Forest covers nearly 700,000 acres of the San Gabriel Mountains, with elevations ranging from about 1,200 to just over 10,000 feet. The U.S. Forest Service, which has managed the forest since its creation by executive order in 1892, notes that its watersheds supply water to Southern California communities and help protect them from flooding. The mountains and the forest are also the ancestral homelands of several Indigenous nations, including the Gabrieleno-San Gabriel Band and the Fernandeno Tataviam Band.

History and Founding of Los Angeles

Los Angeles began in September 1781 as a small Spanish farming settlement. Spanish colonial governor Felipe de Neve led a group of 44 settlers, who had traveled from the Sonora and Mazatlan regions of present-day Mexico, to a site near a river the Spanish called the Rio de Porciuncula. The settlers, of mixed Native American, African, and European descent, established their pueblo near an existing Tongva village known as Yang-na and named the new community El Pueblo de la Reina de los Angeles, “The Village of the Queen of the Angels,” later shortened to Los Angeles.

Over the following decades, the settlement passed from Spanish to Mexican control after Mexican independence in 1821, and then to the United States following the Mexican-American War in the 1840s. What had been an agricultural pueblo grew gradually through the nineteenth century, then expanded rapidly after railroads connected it to the rest of the country in the 1870s and 1880s. The discovery of oil, the growth of citrus agriculture, the arrival of the film industry in the early twentieth century, and the construction of an aqueduct system bringing water from the Owens Valley all drove the city’s transformation into one of the largest urban areas in the country over the course of the twentieth century.

How Is Los Angeles Governed?

Los Angeles operates under a mayor-council-commission form of government set out in its city charter, originally adopted in 1925 and substantially revised in 2000. A mayor, a city controller, and a city attorney are each elected citywide to four-year terms. A fifteen-member city council, with one member elected from each of fifteen council districts, serves as the city’s legislative body; council members are limited to three four-year terms. The mayor appoints the heads of roughly 44 city departments and bureaus, subject to council confirmation, and also appoints members of numerous boards and commissions. The 2000 charter additionally created a citywide system of neighborhood councils intended to give residents a more direct voice in local decisions.

Economy and Culture: Entertainment and Beyond

Los Angeles has one of the most diverse economies of any major American city, spanning international trade through its ports, aerospace and technology, fashion and apparel manufacturing, higher education, and tourism. The city is most closely associated, however, with the entertainment industry. Beginning in the early twentieth century, film production companies concentrated in and around the Hollywood district, and the region has remained the historical center of the American film and television industry since. The California Film Commission, a state agency, continues to support production activity in the state, and FilmLA, the official film permitting office for Los Angeles and surrounding municipalities, coordinates location filming across the region. Major studios, production facilities, and the headquarters or significant operations of entertainment companies remain concentrated in and around the city.

The city’s population reflects a long history of immigration from Mexico, Central America, East Asia, and other regions, and Los Angeles is widely recognized as one of the most linguistically and ethnically diverse large cities in the country. This diversity is reflected in its neighborhoods, cuisine, and civic institutions.

Famous Landmarks and Districts

Hollywood and the Hollywood Sign

The Hollywood Sign is the city’s most recognized single landmark. It originated in 1923 as an advertisement for a hillside real estate development, reading “HOLLYWOODLAND,” funded by Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler. The sign’s letters were originally illuminated, but regular maintenance stopped during the Great Depression, and by 1949 the “LAND” portion had been removed, leaving the “HOLLYWOOD” sign recognized around the world today. It overlooks the Hollywood district, long associated with the film industry, and the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a sidewalk lined with stars honoring entertainment figures.

Other Notable Sites

Griffith Park, one of the largest urban parks in the country, contains the Griffith Observatory and offers views of the Hollywood Sign and the surrounding basin. Downtown Los Angeles retains El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, which preserves the site of the city’s original 1781 settlement, including the surrounding streets and buildings associated with its Spanish and Mexican-era history. The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, completed in 1923, has hosted two Olympic Games and remains a major sports and events venue.

Why Los Angeles Matters

Los Angeles matters both as a center of population and economic activity in its own right and as the historical home of an entertainment industry whose products are consumed worldwide. Its growth from a small colonial farming pueblo of several dozen settlers to a city of nearly four million people illustrates broader patterns in the settlement and urbanization of the American West. Its ongoing role as a hub for film and television production, combined with its size and demographic diversity, continues to shape how the city is perceived both within the United States and internationally.

Editorially reviewed by Specialty Digest Editorial TeamLast reviewed October 5, 2026Researched and drafted with AI assistanceReport an issue