Greater Los Angeles Area
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The Greater Los Angeles Area is the suburban area around the city of Los Angeles, California. This informal term should not be confused with the term The Southland, a name often used by Southern California news outlets. The scope of the term has been variously used to include one to five Southern California counties. At its most compact, the term means only Los Angeles County. At its broadest, the term refers to all of the Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, which geographically encompass large extents of sparsely populated mountains and desert. As of 2005 the population was 17,545,623. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Greater Los Angeles Area has a total area of 87,972 km² (33,953 mi²)
Due to the decentralized nature of Southern California, there is no universally accepted definition of the terms “Greater Los Angeles Area” or “Southland,” the definition varies from one region of Southern California to the next. Although some people, especially those outside of Southern California and some of those in Los Angeles proper, view the terms “Greater Los Angeles Area” and “Southland” as being synonymous, in many other parts of Southern California the term Greater Los Angeles Area is considered to be a sub-section of the Southland, along with the other sub-sections: Orange County Area, Inland Empire, and Ventura. With the counties of Southern California being the size of states on the east coast, the lack of one vibrant downtown area to serve this massive region, and the fact that mass transit does not work well due to its decentralized nature, most people outside of Los Angeles County do not go there and therefore do not assimilate with it. The people of Orange County use the term “Greater Los Angeles” to refer to the area to the north of Orange County’s borders. To use the term “Greater Los Angeles” to refer to areas outside of Los Angeles County causes a great deal of confusion when used in other parts of Southern California, especially in Orange County. Residents of Orange County, which like those of neighboring San Diego County have their own employment base, arts, and other metropolitan amenities in the middle of their own county, thereby resulting in the residents not needing to leave the county and thereby not closely identifying with a larger area.
Los Angeles--Riverside--Orange County CMSA Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area is an obsolete US Census Bureau defined area that also includes San Bernardino and Ventura County
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Counties in the Southland
Regions of the Southland
- Antelope Valley
- San Fernando Valley
- San Gabriel Valley
- Santa Clarita Valley
- Ventura
- Inland Empire
- Orange County
Anchor Cities of the Southland
- Anaheim
- Burbank (Airport: Bob Hope Airport)
- Glendale
- Irvine
- Long Beach (Airport: Long Beach Municipal Airport)
- Los Angeles (Major airport: Los Angeles International Airport)
- Ontario (Major airport: Ontario International Airport)
- Palmdale (Airport Palmdale Regional Airport)
- Riverside
- San Bernardino
- Santa Ana (Major Airport: John Wayne-Orange County Airport)
- Ventura
Other suburbs with more than 100,000 inhabitants
- Corona
- Costa Mesa
- Downey
- East Los Angeles
- El Monte
- Fontana
- Fullerton
- Garden Grove
- Huntington Beach
- Inglewood
- Lancaster
- Moreno Valley
- Norwalk
- Orange
- Oxnard
- Palmdale
- Pasadena
- Pomona
- Rancho Cucamonga
- Santa Clarita
- Simi Valley
- Thousand Oaks
- Torrance
- West Covina
Cities
For a complete list, please see List of cities and towns in the Southland, (California).
See also
