Approximately 59.4% of Los Angeles' residents were born in the United States, and 0.9% were born in Puerto Rico, US territories, or abroad to American parents. 39.7% of the population were foreign-born. The majority of those born overseas (64.5%) came from Latin America. A large minority (26.3%) were born in Asia. Smaller numbers were born in Europe (6.5%), Africa (1.5%), Northern America (0.9%), and Oceania (0.3%).[3]
Languages
According to the 2021 American Community Survey, the most commonly spoken languages in Los Angeles by people aged 5 years and over (3,650,704 people):[4]
According to a 2014 study by the Pew Research Center, Christianity is the most prevalently practiced religion in Los Angeles (65%). 32% of these 65% belonged to the Roman Catholic Church, 30% to various Protestant denominations and the last 3% to other Christian persuasions (including Orthodox Christians, Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons). 25% of the population was not affiliated with any religion (with 4% self-identifying as atheists and another 4% self-identifying as agnostics), 9% of the inhabitants adhered to non-Christian religions (primarily Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism) and a remaining 1% answered 'don't know'.[8]
The city has the most Druze living anywhere in the world outside Lebanon or Syria.[9]
Los Angeles has the world's largest population of Saudi Arabian expatriates (est. 20,000) according to the Saudi Embassy of the USA.[10]
In the 1980 and 1990 Census, Bosnians established themselves in fairly large numbers in L.A. before the breakup of the former Yugoslavia and Bosnian War of the 1990s. However, Yugoslav immigration was present in Los Angeles and Southern California (i.e. San Pedro, Los Angeles) since the turn of the 20th century.[12]
Salvadoran Americans are the second largest Hispanic population in Los Angeles, a city which holds the largest Salvadoran population outside of El Salvador and the Salvadoran diaspora living abroad and overseas. These were refugees that arrived in the 1980s and 1990s during the Salvadoran Civil War which was part of the Central American Crisis.
Los Angeles hosts the largest population of Belizeans outside of Belize, with approximately 55,000 Belizeans residing in the Greater Los Angeles area. They are primarily concentrated in South Central, Inglewood, and Compton. The Belizean community, consisting largely of Belizean Kriols along with smaller numbers of Garifuna and Mestizos, is one of the largest groups of Black Central American, Caribbean, and Black immigrants in Los Angeles County.[citation needed]
Armenians made an ethnic presence in Silver Lake/Elysian Park and Los Feliz/Hollywood.[13]
The city has a sizable Puerto Rican community (50,000 out of 145,000 in California), with just as many in San Diego, the largest west of the Mississippi River and also Puerto Rico.[14]
Once a tradition the descendants of original Anglo-American settlers who represented civic leaders and economic influence in the city of L.A. held Iowa picnics in MacArthur Park, but that's no longer held since the early 1970s.[15]
L.A. along with Pasadena in the turn of the 20th century were one of two earliest world-known retirement communities to attracted a large number of senior citizens looked for a warmer climate to better fight health ailments.[23]
L.A. hosts the fourth largest number of Muslims in the United States.[24] When the estimated 500,000 Muslims living in the greater Los Angeles area are included, Los Angeles hosts the second largest number of Muslims among U.S. cities.[25]
There are around 50,000 Roma living in the Los Angeles area, making it one of the cities with the highest Roma concentration in the U.S.[26]
More than 1.2 million Los Angeles residents are of Mexican ancestry. Mexican influences can be seen in the city’s culture.[27]Mexican Americans are the largest ethnic group in Los Angeles.
Greeks began immigrating to Los Angeles in the 1890s. There was a small population of Greeks living in the Boyle Heights area, along with other immigrant groups including Russians, Syrians, Armenians, and East European Jews by the late 1890s.[28]
Los Angeles has the largest Thai population outside of Thailand.[31]
Los Angeles is home to the second largest Muslim population in the United States after New York as well as one of the largest population of Romani Americans in the United States.[32]
^Wayne S. Vucinich (September 1960). "Yugoslavs in California". The Historical Society of Southern California Quarterly. 42 (3): 287–309. doi:10.2307/41169470. JSTOR41169470.
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