Los Angeles Map
Spread across a coastal basin between the Pacific and the San Gabriel Mountains, Los Angeles had about 3.88 million residents in 2024 — second only to New York.
Where is Los Angeles?
Los Angeles occupies the southwestern corner of California, on a broad plain that runs from the Santa Monica Mountains south to the sea. The city limits are famously irregular: a narrow corridor runs south to the port at San Pedro, and the San Fernando Valley sits behind the hills to the north. Driving times put it about 120 miles northwest of San Diego, roughly 270 miles southwest of Las Vegas, and some 380 road miles south of San Francisco.
Los Angeles at a glance
| State | California |
| County | Los Angeles County |
| Population | 3,878,704 (2024 Census estimate) |
| Rank among US cities | No. 2 of the 100 largest |
| Time zone | Pacific Time |
| Region | West (Pacific division) |
No. 2 on the 2024 list is a margin of 4,599,368 people: that is how far Los Angeles trails New York, while Chicago is 1,157,396 further back. No other California city on the list comes near it: next are San Diego, San Jose and San Francisco. That is about 10% of California's 39.43 million residents inside a single municipal line. It holds about 40% of Los Angeles County's 9,757,179 residents.
Los Angeles in California
Los Angeles is the largest city in California and the seat of Los Angeles County, which by itself holds close to a quarter of the state's people — see the California county map for how it compares with the other 57. Neighboring cities in the same county include Long Beach on San Pedro Bay and Glendale to the north; Anaheim and Santa Ana lie southeast in Orange County. The state capital, Sacramento, is far to the north — the California state page lays out the split.
Mountains, basin and coast
The Los Angeles Basin is ringed on three sides by mountains — the Santa Monicas, the San Gabriels and the Santa Ana Mountains — and open on the fourth to the Pacific coast. That bowl shape traps air, which is why smog became a Los Angeles problem before it was anyone else's. The Los Angeles River, channelised in concrete for most of its length, runs from the San Fernando Valley to Long Beach. The San Andreas Fault passes about 35 miles northeast of downtown, along the far side of the San Gabriels.
Cities near Los Angeles
Nearby on the map are Long Beach, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Riverside and San Diego. For the rest of the state's big cities, start from the California map, or test your placement of the western states with the West region quiz.