Ethnic groups in Los Angeles

Los Angeles was founded by settlers who were predominantly of African descent and the city had 2,100 Black Americans in 1900. By 1920 this grew to approximately 15,000. In 1910, the city had the highest percentage of black home ownership in the nation, with more than 36% of the city's African-American residents owning their own homes. Black leader W.E.B. Du Bois described Los Angeles in 1913 as a "wonderful place" because it was less subjected to racial discrimination due to its population being small and the ongoing tensions between Anglos and Mexicans. This changed in the 1920s when restrictive covenants that enforced segregation became widespread. Blacks were mostly confined along the South Central corridor, Watts, and small enclaves in Venice and Pacoima, which received far fewer services than other areas of the city. After World War II, the city's black population grew from 63,774 in 1940 to 170,000 a decade later as many continued to flee from the South for better opportunities. By 1960, Los Angeles had the fifth largest black population in the United States, larger than any city in the South. Still, they remained in segregated enclaves. The Supreme Court banned the legal enforcement of race-oriented restrictive covenants in the Shelley v. Kraemer case (1948), yet black home ownership declined severely By 1990, the LAPD, which had followed a paramilitaristic model since Chief Parker's regime in the 1950s, became more alienated from minority communities following accusations of racial profiling. Caribbean and African black immigrants are more recent. 7,000 Nigerians, 5,000 Ethiopians, 1,000 Ghanaians, 9,900 Jamaicans, 1,900 Haitians, and 1,700 Trinidadians live in Los Angeles. They are concentrated in South Los Angeles, Compton and Inglewood. There is an Ethiopian and Eritrean community in Little Ethiopia. Louisiana Creoles are present in Los Angeles. Between 1940 and 1970, roughly 5 million African Americans from the Southern United States migrated North during the Second Great Migration. Many came from Southern states bordering the Gulf Coast, primarily Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Black families from Louisiana escaping Jim Crow racism primarily settled in California. Many of them were Louisiana Creoles. Ethiopians There is a large Ethiopian community in Little Ethiopia. Eritreans There is an Eritrean community in Los Angeles. Jamaicans Jamaicans are concentrated in South Los Angeles, South Bay and Long Beach. Africans There is a growing African immigrant community in Los Angeles. The largest African immigrant groups are Egyptians, Nigerians, South Africans, Ghanaians, Ethiopians, Cameroonians, Moroccans, Ugandans, Kenyans and Eritreans. Louisiana Creoles Black Louisiana Creole people from Louisiana settled in Los Angeles. ==Asian Americans==

According to the report "A Community Of Contrasts: Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in Los Angeles County" by the nonprofit group Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Los Angeles (formerly the Asian Pacific American Legal Center), Los Angeles County had 1,497,960 Asian Americans as of 2010. From 2000 to 2010 the Asian population in Los Angeles County increased by 20%. Within Los Angeles County, as of 2010 13 cities and places are majority Asian. As of that year, the City of Los Angeles had the highest numeric Asian population, with slightly fewer than 500,000. The city with the highest percentage of Asians was Monterey Park, which was 68% Asian. From 2000 to 2010 the city of Arcadia saw its Asian population increase by 38%, the largest such increase in the county. Cambodians Cambodians are concentrated in Long Beach, Van Nuys in the San Fernando Valley, the Monterey Park-Alhambra area of the south San Gabriel Valley and the Walnut-Pomona area of the east San Gabriel Valley. Chinese The first Chinese arrived in Los Angeles in 1850. The great majority came from Guangdong Province in southeastern China, seeking a fortune in Gum Saan ("Gold Mountain"), the Chinese name for America. Henry Huntington came to value their expertise as engineers. He later said he would not have been able to build his portion of the transcontinental railroad without them. After the transcontinental railroad was completed, most took their earnings and returned to China, where they could find a wife and own a little land. Others moved to Chinatowns in the cities. By 1870, there were 178 Chinese in LA; 80% were adult men. Most worked as launderers, cooks and fruit and vegetable growers and sellers. Labor unions blamed Chinese for lowering the wages and living standards of Anglo workers, and for being ruled by violent secret societies known as "tongs." The newspapers of both Los Angeles and San Francisco were filled with anti-Chinese propaganda. Filipino American communities can be found throughout the city, however there is a dedicated Historic Filipinotown located near Echo Park. Indians Around 109,000 Indian Americans reside in Los Angeles County. Indonesians There is an Indonesian community in the Los Angeles area. Japanese The labor vacuum created by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was filled by Japanese workers and, by 1910, the settlement known as "Little Tokyo" had risen next to Chinatown. As of December 1941, there were 37,000 ethnic Japanese in Los Angeles County, most of the adults lacked United States citizenship. It was disrupted in 1942 with all the residents moved to relocation camps inland in the Japanese American internment. Koreans Since 1965 when the immigration laws were liberalized, Los Angeles has emerged as a major center of the Korean American community. Its "Koreatown" is often seen as the "overseas Korean capital." Many have been entrepreneurs, opening shops and small factories. Koreatown experienced rapid transition in the 1990s, with heavy investment by Korean banks and corporations, and the arrival of tens of thousands of Koreans, as well as even larger numbers of Hispanic workers. Many entrepreneurs opened small businesses, and were hard hit by the 1992 Los Angeles riots. More recently, L.A.'s Koreatown has been perceived to have experienced declining political power secondary to re-districting and an increased crime rate, prompting an exodus of Koreans from the area. After the riots many relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area. According to Park (1998) the violence against Korean Americans in 1992 stimulated a new wave of political activism among Korean Americans, but it also split them into two main camps. The "liberals" sought to unite with other minorities in Los Angeles to fight against racial oppression and scapegoating. The "conservatives," emphasized law and order and generally favored the economic and social policies of the Republican Party. The conservatives tended to emphasize the political differences between Koreans and other minorities, specifically blacks and Hispanics. Abelmann and Lie, (1997) report that the most profound result was the politicization of Korean Americans, all across the U.S. The younger generation especially realized they had been too uninvolved in American politics, and the riot shifted their political attention from South Korea to conditions in the United States. Roma 50,000 Roma live in Los Angeles. Thais The largest Thai diaspora outside of Thailand is in Los Angeles. The ethnic enclave Thai Town, Los Angeles epitomizes the Thai community in Los Angeles. Vietnamese 87,468 Vietnamese people lived in Los Angeles in 2010. There is a Vietnamese community in the Los Angeles area. The Vietnamese are concentrated in Westminster and Garden Grove in Greater Los Angeles, while other Vietnamese are scattered in small communities around Los Angeles. In the San Fernando Valley, the only significant Vietnamese community is in Reseda. ==European Americans==

The first Europeans to settle in Los Angeles were the Spanish. Spanish explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claimed the land for the Crown of Castile on October 6, 1542. White people are concentrated in Hollywood Hills. There is also a large white population in South Bay, Palos Verdes Peninsula, Bel Air, Malibu, and some sections of the San Gabriel Valley. Basques There is a Basque community in Los Angeles. Bosnians There is a Bosnian community in the city. In the 1980 and 1990 Census, Bosnian people had established themselves in Los Angeles, before the breakup of the former Yugoslavia and Bosnian War of the 1990s. However, Yugoslav immigration was already ongoing in Los Angeles and beyond, in Southern California (i.e. San Pedro, Los Angeles), since the turn of the 20th century's global immigration boom. British Approximately 200,000 British people live in Los Angeles County. Many reside in Santa Monica. Croatians San Pedro, Los Angeles has over 40,000 Croat immigrants and descendants. Croatians settled in the San Pedro area helped develop the tuna industry. Dutch There is a Dutch American presence in the Los Angeles area. The Dutch communities in Southern California emerged as prominent figures in the state's dairy industry. Dutch dairy farms were primarily located in suburban areas surrounding Los Angeles, such as Chino, Artesia, Bellflower and Hynes. In the 1920s, a settlement known as Kleine Nederland (now Paramount) was established in the region, which functioned as a lively social hub. While distinct cultural enclaves have diminished over time, it is noteworthy that approximately fifty percent of all Dutch immigrants arriving in California since World War II continue to do so. French There is a French community in Los Angeles. French international schools include Lycée Français de Los Angeles and International School of Los Angeles. Greeks There is a Greek community in Los Angeles. There is a historically Greek community near Downtown LA known as the Byzantine-Latino Quarter now. There are also big populations of Greeks in Venice, Los Angeles, making up 2% of the neighborhood's population, far higher than the 0.1-0.2% of LA being Greek ethnically. There are 3,500 people with self-reported solitaire Greek ancestry, and another 9,000 report partial Greek ancestry in the City of Los Angeles; this amounts to 12,000 Greek people living in L.A., nearly 1/3 of a percentage of L.A.'s population. Italians There is an Italian community in San Pedro. Russians There is a Russian community in West Hollywood. Russians are also concentrated in Hidden Hills, Calabasas, Los Angeles, Westlake Village, and Agoura Hills. Ukrainians Los Angeles is home to approximately 34,000 Ukrainians. Poles More than 56,000 people of Polish descent live in Los Angeles. Lithuanians There is a Lithuanian community in St. Casimir Lithuanian parish in the Los Feliz area. Latvians There is a Latvian presence in Los Angeles. Around 300 Latvians resided in Los Angeles in 1930. The Latvians worked as surveyors, painters, shoemakers, carpenters, fishermen, farmers, machinists, gardeners and shopkeepers. Romanians More than 10,000 Romanians live in the Greater Los Angeles area. Romanians are scattered in neighborhoods ranging from Santa Monica to Bell. ==Native Americans==

1,700 people Tongva people lived in Los Angeles in 2008. In 2022, some land of Los Angeles County was returned to the Tongva tribe. Native Americans and Alaskan Natives (including Latin American Indian groups) are a low-percentage, yet notable, part of the population. Los Angeles is thought to have the largest Urban Indian community in the United States (est. above 100,000-about 2% or higher upwards to 5% of the city population) who belong to over 100 tribal nations. There are between 2,000 and 25,000 members of the Cherokee Nation based in Tahlequah, Oklahoma in the city and county respectively. There is the local Chumash tribe whose homeland encompasses the Los Angeles Basin and Central Coast of California. Native Americans in Los Angeles, like throughout the country, are referred to an "invisible minority" in the press. ==Hispanic and Latino Americans==

The city has witnessed a development of a Hispanic (mainly Mexican) cultural presence since its settlement as a city in 1781. Mexican Americans have been one of the largest ethnic groups in Los Angeles since the 1910 census, as Mexican immigrants and U.S.-born Mexicans from the Southwest states came to the booming industrial economy of the LA area between 1915 and 1960, the Mexican-American or Chicano population was estimated at 815,000 by 1970. This migration peaked in the 1920s and again in the World War II era (1941–45). The city's original barrios were located in the eastern half of the city and the unincorporated community of East Los Angeles. The trend of Hispanization began in 1970, then accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s with immigration from Mexico and Central America (especially El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala). These immigrants settled in the city's eastern and southern neighborhoods. 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. By 2000, South Los Angeles was a majority Latino area, displacing most previous African American and Asian American residents. The city is often said to have the largest Mexican population outside Mexico and has the largest Spanish-speaking population outside Latin America or Spain. As of 2007, estimates of the number of residents originally from the Mexican state of Oaxaca ranged from 50,000 to 250,000. Central American, Cuban, Puerto Rican, and South American nationalities are also represented. There is a shift of second and third generation Mexican Americans out of Los Angeles into nearby suburbs, such as Ventura County, Orange County, San Diego, and the Inland Empire, California region. Mexican and other Hispanic immigrants moved in east and south sections of Los Angeles and sometimes, Asian immigrants moved into historic barrios to become mostly Asian American areas. Starting in the late 1980s, Downey has become a renowned Latino majority community in Southern California, and the majority of residents moved in were middle or upper-middle class, and second and third generation Mexican Americans. The anti-union, open-shop heritage of the Chandlers and the Los Angeles Times continued to assure Los Angeles of a steady supply of cheap labor from Mexico and Central America throughout the 20th century. This was met by the increasing opposition of anti-immigration forces throughout the country. A steady migration of Mexicans to California from 1910 to 1930 expanded the Mexican and Latino population in Los Angeles to 97,116 or 7.8%. In 1930, a large repatriation of 400–500,000 Mexican immigrants and their children began after the onset of the Depression, massive unemployment, encouragement by the government of Mexico, the threat of deportation and welfare agencies willing to pay for the tickets of those leaving (some 2 million European immigrants left as well). At the same time, the city celebrated its 150th anniversary in 1931 with a grand "fiesta de Los Angeles" featuring a blond "reina" in historic ranchera costume. By 1940 the Latino population dropped to 7.1%, but remained at slightly over 100,000. In the 1960s and 1970s, Chicanos and/or Mexican-Americans in Los Angeles organized protests and demonstrations calling for their civil rights and promoted self-empowerment in the Chicano Movement. In the 1990s, redistricting led to the election of Latino members of the city council and the first Latino members of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors since its inception. In 1994, California voters passed Proposition 187, which denied undocumented immigrants and their families in California welfare, health benefits, and education. City council member Antonio Villaraigosa was elected mayor in 2005, the first Latino elected to that office since the 1872. In 2006 anti-immigration forces supported the federal Border Protection, Anti-terrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 (H.R. 4437). The act made "unlawful presence" an "aggravated felony." On 25 March, a million Latinos staged La Gran Marcha on City Hall to protest the bill. It was the largest demonstration in California history. Similar protests in other cities across the country made this a turning point in the debate on immigration reform. Hispanics are concentrated in San Gabriel Valley suburbs like El Monte, Baldwin Park, Irwindale, and West Covina. More than 10,000 Chileans live in the Los Angeles area. ==Middle Eastern Americans==

Middle Eastern groups in the Los Angeles area include Arab, Armenian, Iranian, and Israeli populations. The U.S. Census classifies them as "White". Over 50% of Middle Eastern men in Los Angeles held professional and managerial jobs as of 1990. Compared to men, women of Middle Eastern backgrounds had less of a likelihood of having these positions. A large number of Middle Eastern immigrants to Los Angeles are self-employed. Arabs As of the 1990 U.S. census, the Los Angeles area had 80,000 Arabs, making up 9% of the total number of Arabs in the United States. This was, outside of Metro Detroit, one of the largest Arab populations in the country. Most Arabs in the Los Angeles area come from Egypt and Lebanon; Arabs from other countries in the Middle East and North Africa are present. Most Arabs in Los Angeles are Muslim and Christian, though some are Jewish. As of 1996, the self-employment rate of Arab managers and professionals in Los Angeles is over 50%. Armenians The Los Angeles metropolitan area has a significant Armenian American population. Beginning in the 1970s, large waves of Armenian immigration to Los Angeles took place, as a result of the Lebanese Civil War, the Iranian Revolution, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the First Nagorno-Karabakh War Iranians Israelis As of the 1990 U.S. census, the Los Angeles area had 20,000 Israelis, making up 17% of the total number of Israelis in the United States. This was the second-largest Israeli population after that of New York City. As of 1996, the self-employment rate of Israeli managers and professionals in Los Angeles is over 50%. ==Pacific Islander Americans==

According to the report "A Community Of Contrasts: Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in Los Angeles County" by the nonprofit group Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Los Angeles, Los Angeles County had 54,169 Pacific Islanders as of 2010. From 2000 to 2010 the Pacific Islander population in Los Angeles County increased by 9%. In 2010 the City of Los Angeles had 15,000 Pacific Islanders, the numerically largest in the county. The largest such per capita population was in Carson. From 2000 to 2010 the number of Pacific Islanders in Glendale increased by 74%, the largest such increase in the county. ==Others==

More than 50,000 Roma live in Los Angeles. The history of Rivertown, aka "Frogtown", a late 19th century enclave of French immigrants in downtown Los Angeles. Los Angeles has a significant Italian population. More than 56,000 people of Polish descent live in Los Angeles. Brazilians are concentrated in Culver City and Palms. Approximately 40,000 Australian Americans reside in the Los Angeles area. Los Angeles has the largest Australian population in the US. There is a Belizean immigrant community in Los Angeles. Los Angeles has a Lithuanian community, mostly concentrated in a section dubbed "Little Lithuania", located north of downtown, by the city of Los Angeles. ==Ethnoreligious groups==

Jewish people Churches Mormons who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints developed a community in Los Angeles as early as the 1890s by settlers from their home base in Utah arrived in the Los Angeles Basin. Their temple is in Westwood, a section of western Los Angeles. ==Ethnic enclaves==

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. Below is a list of many ethnic enclaves present in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. ==Historical demographics==

Los Angeles has a history of Jewish residents, and they used to have neighborhoods on the East side of Los Angeles in the early 20th century. Nowadays, Jews in Los Angeles tend to live in the West side and the San Fernando Valley. The Asian population increased. Los Angeles had a wave of Okies from Oklahoma, the Great Plains and the Southeast states, who were rural whites fleeing drought-ravaged or economically depressed areas in the 1930s, many of them briefly settled in the Arroyo Seco section. ==Ancestries==