Los Angeles

California's biggest city, Los Angeles, is often referred to and written as its initialism, L.A. With a projected population of 3,898,747 people in 2020, it will be the second-largest city in the United States, after New York City, and the third-largest city in North America, after Mexico City and New York City, respectively. In addition to its Mediterranean climate, ethnic and cultural diversity, the Hollywood entertainment industry, and its vast metropolitan area, Los Angeles is renowned for a variety of other things as well.

California's largest city, Los Angeles, is situated in a basin near the Pacific Ocean in southern California, surrounded by mountains up to 10,000 feet (3,000 metres) in height and deserts on either side. In addition to serving as the county capital of Los Angeles County, which is the most populous county in the United States, the city has a total land area of about 469 square miles (1,210 km2). It is the second-largest metropolitan region in the United States after the New York City metropolitan area, with a population of 13.1 million people. More specifically, Greater Los Angeles includes the metropolitan region of Los Angeles, as well as the Inland Empire and Ventura County, among other areas. This combined statistical area in the United States is the second most populous in the country, behind New York, with an estimated population of 18.7 million people in 2015.

The region that would become Los Angeles was originally inhabited by the Chumash and Tongva tribes before being acquired by Spain in 1542 by Juan Rodrguez Cabrillo. The hamlet of Yaanga was the site of the city's founding on September 4, 1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve, on which the city was built. Following the Mexican War of Independence, it became a part of the Mexican Republic in 1821. Los Angeles and the rest of California were acquired as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, marking the conclusion of the Mexican–American War and the beginning of the United States' colonisation of the territory. Los Angeles was officially established as a municipality on April 4, 1850, five months before the state of California was established. The discovery of oil in the 1890s resulted in the city seeing tremendous development. The construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, which transports water from eastern California to the city in 1913, allowed the city to grow even more rapidly.

Los Angeles has a varied and thriving economy, and it is home to companies in a wide variety of professional and cultural sectors, as well as many others. In addition, it is home to the busiest container port in all of the Americas. With a gross metropolitan product of more than $1.0 trillion in 2018, the Los Angeles metropolitan area surpassed Tokyo and New York Metropolis to become the city with the world's third-largest GDP, behind only the latter two. The Summer Olympics were held in Los Angeles in 1932 and 1984, and the city will host the Summer Olympics in 2028.