Downtown Los Angeles, Venice Beach, Griffith Observatory, Hollywood Sign
Los Angeles (which is written Los Ángeles, Spanish for The Angels), often known by its initials L.A., is the most populous city in the State of California and the second most populated in the United States, after New York City, with a population at the 2010 U.S. Census of 3,792,621. It has an area of 469 square miles (1215 kilometers), and is located in Southern California.
The city is the focal point of the larger Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana metropolitan statistical area and Greater Los Angeles Area region, which contain 12,828,837 and nearly 18 million people respectively as of 2010, making it one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world and the second largest in the United States. It is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated and one of the most ethnically diverse counties in the United States, while the entire area itself has been recognized as the most diverse of the nation's largest cities. Its inhabitants are referred to as "Angelenos."