Chapter 9 Demographics

Demographics

When equating "The Changing South" to Los Angeles the ever shifting mix of cultures and people that share this region demographically came to mind.












With a population estimate of just under 10,000,000 people, L.A. County is by far the largest, Cook County in Illinois comes in second with a population of 5,194, 675.











The table below provide by the U.S. Census Bureau gives a quick reference to the demographic by age and race.

	People QuickFacts	Los Angeles County	California
	Population, 2011 estimate	NA	37,691,912
	Population, 2010	9,818,605	37,253,956
	Population, percent change, 2000 to 2010	3.1%	10.0%
	Population, 2000	9,519,338	33,871,648
	Persons under 5 years, percent, 2010	6.6%	6.8%
	Persons under 18 years, percent, 2010	24.5%	25.0%
	Persons 65 years and over, percent, 2010	10.9%	11.4%
	Female persons, percent, 2010	50.7%	50.3%

	White persons, percent, 2010 (a)	50.3%	57.6%
	Black persons, percent, 2010 (a)	8.7%	6.2%
	American Indian and Alaska Native persons, percent, 2010 (a)	0.7%	1.0%
	Asian persons, percent, 2010 (a)	13.7%	13.0%
	Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, percent, 2010 (a)	0.3%	0.4%
	Persons reporting two or more races, percent, 2010	4.5%	4.9%
	Persons of Hispanic or Latino origin, percent, 2010 (b)	47.7%	37.6%
	White persons not Hispanic, percent, 2010	27.8%	40.1%

75.9 percent of the population has a High School degree, while only 29 percent hold a Bachelor's or higher. 730,314 students are enrolled in higher education 401,808 being female.










The Catholic church is by-far the largest in terms of people, although the Evangelicals have more congregations.


Religious Affiliation by Religious Body
Los Angeles County

Affiliation	1990		2000
	Congregations	Adherents	Congregations	Adherents
All Religious Bodies	3,536	4,879,355	4,044	5,528,814
Catholic Church	272	3,077,114	278	3,806,377
Orthodox	---	---	46	31,315
Other (see following table)	506	608,113	748	974,062
Protestant Evangelical	1,777	829,693	2,022	587,854
Protestant Mainline	963	355,435	950	339,206

Affiliation of Non-Catholic/Non-Protestant Religious Bodies
Los Angeles County

Religious Body	1990		2000
	Congregations	Adherents	Congregations	Adherents
Bahá'í	---	---	44	6,346
Buddhism (estimate)	---	---	145	70,000*
Church of Christ, Scientist	75	---	---	---
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints	271	103,286	239	97,347
Hindu (estimate)	---	---	37	70,000*
Jehovah’s Witnessess (estimate)	---	62,400	---	70,000*
Jewish (estimate)	145	501,700	202	564,700
Muslim (estimate)	---	---	48	92,919
Sikh	---	---	14	---
Tao	---	---	4	---
Unitarian Universalist Congregations	15	3,127	13	2,750
Zoroastrian	---	---	2	---

There area total of 1,108 gangs with 85,298 members. According to the California Department of Justice the majority are predominately Latino gangs numbering 53,121 members.












According to the Institute for the Study of Homelessness and Poverty at the Weingart Center, an estimated 254,000 men, women and children experience homelessness in Los Angeles County during some part of the year and approximately 82,000 people are homeless on any given night. 48 percent graduated high school and 32 percent have a bachelors degree or higher. Over a quarter of the homeless have some type of mental illness. African Americans make-up approximately half of the homeless population in L.A. County and yet they only make-up just under 9 percent of the overall population. 25 percent of all the children living on the streets were either physically of sexually abused.

There are over 4 million registered voters in L.A. County with 2,286, 987 being Democrats, which make-up 51.40 percent of the electorate, 1,049,383 or 23.58 percent are Republicans.    











Sources:

Los Angeles Almanac
http://www.laalmanac.com/default.htm