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Los Angeles, 
United States
12,740,420 people lived in Los Angeles in 2025. It is the 27th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in the United States.
Like every city on this site, Los Angeles is counted as a built-up area seen from above rather than as a city government's territory. Why that changes the number.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Los Angeles grew
For every 10 people in Los Angeles in 1975, there were 16.5 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 13.9 million people in 2050. It passed ten million people between 1985 and 1990.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: each column is one of the UN's five-yearly estimates, 1975 through 2050, and taller means more people. Where a column is hatched the year has not happened yet. The strip under the columns is the UN's own confidence in each figure, palest where it is least sure; where it is blank the city was not on the list at all.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Los Angeles through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Los Angeles in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
United States · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 348 cities in the United States in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being New York City. The ringed dot in colour is Los Angeles; the grey dots are the rest. The outlines around them are neighbouring countries.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Los Angeles covered 3,699 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 1,239 km² of it. That is 97 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 10 by 10 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 49%, and its people have grown by 65%.
How to read this: pale is the whole of the city's land; the stronger square inside it is what is actually built on. The three are drawn to the same scale, so a larger square really is more land, and hatching means the year is the UN's projection rather than a count.
Of every 100 people in the United States
Its share of the United States
Of every 100 people in the United States in 2025, 4 lived in Los Angeles, which is 12.7 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in the United States, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Los Angeles's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 23 Shenzhen China13,878,396
- 24 Bengaluru India13,187,098
- 25 Osaka Japan12,964,145
- 26 Lagos Nigeria12,791,699
- 27 Los Angeles12,740,420
- 28 Luanda Angola11,370,127
- 29 Chennai India11,153,205
- 30 Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo10,943,641
- 31 Bogotá Colombia10,624,315
In the United States, 2025
- 22 New York City13,920,148
- 27 Los Angeles12,740,420
- 115 Houston3,955,046
- 125 Chicago3,683,385
- 145 Washington, D.C.3,270,018
- 155 San Francisco3,163,486
- 170 Miami2,912,486
- 221 Denver2,265,994
- 225 Philadelphia2,232,420
How to read this: the figure in front of a name is where that city stands among the 12,138 cities the UN counted in 2025, and each bar is its people, on one scale per list. Numbers are missing where a city has fewer than 300,000 people and so has no page of its own.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Los Angeles are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1975 to 2025, then projection to 2050. Projected years are drawn hatched, and the UN publishes no range of uncertainty for a city. What a city means here, how the UN measures one, and why that number can differ from the one Los Angeles publishes about itself: how the figures here are put together.
Sources: UN WUP 2025 · Natural Earth · flag-icons. Every source, its licence and how to cite it →
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries