Los Angeles (US: lawss AN-j?l-?s; Spanish: Los ngeles [los ?a?xeles], lit.?'The Angels'), often referred to by its initials L.A., officially the City of Los Angeles, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of California. With roughly 3.9 million residents within the city limits as of 2020, Los Angeles is the second-most populous city in the United States, behind only New York City; it is the commercial, financial and cultural center of the Southern California region. Los Angeles has a Mediterranean climate, an ethnically and culturally diverse population, in addition to a sprawling metropolitan area.
The majority of the city proper lies in a basin in Southern California adjacent to the Pacific Ocean in the west and extending partly through the Santa Monica Mountains and north into the San Fernando Valley, with the city bordering the San Gabriel Valley to its east. It covers about 469 square miles (1,210 km2), and is the county seat of Los Angeles County, which is the most populous county in the United States with an estimated 9.86 million residents as of 2022. It is the third-most visited city in the U.S. with over 4.6 million visitors as of 2019.The area that became Los Angeles was originally inhabited by the indigenous Tongva people and later claimed by Juan Rodrguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542.
