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This article is about the region of Southern California. For the university, see University of Southern California. For the urban complex straddling the United States-Mexico border, see Bajalta California.
Downtown Los Angeles skyline
Many major companies are headquartered in Southern California, particularly Los Angeles.
Southern California (often abbreviated as So Cal) is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its population is centered on the cities of Los Angeles, San Diego, San Bernardino, and Riverside. Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation\'s second most populated region, behind only the BosWash Region in the Eastern United States.
There is no official definition for the northern boundary of Southern California, however, most definitions in use include all the land south of the Tehachapi Mountains, located about 70 miles (113 km) north of Los Angeles. Some definitions simply use the 36th parallel north which forms the northern borders of San Luis Obispo, Kern, and San Bernardino counties.
On the west of Southern California lies the Pacific Ocean; to the south is the international border between the United States and Mexico; to the east are the Mojave and Colorado Deserts and the Colorado River at the state\'s border with Arizona and Nevada.
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Within its boundaries is a major world city, Los Angeles, and three of the country\'s largest metropolitan areas.The three metropolitan areas are: 1) Los Angeles–Long Beach–Santa Ana(the second largest in the US), 2) Riverside–San Bernardino–Ontario (also know as the Inland Empire) and 3) San Diego–Carlsbad–San Marcos - see: United States metropolitan areas
Downtown San Diego
Its counties of Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, San Bernardino, and Riverside are in the top 15 most populous counties in the United States. The region is also home to Los Angeles International Airport, the third-busiest airport in the United States by passenger volume,World\'s busiest airports by passenger traffic and the 2nd by international passenger volume,Busiest airports in the United States by international passenger traffic Van Nuys Airport, the world\'s busiest general aviation airport, Ontario International Airport, John Wayne International Airport, San Diego International Airport, and San Bernardino International Airport . Southern California is also home to the Port of Los Angeles, the United States\' busiest commercial port, and the adjacent Port of Long Beach. Also of note in the region is the freeway system, which is the world\'s busiest. Six of the seven lines of the commuter rail system, Metrolink, run out of Downtown Los Angeles, connecting Los Angeles, Ventura, San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange, and San Diego Counties with the other line connecting San Bernardino, Riverside, and Orange counties directly, the nation\'s first suburb-to-suburb commuter rail line.
The Tech Coast is a moniker that has gained use as a descriptor for the region\'s diversified technology and industrial base as well as its multitude of prestigious and world-renowned research universities and other public and private institutions. Amongst these include five University of California campuses (Los Angeles (UCLA), Irvine, Riverside, Santa Barbara, and San Diego (UCSD) campuses), 12 California State University campuses (Bakersfield, Channel Islands, Dominguez Hills, Fullerton, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona), Northridge (CSUN), San Bernardino, San Diego (SDSU), San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly), and San Marcos campuses), as well as private institutions such as Caltech, the University of Southern California, and the Claremont Colleges.
The famous Hollywood sign in Los Angeles, a symbol of the city\'s world famous entertainment culture.
Southern California is also the entertainment (motion picture, television, and recorded music) capital of the world and is home to Hollywood, the center of the motion picture industry. Headquartered in Southern California are The Walt Disney Company (which also owns ABC), Sony Pictures, Universal, MGM, Paramount Pictures (parent company of Dreamworks), 20th Century Fox and Warner Brothers, and as well as Univision, Activision, and THQ. Southern California is also home to the world\'s largest adult entertainment industry, located primarily in the San Fernando Valley. More than 85% of adult film and video production in North America takes place in the area.
Besides the entertainment industry, Southern California is also home to a large surf and skateboard culture. Companies such as Volcom, Quiksilver, O\'Neill clothing division, Lost Enterprises, Sector 9Sector 9 Incorporated - San Diego, CA, RVCA, Body Glove and SurflineSurfline - Huntington Beach, CA are all headquartered here. Professional skateboarder Tony Hawk, professional surfers Rob Machado, Tom Curran, Pat O\'Connell, Dane Reynolds, and Chris Ward, and professional snowboarder Shaun White live in Southern California. Some of the world\'s legendary surf spots are here as well, including Trestles, Rincon, The Wedge, Huntington Beach, and Malibu, and it is second only to the island of Oahu in terms of famous surf breaks. Brand name skate parks including the Vans Skate Park in Orange, the Etnies Park in Lake Forest, and the YMCA Skate Park in Encinitas are in Southern California. Some of the world\'s biggest extreme sports events including the X Gameshttp://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-xgames7aug07,0,5636019.story?coll=la-home-headlines, Boost Mobile Prohttp://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/13/sports/othersports/13surfing.html, and the US Open of Surfinghttp://www.usopenofsurfing.com/history.php are all in Southern California.
Southern California is home to many successful sports franchises and sports networks such as Fox Sports Net. Teams that are located in the region include the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Galaxy, Chivas USA, Los Angeles Riptide, and San Diego Chargers. Southern California also hosts a number of popular NCAA sports programs, such as the UCLA Bruins, the USC Trojans, and the SDSU Aztecs.
With inhabitants from all over the world, Southern California has always been at the forefront of popular culture as well as a pioneer of several subcultures, including the hippie movement, and various musical movements such as skate punk, hardcore punk, and West Coast Rap with its gangster/"g-funk" style. The Los Angeles area in particular has always been one of the most important areas for entertainment, the arts, architecture, and food, all of which reflects the broad influence Los Angeles has on the world\'s culture.
Southern California counties
The region\'s northern boundary is subject to a broader degree of interpretation than those of the West, East, and South. The most commonly used physical boundary between "Southern California" and the rest of the state is the Tehachapi Range[citation needed], located about 70 miles (113 km) north of Los Angeles, and the Transverse Rangeshttp://ceres.ca.gov/ceres/calweb/coastal/mountains.html in Santa Barbara County west to Point Conception.. A less inclusive boundary is the San Gabriel Mountain range[citation needed], located 10 to 30 miles (48 km) north of downtown Los Angeles, but this boundary is generally not accepted because land north of the San Gabriel Mountain Range but south of the Tehachapi Mountain Range is largely inside Los Angeles County. Depending on which of the two mountain ranges is used for the northern boundary of the region, different municipalities and counties are included in, or excluded from, the area called "Southern California."
More inclusive definitions use the San Gabriel Mountain range or the sixth standard parallel south as the boundary. When the San Gabriel Ranch is taken as the boundary, seven counties (listed in descending order of population) are included: Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura, and Imperial. When the sixth parallel south (36th parallel north) is taken as the boundary, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Kern County, California are included as well for a total of ten counties. Under this last definition the other 48 California counties comprise Northern California[citation needed].
| County | Population (Jan 2007 estimate) | Land Area (mi²) | Density (per mi²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Bernardino County | 2,028,013 | 20,105 | 100.9 |
| Los Angeles County | 10,331,939 | 4,061 | 2,544.2 |
| Ventura County | 825,512 | 1,846 | 447.2 |
| San Diego County | 3,098,269 | 4,200 | 737.7 |
| Riverside County | 2,031,625 | 7,207 | 281.9 |
| Orange County | 3,098,121 | 789 | 3,926.6 |
| Imperial County | 172,672 | 4,175 | 41.36 |
| Southern California | 21,586,151 | 42,383 | 509 |
| City | Population (2007 estimate) |
|---|---|
| Santa Barbara | 89,456 |
| Goleta, Santa Barbara County | 30,169 |
| Carpinteria, Santa Barbara County | 14,123 |
| Summerland CDP, Santa Barbara County | 1,545 (2000 Census) |
| Isla Vista CDP, Santa Barbara County | 18,344 (2000 Census) |
| Mission Canyon CDP, Santa Barbara County | 2,610 (2000 Census) |
| Toro Canyon CDP, Santa Barbara County | 1,697 (2000 Census) |
| Hope Ranch, Santa Barbara County | 2,200 (2000 Census) |
| Southern Coast of Santa Barbara County | 170,144 |
| Kern County | 801,648 |
| SoCal boundary disputed | 971,792 |
Source : http://www.dof.ca.gov/HTML/DEMOGRAP/ReportsPapers/Estimates/E1/documents/e-1press.pdf
Southern California is in part a heavily developed urban environment, along with vast arid areas that have been left undeveloped. It is the second-largest urbanized region in the United States, second only to the Washington, D.C./Philadelphia/New York/Boston megalopolis (BosWash). Whereas the BosWash cities are dense, with major downtown populations and significant rail and transit systems, much of SoCal is famous for its large, spread-out, suburban communities and use of automobiles and highways. The dominant areas are Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Riverside, and San Bernardino, each of which is the center of its respective metropolitan area, which are in turn composed of numerous other cities and communities.
Traveling south on Interstate 5, the main gap to continued urbanization is Camp Pendleton. The communities along Interstate 15 and Interstate 215 are so inter-related that Temecula has as much connection with San Diego County as it does with the Inland Empire. To the east, the United States Census Bureau considers the San Bernardino and Riverside County areas, Riverside-San Bernardino Area as a separate metropolitan area from Los Angeles County. While many commute to L.A. and Orange Counties, there are some differences in development, as most of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties were developed in the 1980s and 1990s.
The Downtown Los Angeles skyline seen on an average hazy June Day, from the Santa Ana Freeway. At 1,018 feet (310 m), 73 floors, The U.S. Bank Tower stands as the West Coast\'s tallest since 1989.
Tallest building in Downtown San Diego
Downtown Santa Monica
Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura are also counties in the Central Coast.
See Southern California Zip Codes
Southern California is also divided into the Coastal Region (Orange County, Los Angeles County, San Diego County, Santa Barbara County, and Ventura County) and the larger, more sparsely populated, desert Inland Empire (San Bernardino County, Riverside County, and Imperial County). The division between the Coastal Regions and the Inland Empire winds along the backs of the coastal mountain ranges such as the Santa Ana Mountains. A related geographical term is cismontane Southern California, which refers to the portion of California on the coastal side of the Transverse and Peninsular mountain ranges. The term "Southern California" often refers to this region specifically, as opposed to largely desert areas comprising the rest of the southern portion of the state, which are referred to as transmontane Southern California.
View from La Jolla Cove in San Diego
Summits in the eastern San Gabriel Mountains, Angeles National Forest, San Bernardino County
Sunset in Huntington Beach
The following are central business districts in Southern California:
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Golden State Freeway/Santa Ana Freeway/San Diego Freeway/Montgomery Freeway (Interstate 5)
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Ocean Beach Freeway/Mission Valley Freeway (Interstate 8)
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Santa Monica (Rosa Parks) Freeway/Golden State Freeway/San Bernardino Freeway (Interstate 10)
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Mojave Freeway/Barstow Freeway/Ontario Freeway/Corona Freeway/Temecula Valley Freeway/Escondido Freeway (Interstate 15)
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Century (Glenn Anderson) Freeway (Interstate 105)
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Harbor Freeway (Interstate 110)
.svg/58px-I-210 (CA).svg)
Foothill Freeway (Interstate 210, expected to expand along current 
in near future)
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Barstow Freeway/San Bernardino Freeway/Moreno Valley Freeway/Escondido Freeway (Interstate 215)
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San Diego Freeway (Interstate 405)
.svg/58px-I-605 (CA).svg)
San Gabriel River Freeway (Interstate 605)
.svg/58px-I-710 (CA).svg)
Long Beach Freeway (Interstate 710)
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Jacob Dekema Freeway (Interstate 805)
.svg/58px-I-905 (CA).svg)
Future Interstate 905
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This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia\'s quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (March 2006) |
Pacific Coast Highway (PCH)/Lincoln Boulevard/Sepulveda Boulevard/Oxnard Boulevard/Coast Highway/Camino las Ramblas (State Route 1)
Angeles Crest Highway/Glendale Freeway/Santa Monica Boulevard (State Route 2)
Antelope Valley Freeway (State Route 14)
Rosemead Boulevard/Lakewood Boulevard
Seventh Street/Garden Grove Freeway (State Route 22)
Decker Road/Mulholland Highway/Westlake Boulevard
Topanga Canyon Boulevard
Ojai Freeway (State Route 33)
San Gabriel Canyon Road/Azusa Avenue/Beach Boulevard
Manchester Boulevard
Terminal Island Freeway/Seaside Avenue/Vincent Thomas Bridge
Soledad Freeway
South Bay Freeway/2nd Street
Costa Mesa Freeway/Newport Boulevard (State Route 55)
Ted Williams Freeway (State Route 56)
Orange Freeway (State Route 57)
Pomona Freeway/Moreno Valley Freeway (State Route 60)
Foothill Boulevard
Julian Road/San Vicente Freeway
Corona Expressway/Chino Valley Freeway (State Route 71)
Firestone Boulevard/Whittier Boulevard
San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor (toll road) (State Route 73)
Ortega Highway/Palms to Pines Highway (State Route 74)
San Diego-Coronado Bridge/Silver Strand Boulevard
Mission Avenue/Pala Road/Cuyamaca Highway
unnamed freeway/San Pasqual Valley Road
Winchester Road/Temecula Parkway/Firefighter Steven Rucker Memorial Highway (State Route 79)
Euclid Avenue
unnamed highway
Marina Freeway/Imperial Highway/Richard Nixon Freeway (State Route 90)
Artesia Boulevard/Gardena Freeway/Artesia Freeway/Riverside Freeway (State Route 91)
Martin Luther King Jr. Freeway/Campo Road
Hawthorne Boulevard
Pasadena Freeway (State Route 110)
unnamed highway
Ronald Reagan Freeway (State Route 118)
unnamed freeway (State Route 125)
Santa Paula Freeway (State Route 126)
Eastern Transportation Corridor (toll road)/Laguna Canyon Road (State Route 133)
Ventura Freeway (State Route 134)
Carbon Canyon Road
Cabrillo Freeway (State Route 163)
Hollywood Freeway/Highland Avenue (State Route 170)
Catalina Boulevard/Canon Street/Rosecrans Street
Foothill Freeway (Merges with in San Dimas, formerly the 
)
Western Avenue
Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor (toll road) (State Route 241)
Balboa Avenue
3rd/4th Street
Cahuilla Road
Otay Mesa Freeway/Otay Mesa Road ( once the freeway is complete.)
Map of major Southern California area codes
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