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Wikipedia: Southern California
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
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Downtown Los Angeles Skyline

Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, 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. Southern California also contains a plethora of diverse landscapes including towering mountain ranges, deep valleys, vast deserts, scenic islands, large swaths of forest, and a breathtaking rugged coastline with miles of sandy beaches.

Counties usually associated with Southern California are Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Imperial; also in some cases Santa Barbara. On the west is 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. To the north is the Tehachapi Mountain range, located about 70 miles north of Los Angeles, which separates the region from the rest of the state.

Southern California
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Southern California
The famous Hollywood sign, a symbol of the city's world famous entertainment culture
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The famous Hollywood sign, a symbol of the city's world famous entertainment culture
Many Major Companies are Headquartered in Southern California, particularly Los Angeles.
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Many Major Companies are Headquartered in Southern California, particularly Los Angeles.

Significance

Within its boundaries is a major world city, Los Angeles, and three of the country's largest metropolitan areas.[1] [citation needed] 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,[2] and the 2nd by international passenger volume,[3] Van Nuys Airport, the world's busiest general aviation airport, Ontario International Airport, John Wayne International Airport, and San Diego 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 Los Angeles 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), eleven California State University campuses (Bakersfield, Channel Islands, 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 the University of Southern California (USC), the University of San Diego (USD), Loyola Marymount University (LMU), Chapman University, the Claremont Colleges (Claremont McKenna, Pomona, Pitzer, Scripps, Harvey Mudd, and the Keck and Claremont Graduate Universities), Pepperdine University, and Cal Tech.

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, Quicksilver, Lost Enterprises, Sector 9[4], RVCA, and Surfline[5] 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 Games, Boost Mobile Pro, and the US Open of Surfing are all in Southern California.[verification needed]

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.

Northern boundary

Tehachapi Mountains
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Tehachapi Mountains

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 Mountain range, located about 70 miles north of Los Angeles. A less inclusive boundary is the San Gabriel Mountain range, located 10 to 30 miles 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 communities/cities and counties are included in, or excluded from, the area called "Southern California".

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
  • Using the Tehachapi Mountain range as the key to a northern boundary, as well as the east-west trending Santa Ynez Mountain range, the southern parts of Santa Barbara and Kern Counties should be included. The city of Santa Barbara is widely held to be in Southern California, due to the mild climate and the westerward alignment of the coastline, but Bakersfield and most of Kern County are usually regarded as a part of the Central Valley.
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

Urban landscape

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, San Diego, and Orange County, 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 as a separate metropolitan area from Los Angeles County. While many commute to LA and Orange Counties, there are some differences in development, as most of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties was 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, 73 Floors, The US Bank Tower stands as the West Coast's tallest since 1989.
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The Downtown Los Angeles skyline seen on an average hazy June Day, from the Santa Ana Freeway. At 1,018 feet, 73 Floors, The US Bank Tower stands as the West Coast's tallest since 1989.

Regions

Major cities (over 200,000 inhabitants)

All population information is from the 2005 estimate of the State of California.[citation needed]

Downtown San Diego
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Downtown San Diego

Principal cities (over 100,000 inhabitants)

Ventura City Hall in Old Town Ventura
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Ventura City Hall in Old Town Ventura
Downtown Santa Monica
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Downtown Santa Monica

Counties

South of the San Gabriel mountains
North of the San Gabriel mountains

Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura are also counties in the Central Coast.

ZIP Codes

See Southern California Zip Codes

Geographical regions

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.

Geographic features

View from La Jolla Cove in San Diego
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View from La Jolla Cove in San Diego
Summits in the eastern San Gabriel Mountains, Angeles National Forest, San Bernardino County
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Summits in the eastern San Gabriel Mountains, Angeles National Forest, San Bernardino County
Coachella Valley Preserve in the Colorado Desert in Riverside County
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Coachella Valley Preserve in the Colorado Desert in Riverside County
Sunset in Santa Monica
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Sunset in Santa Monica

Transportation

One of the large LAX signs that greet visitors to LAX. This sign is at the Century Boulevard entrance to Los Angeles International Airport
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One of the large LAX signs that greet visitors to LAX. This sign is at the Century Boulevard entrance to Los Angeles International Airport

Airports

Freeways

Main article: Southern California freeways

Interstate Highways

U.S. Highway system


California State Routes

Note: highway segments with names listed in italics are surface streets and not freeways.

Major public transit organizations

Metrolink commuter lines

Main article: Metrolink (Southern California)

Communication

Telephone area codes

Map of major Southern California area codes
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Map of major Southern California area codes