Greater Los Angeles Area


The Greater Los Angeles Area, or the Southland, is the agglomeration of urbanized area around the city of Los Angeles, California. There are two "official" definitions — the Los Angeles metropolitan area consisting only of Los Angeles and Orange County, and the Combined Statistical Area (a group of interacting metropolitan areas) sprawled over five counties in the southern part of California, namely Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County, Riverside County and Ventura County. A common unofficial definition includes the region ranging from Ventura County to the southwestern area of San Bernardino County. It is not always meaningful to refer to Los Angeles as a distinct city, and people outside of Southern California often refer to the entire region as L.A. even though it includes five counties, more than 100 distinct municipalities, and more people than any individual state except for Texas, New York, Florida, and California itself.