Southern California facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Southern California
Southern California Images top to bottom, left to right: San Diego Skyline, Downtown Los Angeles, Village of La Jolla, Santa Monica Pier, Surfer at Black's Beach, Hollywood Sign, Disneyland, Hermosa Beach Pier
Red: The ten counties of Southern California
Country	United States
State	California
Counties	Imperial Kern Los Angeles Orange Riverside San Bernardino San Diego San Luis Obispo Santa Barbara Ventura
Largest city	Los Angeles
Area (10-county)
• Total	56,505 sq mi (146,350 km2)
Population  (2019)	23,860,793

Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban agglomeration in the United States. The region generally contains ten of California's 58 counties: Imperial, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties.

The Colorado Desert and the Colorado River are located on southern California's eastern border with Arizona, and San Bernardino County shares a border with Nevada to the northeast. Southern California's southern border with Baja California is part of the Mexico–United States border. Over time, droughts and wildfires have increased in frequency and become less seasonal and more year-round, further straining the region's water security.

Significance

San Diego Marina district

Sunset in Venice, a district in Los Angeles

Within Southern California are two major cities, Los Angeles and San Diego, as well as three of the country's largest metropolitan areas. With a population of 3,792,621, Los Angeles is the most populous city in California and the second most populous in the United States. South of Los Angeles and with a population of 1,307,402 is San Diego, the second most populous city in the state and the eighth most populous in the nation.

Three Arch Bay in Laguna

The counties of Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, San Bernardino, and Riverside are the five most populous in the state, and are in the top 15 most populous counties in the United States.

Universal Studios at Hollywood

The motion picture, television, and music industry are centered in the Los Angeles area in Southern California. Hollywood, a district within Los Angeles, gives its name to the American motion picture industry, which is synonymous with the neighborhood's name. Headquartered in Southern California are The Walt Disney Company (which also owns ABC), Sony Pictures, Universal, MGM, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Brothers. Universal, Warner Brothers, and Sony also run major record companies.

Southern California is also home to a large homegrown surf and skateboard culture. Companies such as Vans, Volcom, Quiksilver, No Fear, RVCA, and Body Glove are all headquartered here. Professional skateboarder Tony Hawk; professional surfers Rob Machado, Tim Curran, Bobby Martinez, 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 in Southern California 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. Some of the world's biggest action sports events, including the X Games, Boost Mobile Pro, and the U.S. Open of Surfing, are all held in Southern California. Southern California is also important to the world of yachting. The annual Transpacific Yacht Race, or Transpac, from Los Angeles to Hawaii, is one of yachting's premier events. The San Diego Yacht Club held the America's Cup, the most prestigious prize in yachting, from 1988 to 1995 and hosted three America's Cup races during that time.

Southern California is home to many sports franchises and sports networks such as Fox Sports Net.

Many locals and tourists frequent the Southern California coast for its popular beaches. The desert city of Palm Springs is popular for its resort feel and nearby open spaces.

Northern Boundary of Southern California

California counties below the thirty sixth standard parallel

Southern California is not a formal geographic designation and definitions of what constitutes Southern California vary. Geographically, California's North-South midway point lies at exactly 37° 9' 58.23" latitude, around 11 miles (18 km) south of San Jose; however, this does not coincide with the popular use of the term. When the state is divided into two areas (Northern and Southern California), the term "Southern California" usually refers to the 10 southernmost counties of the state. This definition coincides neatly with the county lines at 35° 47′ 28″ North latitude, which form the northern borders of San Luis Obispo, Kern, and San Bernardino counties. Another definition for Southern California uses Point Conception and the Tehachapi Mountains as the northern boundary.

Topography of the border region

Though there is no official definition for the northern boundary of Southern California, such a division has existed from the time when Mexico ruled California and political disputes raged between the Californios of Monterrey in the upper part and Los Angeles in the lower part of Alta California. Following the acquisition of California by the United States, the division continued as part of the attempt by several pro-slavery politicians to arrange the division of Alta California at 36 degrees, 30 minutes, the line of the Missouri Compromise. Instead, the passing of the Compromise of 1850 enabled California to be admitted to the Union as a free state, preventing Southern California from becoming its own separate slave state.

Subsequently, Californios (dissatisfied with inequitable taxes and land laws) and pro-slavery Southerners in the lightly populated "Cow Counties" of Southern California attempted three times in the 1850s to achieve a separate statehood or territorial status separate from Northern California. The last attempt, the Pico Act of 1859, was passed by the California State Legislature and signed by State Governor John B. Weller. It was approved overwhelmingly by nearly 75 percent of voters in the proposed Territory of Colorado. This territory was to include all the counties up to the then much larger Tulare County (that included what is now Kings, most of Kern, and part of Inyo counties) and San Luis Obispo County. The proposal was sent to Washington, D.C. with a strong advocate in Senator Milton Latham. However, the secession crisis following the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and the subsequent American Civil War led to the proposal never coming to a vote.

In 1900, the Los Angeles Times defined Southern California as including "the seven counties of Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura and Santa Barbara." In 1999, the Times added a newer county, Imperial, to that list.

The state is most commonly divided and promoted by its regional tourism groups, consisting of Northern, Central, and Southern California regions. The two American Automobile Association (AAA) Auto Clubs of the state, the California State Automobile Association, and the Automobile Club of Southern California, choose to simplify matters by dividing the state along the lines where their jurisdictions for membership apply, as either northern or Southern California, in contrast to the three-region point of view. Another influence is the geographical phrase South of the Tehachapis, which would split the Southern region off at the crest of that transverse range, but in that definition, the desert portions of north Los Angeles County and eastern Kern and San Bernardino Counties would be included in the Southern California region due to their remoteness from the central valley and interior desert landscape.

Urban landscape

Percent of households with incomes above $150k across LA County census tracts.

Southern California consists of a heavily developed urban environment, home to some of the largest urban areas in the state, along with vast areas that have been left undeveloped. It is the third most populated megalopolis in the United States, after the Great Lakes Megalopolis and the Northeastern megalopolis. Much of Southern California 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, and Riverside-San Bernardino, each of which are the centers of their respective metropolitan areas, composed of numerous smaller cities and communities. The urban area is also host to an international metropolitan region in the form of San Diego–Tijuana, created by the urban area spilling over into Baja California.

Traveling south on Interstate 5, the main gap to continued urbanization is Camp Pendleton. The cities and communities along Interstate 15 and Interstate 215 are so interrelated that Temecula and Murrieta have as much connection with the San Diego metropolitan area as they do 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 Los Angeles and Orange Counties, there are differences in development, as most of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties (the non-desert portions) were developed in the 1980s and 1990s. Newly developed exurbs formed in the Antelope Valley, north of Los Angeles, the Victor Valley, and the Coachella Valley with the Imperial Valley. Also, population growth was high in the Bakersfield-Kern County, Santa Maria and San Luis Obispo areas.

The Downtown Los Angeles skyline seen at sunset on an October day. At 1,018 feet (310 m), 73 floors, the U.S. Bank Tower stands as the West Coast's tallest building since 1989.

Climate

Köppen climate types of Southern California

Southern California contains several different types of climate, including Mediterranean, semi-arid and desert, with infrequent rain and many sunny days. Summers are hot or warm, and dry, while winters are mild, and rainfall is low to moderate depending on the area. Although heavy rain can occur, it is unusual. This climatic pattern was alluded to in the 1990 Tony! Toni! Toné! hit song, It Never Rains (In Southern California). While snow is very rare in the Southwest of the state, it occurs occasionally in the Southeast region of the state.

Natural landscape

Proctor Valley in Chula Vista

Autumn of 2008 in Southern California.

Southern California consists of one of the more varied collections of geologic, topographic, and natural ecosystem landscapes in a diversity outnumbering other major regions in the state and country. The region spans from Pacific Ocean islands, shorelines, beaches, and coastal plains, through the Transverse and Peninsular Ranges with their peaks, and into the large and small interior valleys, to the vast deserts of California.

Introductory categories include:

• Category: Beaches of southern California
• Category: Mountain ranges of Southern California
• Category: Rivers of Southern California
• Category: Deserts of California
• Category: Parks in Southern California

Geography

Satellite view of Southern California, including the Channel Islands

Southern California is divided into:

• The Coastal Region, which is densely populated and includes the coastal interior valleys west of the coastal mountains with all of Orange County and portions of San Diego, Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo counties
  • A related florist province term is the Cismontane Region on the coastal side of the Transverse and Peninsular mountain ranges, with the term "Southern California" popularly referring to this more populated and visited zone
• The Desert Region, which is larger and sparsely populated with portions of Kern, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside, Imperial, and San Diego counties. The division between the Coastal Region and the Inland Empire/Imperial Valley winds along the backs of coastal mountain ranges such as the Santa Ana Mountains.
  • A related floristic province term is the Transmontane Region on the rain shadow side of the same mountain ranges, with the term "Southern California" including this zone geographically and when distinguishing all the 'southland' from northern California

Geographic features

View from La Jolla Cove in San Diego.

Peaks in the eastern San Gabriel Mountains, Angeles National Forest, San Bernardino County.

Yucca Valley after a winter storm in the Morongo Basin.

Ocean Beach Sunset in San Diego.

Geology

Earthquakes

Northridge earthquake shake map

Each year, Southern California has about 10,000 earthquakes. Nearly all of them are so small that they are not felt. Only several hundred have been greater than magnitude 3.0, and only about 15–20 have been greater than magnitude 4.0. The magnitude 6.7 1994 Northridge earthquake was particularly destructive, causing a substantial number of deaths, injuries, and structural collapses as well as the most property damage of any earthquake in U.S. history at an estimated $20 billion.

Many faults are able to produce a magnitude greater than 6.7 earthquake, such as the San Andreas Fault, which can produce a magnitude 8.0 event. Other faults include the San Jacinto Fault, the Puente Hills Fault, and the Elsinore Fault Zone. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has released a California earthquake forecast, which models earthquake occurrence in California.

Regions

Divisions

Salton Sea in the Coachella Valley.

The Oceanside Pier on the San Diego County coast.

Southern California is divided culturally, politically, and economically into distinct regions, each containing its own culture and atmosphere, anchored usually by a city with both national and sometimes global recognition, which are often the hub of economic activity for its respective region and being home to many tourist destinations. Each region is further divided into many culturally distinct areas but as a whole combine to create the Southern California atmosphere.

• Coastal southern California
  • Southern Central Coast
  • Ventura County
    • Oxnard Plain
  • Los Angeles Basin
  • Orange County
  • San Diego County
• Inland southern California
  • Kern County
  • Imperial Valley
  • Inland Empire
    • San Bernardino County
      • High Desert (Section)****Morongo Basin****San Bernardino Valley
    • Riverside County
      • Coachella Valley****Low Desert (Section)*Deserts of California
  • High Desert***Antelope Valley
    • Morongo Basin***eastern Kern County
  • Low Desert***Coachella Valley***Lower Colorado River Valley
    • Imperial County
      • Imperial Valley
    • Palo Verde Valley

*Part of multiple regions

Population

Downtown San Bernardino

As of the 2010 United States Census, Southern California has a population of 22,680,010. Despite a reputation for high growth rates, Southern California's rate grew less than the state average of 10.0 percent in the 2000s. This was due to California's growth becoming concentrated in the northern part of the state as result of a stronger, tech-oriented economy in the Bay Area and an emerging Greater Sacramento region.

Southern California consists of one Combined Statistical Area, eight Metropolitan Statistical Areas, one international metropolitan area, and multiple metropolitan divisions. The region is home to two extended metropolitan areas that exceed five million in population. These are the Greater Los Angeles Area at 17,786,419, and San Diego–Tijuana at 5,105,768. Of these metropolitan areas, the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana metropolitan area, Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area, and Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura metropolitan area form Greater Los Angeles; while the El Centro metropolitan area and San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos metropolitan area form the Southern Border Region. North of Greater Los Angeles are the Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Bakersfield metropolitan areas.

Cities

Los Angeles (at 3.7 million people) and San Diego (at 1.3 million people) are the two largest cities in all of California and are in the top eight largest cities in the United States. In Southern California, there are also 12 cities with more than 200,000 residents and 34 cities over 100,000 residents. Many of Southern California's most developed cities lie along or in close proximity to the coast, with the exception of San Bernardino and Riverside.

Counties

• Imperial
• Kern
• Los Angeles
• Orange
• Riverside
• San Bernardino
• San Diego
• San Luis Obispo
• Santa Barbara
• Ventura

Transportation

See: Category: Transportation in Southern California

Southern California is home to Los Angeles International Airport, the second-busiest airport in the United States by passenger volume (see World's busiest airports by passenger traffic) and the third-busiest by international passenger volume (see Busiest airports in the United States by international passenger traffic); San Diego International Airport, the busiest single-runway airport in the world; Van Nuys Airport, the world's busiest general aviation airport; major commercial airports at Orange County, Bakersfield, Ontario, Burbank and Long Beach; and numerous smaller commercial and general aviation airports.

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.

Southern California is also home to the Port of Los Angeles, the country's busiest commercial port; the adjacent Port of Long Beach, the country's second busiest container port; and the Port of San Diego.

Airports

The following table shows all airports listed by the Federal Aviation Association (FAA) as a hub airport:

Freeways and highways

Interstate and state highway system of Southern California

Sections of the southern California freeway system are often referred to by names rather than by the official numbers.

Interstate Highways

Sign	Interstate	Freeway name
	Interstate 5	Golden State Freeway Santa Ana Freeway San Diego Freeway Montgomery Freeway
	Interstate 8	Ocean Beach Freeway Mission Valley Freeway
	Interstate 10	Santa Monica (Rosa Parks) Freeway Golden State Freeway San Bernardino Freeway Indio (Dr. June McCarroll) Freeway Blythe Freeway
	Interstate 15	Mojave Freeway Barstow Freeway Ontario Freeway Corona Freeway Temecula Valley Freeway Escondido Freeway
	Interstate 40	Needles Freeway
	Interstate 105	Century (Glenn Anderson) Freeway
	Interstate 110	Harbor Freeway
	Interstate 210	Foothill Freeway
	Interstate 215	Barstow Freeway San Bernardino Freeway Moreno Valley Freeway Escondido Freeway
	Interstate 405	San Diego Freeway
	Interstate 605	San Gabriel River Freeway
	Interstate 710	Long Beach Freeway
	Interstate 805	Jacob Dekema Freeway
	Future Interstate 905

U.S. Highway system

Sign	U.S. Route	Freeway name
	U.S. Route 95
	U.S. Route 101	Ventura Freeway Hollywood Freeway Santa Ana Freeway El Camino Real
	U.S. Route 395

Public transportation

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway's combined Super Chief-El Capitan pulls into Los Angeles's Union Passenger Terminal on September 24, 1966.

See: Category: Public transportation in Southern California

Parks and recreation areas

• Numerous parks provide recreation and open space, locations include:

Economy

Industries

Southern California has a diverse economy and is one of the largest economies in the United States. It is dominated by and heavily dependent upon the abundance of petroleum, as opposed to other regions where automobiles are not nearly as dominant, due to the vast majority of transport that runs on this fuel. Southern California is famous for tourism and the entertainment industry. Other industries include software, automotive, ports, finance, biomedical, and regional logistics. The region was a leader in the housing bubble from 2001 to 2007 and has been heavily impacted by the housing crash.

Since the 1920s, motion pictures, petroleum, and aircraft manufacturing have been major industries. In one of the richest agricultural regions in the U.S., cattle and citrus were major industries until farmlands were turned into suburbs. Although military spending cutbacks have had an impact, aerospace continues to be a major factor.

Major central business districts

Taco Bell Headquarters in Irvine

Southern California is home to many major business districts. Central business districts (CBD) include Downtown Los Angeles, Downtown Riverside, Downtown San Bernardino, Downtown San Diego, and the South Coast Metro. Within the Los Angeles Area are the major business districts of Downtown Pasadena, Downtown Burbank, Downtown Santa Monica, Downtown Glendale and Downtown Long Beach. Los Angeles itself has many business districts, such as Downtown Los Angeles and those lining Wilshire Boulevard including Mid-Wilshire, the Miracle Mile, Downtown Beverly Hills and Westwood; others include Century City and Warner Center in the San Fernando Valley. The area of Santa Monica and Venice (and perhaps some of Culver City) is informally referred to as "Silicon Beach" because of the concentration of financial and marketing technology-centric firms located in the region.

The San Bernardino-Riverside Area maintains the business districts of Downtown San Bernardino, Hospitality Business/Financial Centre, University District which are in the cities of San Bernardino and Riverside.

In Orange County, has highly developed suburban business centers (also known as edge cities) including the Anaheim–Santa Ana edge city along I-5; and another, the South Coast Plaza–John Wayne Airport edge city that stretches from the South Coast Metro to the Irvine Business Complex; Newport Center; and Irvine Spectrum. Downtown Santa Ana is an important government, arts and entertainment, and retail district.

Downtown San Diego is the CBD of San Diego, though the city is filled with business districts. These include Carmel Valley, Del Mar Heights, Mission Valley, Rancho Bernardo, Sorrento Mesa, and University City. Most of these districts are located in Northern San Diego and some within North County regions.

Theme parks and waterparks

Disneyland in Anaheim

Vinyard-Winery American Viticultural Area (AVA) districts

California wine AVA-American Viticultural Areas in southern California:

Sports

Major professional sports teams in southern California include:

• NFL (American football) Los Angeles Rams, Los Angeles Chargers
• NBA (Basketball) Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers
• MLB (Baseball) Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels, San Diego Padres
• NHL (Ice hockey) Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Ducks
• MLS (Soccer) LA Galaxy, Los Angeles FC
• NWSL (Soccer) Angel City FC

Southern California also is home to a number of popular NCAA sports programs such as the UCLA Bruins, the USC Trojans, and the San Diego State Aztecs. The Bruins and the Trojans both field football teams in NCAA Division I in the Pac-12 Conference, and there is a longtime rivalry between the schools.

Images for kids

• 

  Köppen climate types of southern California

• 

  Blooming Roses at Huntington Library in San Marino, Los Angeles County, April 2022

• 

  Yucca Valley with Visitor Center in Background in June 2017.

• 

  University of California, Los Angeles

• 

  California Institute of Technology

See also

In Spanish: Sur de California para niños