On SoCal So Curious, we answer your questions about how things work in Southern California – and why.
This question comes from a listener who identified himself as Mick. He asked, "Which cities in L.A. County have the fewest native-born Californians?"
Before we could answer ourselves, another intrepid KPCC listener, Brianne Gilbert, was on the case. Gilbert is the Associate Director of the Thomas and Dorothy Levy Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University.
She told Take Two she had been avidly following the SoCal SoCurious thread and when she came across this particular question, she thought to herself, "Well, that's an easy one. Anybody should be able to find that information!"
She crunched the numbers and mapped out her findings. Check out the map below. You can click on it to make it bigger, and it's color coded.
"I went to the Census Bureau's website and the most recent data is the five-year estimates. They have them for each city. So, I was able to download the data and very easily create the table with each of the cities in about five or 10 minutes."
Gilbert figured it out faster than it might take to find a parking spot in Downtown L.A.
"The answer is ...West Hollywood ... 28 percent of the residents in West Hollywood are born in the state of California."
Not a surprise, right? That's probably because as Angelenos, we know that people from all over come to live in a place like West Hollywood.
"From anywhere in the country or even in the world, people hear about Hollywood. They have their opinions about Hollywood, of the West Hollywood area. I know growing up on the East Coast ... that was something I even knew about back when I was younger.
And I think the population that's in West Hollywood is a unique population and people want to be in that specific area."
Gilbert's research also revealed which city in L.A. County had the most California-born residents. This result was a little surprising.
"The City of Industry, at 87.8 percent of the population. Now, granted, it's not a huge population – only about 200 individuals live there – but they still have the highest percentage of California-born residents."
Well, with 92 percent of the city's zoning devoted to industrial business and just 8 percent to commercial, it's apparent why this might not be attracting too many out-of-state residents.
So, there you have it. Smack dab in the middle of L.A., in West Hollywood, you'll find the fewest California natives. In second place is Glendale, followed by Beverly Hills.
And if you drive about 45 minutes east, you'll find the opposite —the L.A. city with the most people who were born and raised in the Golden State. In second place for this category is Irwindale, followed by Whittier.
For more on how Gilbert did it and some other trends she discovered, click on the blue play button above.
Have a question you want KPCC journalists to investigate? Visit our SoCal SoCurious page.