Table of Contents
Key Insights
- In 2024, the County of Los Angeles saw the first signs of population growth since its decline began in 2015. Year over year, the county gained around 100,000 new residents. This mirrors a nationwide trend in metropolitan growth, partially – but not fully – reversing pandemic-era losses.
- The number of households in Los Angeles County continues to increase, although the share of single-person households began to decline in 2024, contrary to the long-term trend identified in last year’s report but in line with national trends.
- The share of the population age 24 and under in Los Angeles County continued to fall; the number of households that were families with children also declined, in alignment with national trends.
After nearly a decade of steady population decline, the County of Los Angeles saw its number of residents tick up again in 2024. This likely reflects the easing of pandemic-era pressures: outmigration from urban centers is easing, and death rates are returning to pre-pandemic levels. A larger population will put further strain on the housing supply, although the slight reduction in single-person households that began in 2024 may relieve some of that pressure, as more people are living in fewer housing units. This chapter traces these population patterns—both what’s changed since last year, and what persists—and examines how it relates to the county’s housing.
The First Signs of Population Growth After Nearly a Decade of Decline
In the 1960 Census, Los Angeles County reached a population of 6 million—following a gain of nearly 2 million residents during the 1950s—and surpassed Cook County, Illinois, to become the most populous county in the United States. It has remained so ever since. Today, Los Angeles County’s population is nearly double that of Cook County, which remains the nation’s second most populous county.
In 2015, the county’s population peaked at 10.17 million people. Although it declined afterward, with steeper drops during the pandemic, growth began to take hold again in 2024. The population of Los Angeles County grew slightly, from 9.66 million in 2023 to 9.76 million in 2024, an increase of around 100,000 people (1.0%) (California Department of Finance, 2026).1 As shown in the chart below, this marks the first sign of a population rebound since the population began declining in 2015. Yet Los Angeles County still slightly lags behind state and national trends. From 2023 to 2024, California’s population grew by 1.2%, and the United States as a whole grew by 1.6%.
The chart below shows the number of births and deaths of Los Angeles County residents from 2018 to 2024. Although the number of births stayed relatively flat from 2023 at around 90,300, the number of deaths continued its post-pandemic decline, coming in at just under 68,000 in 2024, a 2.9% decrease since 2023. That corresponds to over 22,400 more births than deaths in 2024, an increase of 9%. However, deaths still remained elevated above pre-pandemic levels, which were consistently under 65,000 per year. Further, the county’s fertility rate remained lower than the California average, and the state as a whole ranks among the lowest in the nation on this measure (California Department of Public Health, n.d.; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2023).
Los Angeles County’s population rebound matches trends seen in other metropolitan areas across the country. After the pandemic-driven urban population declines, caused by outmigration from densely populated areas and elevated death rates, many of these areas saw population growth again in 2024. Cities with populations over 50,000 saw an average increase of 1.0%, matching the county’s performance. In fact, the City of Los Angeles’ absolute population growth was the third highest among U.S. cities between 2023 and 2024 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2025).
Foreign-Born Residents Are Rising Again
In 2024, the year before major federal immigration policy changes took hold, a strong contributor to the county’s growth was the resurgence of its foreign-born population, which rose to 3.32 million, a 2.4% increase from 2023 (see the chart below). This comes after a long period of decline from 2015 to 2022, during which this population decreased by 8%.
Overall, foreign-born residents make up about a third of Los Angeles County’s population, more than double the foreign-born population’s national percentage (under 15%) and still well over California’s percentage (28%). The share of this population in the county who are naturalized citizens dipped slightly in 2024 compared to 2023, but still remains near 55%.
Shifting Age Demographics
The number of young people (age 24 and under) in Los Angeles County also began ticking up in 2024, though the share of the population in this age bracket continued its long decline. Since 2023, the county has added about 10,300 people in this demographic, representing around 10% of total population growth. Still, their share of the population dropped by 0.1 percentage point to 28.9% because older groups’ populations grew faster.
As the Baby Boomer generation continues to age, the number of people of retirement age has risen both nationwide and in Los Angeles County. In 2024, 20% of Los Angeles County residents were age 62 or older, up from 19% in 2023. This represents an increase of almost 49,000 people.
The chart below compares these shifts in age composition from 2014 to 2024 across the city, county, state, and nation. Although the population of young people declined only 7% nationally during this period, it fell by double-digit percentages in both the City and Los Angeles County, indicating more drastic local declines in the young population. The growth in the elderly population was also higher in Los Angeles: 26% throughout the city and 30% throughout the county, compared to 22% nationally. These two data points together represent a massive swing in the general population’s age weighting, with LA County seeing a 43-percentage-point gap between these two brackets.
Changing Household Composition
Increasing Number of Households
In alignment with the long-term trend, the total number of households in Los Angeles County continues to rise. The county had 3.71 million households in 2024, an increase of about 33,800 (0.9%) compared to 2023. The number of homeowner households has increased twice as fast as the number of renter households: 1.4% (about 23,000) versus 0.7% (about 12,300), respectively.
Nationally, a similar pattern of household growth was driven by the formation of new households among millennials, many of whom were forced to delay living independently from their parents owing to the Great Recession (Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, 2023).
Single-Person Households Are Declining After Years of Growth
After a long period of growth, the share of households consisting of single individuals ticked down in Los Angeles County in 2024, falling to 26.9% from 27.4% in 2023, a decrease of 0.5 percentage points. This pattern matches that of the nation at large, which saw a 0.6 percentage point decrease. The City of Los Angeles continues to have a much higher share of single-person households (31.9% in 2024) than the county, state, or country, but it also saw a sharper year-over-year decline of 1.22 percentage points. The share of households with one resident still remains higher than 10 years ago, as seen in the chart below.
Fewer Families with Children
Although single-person households are becoming more common, households with children2 are becoming scarcer, especially in Los Angeles County.
In 2024, 24% of households in Los Angeles County were families with children, which is below the national and state averages of 25% and 27%, respectively. The City of Los Angeles remains below the county average, with just 21% of households including children. All of these shares are down roughly 1 percentage point versus 2023. Whether due to fewer new families forming or existing families being priced out, Los Angeles County can no longer claim a higher concentration of families with children than the national average, as it did in 2014.
The chart below shows the share of families with children in 2014 and 2024 across Los Angeles County, the City of Los Angeles, California, and the U.S.
The county’s elevated rental housing costs and limited supply of affordable and new units may contribute to Los Angeles County’s shrinking share of families. In early 2026, the Neighborhood Data for Social Change team partnered with First 5 LA to examine how rental housing costs affect families with young children across Los Angeles County. The research found that as of 2023, nearly three in five renter Los Angeles County families with children age 0-5 were rent burdened, spending more than 30% of their income on rent. High rent burden was concentrated in two geographic clusters — the San Fernando Valley and Central/South L.A. — and was driven more by low incomes than by high rents: the most rent-burdened neighborhoods had median family incomes nearly $30,000 below the rest of the county, despite paying similar or even slightly lower rents. These neighborhoods also had disproportionately high shares of Latino, non-citizen, and unemployed household heads, and reduced access to federally subsidized housing relative to the number of low-income families living there. Click here to read the full report (coming soon).
Contributors
- Authors
- Nicholas Werner, USC Lusk Center for Real Estate
- Jared N. Schachner, USC Price School of Public Policy
- Research Team
- Cameron Yap, USC Lusk Center for Real Estate
- Elizabeth Grubb, USC Lusk Center for Real Estate
- Adela G Ortiz, USC Lusk Center for Real Estate
- Christine Steinmann, USC Lusk Center for Real Estate
Citations
California Department of Finance. (2026, May). Population Estimates for Cities, Counties, and the State, 2021-2026 with 2020 Census Benchmark. Link
California Department of Public Health. (n.d.). Births [Maternal, Child & Adolescent Health Division]. Retrieved July 28, 2025. Link
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023, September 27). Fertility rates: National and state estimates. National Center for Health Statistics. Link
Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. (2023). The State of the Nation’s Housing 2023. Link
U.S. Census Bureau. (2025, May 15). Population Growth Reported Across Cities and Towns in All U.S. Regions. Link
Footnotes
- 2024 is the latest year of data available from the Census Bureau. The California Department of Finance projects that population numbers will continue rising in Los Angeles County and the State of California in 2025.
- “Households with children” and “families with children” are used interchangeably throughout this section. They both refer to households with a child under the age of 18 who is related to the head of household (by marriage, adoption or birth) living in the home.
