Demographics of California

California Population Density Map.

California is the most populous U.S. state. It has many people from a wide variety of ethnic, racial, national, and religious backgrounds. The state continues to attract significant numbers of immigrants, and continues to grow dramatically in overall size. Much of the population is in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the San Francisco Bay Area, and the San Diego, Sacramento, and Fresno areas.

Population

Historical populations
Census	Pop.		%±
1850	92,597		—
1860	379,994		310.4%
1870	560,247		47.4%
1880	864,694		54.3%
1890	1,213,398		40.3%
1900	1,485,053		22.4%
1910	2,377,549		60.1%
1920	3,426,861		44.1%
1930	5,677,251		65.7%
1940	6,907,387		21.7%
1950	10,586,223		53.3%
1960	15,717,204		48.5%
1970	19,953,134		27.0%
1980	23,667,902		18.6%
1990	29,760,021		25.7%
2000	33,871,648		13.8%
2010	37,253,956		10.0%
Sources: 1910-2010

California is the most populous sub-national entity in North America. If it were an independent country, California would rank 34th in population in the world, however it has a bigger population than all of Canada.^{[citation needed]} Its population is one third larger than that of the next largest state, Texas. California surpassed New York state to become the most populous state in 1962.

As of 2006, California had an estimated population of 37,172,015, more than 12 percent of the U.S. population. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 1,557,112 people (that is 2,781,539 births minus 1,224,427 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 751,419 people. Immigration resulted in a net increase of 1,415,879 people, and migration from within the U.S. produced a net increase of 564,100 people. California is the 13th fastest-growing state. As of 2008, the total fertility rate was 2.15.

No single racial or ethnic group forms a majority of California's population, making the state a minority-majority state. Non-Hispanic whites make up 40.1% of the population. Spanish is the state's second most spoken language. Areas with especially large Spanish speaking populations include the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the US-Mexico border counties of San Diego and Imperial, and the San Joaquin Valley. Nearly 43% of California residents speak a language other than English at home, a proportion far higher than any other state.

2010 Populations with multiracial identifiers

Group	2010 Population	Percentage of Total Population
White	22,953,374	61.6%
White, not Hispanic or Latino	15,763,625	42.3%
Hispanic or Latino (of any race)	14,013,719	37.6%
Mexican	11,423,146	30.6%
Salvadoran	573,956	1.5%
Guatemalan	332,737	0.8%
Puerto Rican	189,945	0.5%
Spaniard	142,194	0.3%
Nicaraguan	100,790	0.2%
Peruvian	91,511	0.2%
Cuban	88,607	0.2%
Honduran	72,795	0.1%
Columbian	64,416	0.1%
Argentinean	44,410	0.1%
Ecuadorian	35,750	0.09%
Chilean	24,006	0.06%
Costa Rican	22,469	0.06%
Panamanian	17,768	0.04%
Bolivian	13,351	0.03%
Dominican	11,455	0.03%
Venezuelan	11,100	0.02%
Uruguayan	4,110	0.01%
Paraguayan	1,228	0.003%
Asian	5,556,592	14.9%
Filipino	1,474,707	3.9%
Chinese (except Taiwanese)	1,349,111	3.6%
Vietnamese	647,589	1.7%
Indian	590,445	1.5%
Korean	505,225	1.3%
Japanese	428,014	1.1%
Okinawan	1,377	0.003%
Taiwanese	109,928	0.2%
Cambodian	102,317	0.2%
Hmong	91,224	0.2%
Laotian	69,303	0.1%
Thai	67,707	0.1%
Pakistani	53,474	0.1%
Indonesian	39,506	0.1%
Sri Lankan	11,929	0.03%
Bangladeshi	10,494	0.02%
Nepalese	6,231	0.01%
Malaysian	5,595	0.01%
Mongolian	4,993	0.01%
Singaporean	1,513	0.004%
Black or African American	2,683,914	7.2%
Multiracial (two or more races)	1,815,384	4.8%
American Indian and Alaska Native	723,225	1.9%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander	286,145	0.7%
Polynesian	157,104	0.4%
Native Hawaiian	74,932	0.2%
Samoan	60,876	0.1%
Tongan	22,893	0.06%
Micronesian	49,197	0.1%
Guamanian or Chamorro	44,425	0.1%
Melanesian	24,203	0.06%
Fijian	24,059	0.06%
Total	37,253,956	100%

Racial and ancestral makeup

Pedestrians walking on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica.

According to 2011 US Census Bureau estimates, California's population was 39.7% Non-Hispanic White, 6.6% Black or African American, 13.6% Asian, 1.0% American Indian, 0.4% Pacific Islander and 3.6% from two or more races. White Americans make up 74.0% of the total population. By ethnicity, 38.1% of the total population is Hispanic/Latinos (of any race) and 61.9% Non-Hispanic (of any race).

California has the largest population of White Americans in the U.S., totaling 21,453,934 residents as of the 2010 census. The state has the fifth largest population of African Americans in the U.S., an estimated 2,299,072 residents. California's Asian population is estimated at 4.9 million, approximately one-third of the nation's estimated 15 million Asian Americans. California's Native American population of 362,801 is the most of any state; some estimates place the Native American population at one million.^{[citation needed]}

As of 2011, California has the largest minority population in the United States. Non-Hispanic whites decreased from about 76.3 - 78 % of the state's population in 1970 to 39.7% in 2011. While the population of minorities accounts for 100.7 million of 300 million U.S. residents, 20% of the national total live in California.

New Mexico and Texas have higher percentages of Latinos, but California has the highest total number of Latinos of any U.S. state. Only Hawaii has a higher Asian American percentage than California.

The largest named ancestries in California are Mexican (25%), German (9%), Irish (7.7%), English (7.4%); there are 65 other ethnicities including Albanians, Haitians, Pakistanis, and Somalis. Both Los Angeles and San Francisco have large numbers of residents with French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Scandinavian ancestry.

Demographics of California (csv)

By race	White	Black	AIAN*	Asian	NHPI*
2000 (total population)	79.75%	7.65%	1.99%	12.39%	0.69%
2000 (Hispanic only)	30.79%	0.61%	0.85%	0.45%	0.13%
2005 (total population)	79.07%	7.45%	1.93%	13.47%	0.71%
2005 (Hispanic only)	33.59%	0.67%	0.84%	0.47%	0.13%
Growth 2000–05 (total population)	5.76%	3.90%	3.58%	16.01%	10.13%
Growth 2000–05 (non-Hispanic only)	-0.91%	2.80%	1.87%	16.18%	9.65%
Growth 2000–05 (Hispanic only)	16.36%	16.48%	5.87%	11.68%	12.29%
* AIAN is American Indian or Alaskan Native; NHPI is Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander

Europeans

California has the largest population of European Americans of any state. For example, in 2000 California had more Bulgarian Americans and Hungarian Americans than any other U.S. state. California is also home to 600,000 Armenian Americans, with many in Glendale north of Los Angeles, as well as a large community in Fresno. Los Angeles and San Francisco have large Russian American or Russian populations, and a long history of Irish, Italian, Greek, Turkish, German, and Polish communities established by immigrants in the late 19th century. There are also many Scandinavian Americans, French Americans, English Americans, and Welsh Americans whose ancestors were the original 49ers, also known as the California Gold Rush immigrants. There are also immigrant communities from the former Yugoslavia such as Bosnians, Croatians, and Serbians.

California has over one million residents with Spanish or Portuguese ancestry, with communities along coastal parts of the state such as San Diego, Long Beach, Camarillo, Santa Clara Valley (including Cupertino, Gilroy and San Jose), Salinas Valley, Santa Maria Valley, and San Joaquin Valley. A small wave of Danish, Dutch and Swedish immigrants founded towns like Lathrop near Stockton, Artesia near Los Angeles, Kingsburg south of Fresno, Solvang north of Santa Barbara in the late 1800s and the private community of Sveadal located 15 miles south of San Jose and populated entirely by members of the Swedish American Patriotic League. Small colonies of early 19th century Russian settlement under the Russian American Company are in Fort Ross, Calistoga and the Russian River Valley in Sonoma and Napa counties. Small Amish/Mennonite colonies exist in an area bordered by the towns Oakdale, Riverbank and Ripon near Modesto and in Reedley, Sanger and Orange Cove near Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley; and in the outer Salinas Valley.

Hispanic or Latino Americans

See also: Hispanics

Latinos, mainly Mexican Americans, form major portions of the population of Southern California, especially in Los Angeles, as well as the San Joaquin Valley. The city of Los Angeles is often said to be the largest Mexican community in the United States. Census records kept track of the growth since 1850, but Mexican Americans came to Los Angeles since 1890. Mexicans have lived in California since Spanish Colonial times. However, the number and percentage population of Latinos living in California escalated drastically in the latter and especially late 20th century. The result is that, today, Latinos are the largest ethnic group in Los Angeles County, at over 40 percent of the county's population. Latinos are predominantly concentrated in the older eastern and southern suburbs surrounding downtown Los Angeles and northern Long Beach, the southern/eastern San Fernando Valley, and the San Gabriel/Pomona Valleys. They also comprise sizable communities in Bakersfield, Fresno, El Monte, La Puente, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San José, Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, Stockton and Vallejo. In Santa Ana in Orange County, Hispanics comprise 75 percent of the population. Nearby Anaheim is over half Latino, and Orange County's population is 30-35 percent Latino.

The Imperial Valley on the U.S.-Mexican border is about 70–75% Latino; communities with many Latinos can also be found in Riverside County, especially at its eastern end, and the Coachella Valley. The Central Valley has many Mexican American migrant farm workers. Latinos are the majority in Colusa, Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, San Benito, Santa Cruz, Tulare and Yolo counties.

Latinos make up at least 20% of the San Francisco Bay Area. Many live in San Mateo, Alameda and Santa Clara counties, as well in San Francisco. The Napa Valley and Salinas Valley have predominantly Hispanic communities established by migrant farm workers. San Jose is about 30-35 percent Latino, the largest Latino community in northern California, while the Mission District, San Francisco and Lower/West Oakland has barrios established by Mexican and Latin American immigrants. The Mexican American communities of East Los Angeles and Logan Heights, San Diego, as well the San Joaquin Valley are centers of historic Chicano and Latino cultures.

Most of the state's Latinos have Mexican ancestry, but there are many Cuban Americans, Puerto Ricans, Guatemalan Americans, Honduran Americans, Salvadoran Americans, and Nicaraguan Americans, Chilean Americans, Colombian Americans, and Peruvian Americans. Los Angeles has the United States' largest Central American community, as well as the largest Mexican American community since the 1910s and 1920s. In fact, the 1900 census record finds 319 to 619 out of 100,000 residents in the city of Los Angeles were "Spanish" or "Mexican". (see Demographics of Los Angeles).^{[citation needed]}

In Mariposa County, there is a very small community of Californios or Spanish American people as they identify themselves, that dates back before the U.S. annexation of California. Hornitos is home to an estimated 1,000 people and many are "Californio". The community's "Spanish" Californio culture is closely linked with Mexico and other Latin American nations. Spanish colonial/Mexican/Latino influences was always a minor part of California after it became part of the U.S. since 1848 and its statehood in 1850.^{[citation needed]}

Asian Americans

The state has a long history of established Asian communities, including Chinese since the 1850s, Japanese since the 1880s, and Filipinos for over a century. A large wave of Asian immigration since 1965 brought in more Chinese along with Koreans and Southeast Asians after the Vietnam war ended in the late 1970s. South Asians are also a fast-growing group.

As of the 2010 Census there were a total of 17,941,286 respondents who claimed to be Asian American and Asian. Out of these respondents in the United States, 30.9% live in California, with 5,556,592 Asian Americans being counted by the 2010 Census. This is a 1.5 million growth in population from the 2000 census, making Asian Americans 14.9 percent of the state's population. Out of those almost 5.6 million Asian Americans in California there are 1,474,707 Filipinos, 1,349,111 Chinese, 647,589 Vietnamese, 590,445 Indians, 505,225 Koreans, 428,14 Japanese, 109,928 Taiwanese, 102,317 Cambodians, 91,224 Hmong, 69,303 Laotians, 67,707 Thais, 53,474 Pakistanis, 39,506 Indonesians, 17,978 Burmese, 11,929 Sri Lankans, 10,494 Bangladeshis, 6,231 Nepalese, 5,595 Malaysians, 4,993 Mongolians, 1,513 Singaporeans, 1,377 Okinawans, and 750 Bhutanese.

Filipino Americans are particularly numerous in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, San Mateo and Solano counties, and in southern California communities such as Artesia, Baldwin Park, Carson, Cerritos, Covina, West Covina, and the Eagle Rock district of Los Angeles. Around San Diego, many Filipinos live in the communities of Mira Mesa, National City, and Chula Vista. Delano near Bakersfield, other towns in the San Joaquin Valley, the Coachella Valley-Imperial Valley region, Salinas, Stockton and Lathrop, and the Santa Maria/San Luis Obispo area also have large Filipino American populations.

Chinese Americans are numerous in San Francisco, Oakland, the East Bay, South Bay, the Central Coast of California, Sacramento, San Diego, and the San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles County. The San Francisco Bay Area has a greater concentration of Cantonese-speaking Chinese than anywhere in the United States. The Mexican border community of Calexico, California in addition to Mexicali has large numbers of Chinese Mexican Americans, that is, Mexican Americans of Chinese ancestry. Smaller Chinese communities can also be found in San Jacinto Valley, Lake Elsinore, and Victorville.

Southern California has perhaps the largest Taiwanese American community in the U.S., particularly in the San Gabriel Valley (i.e. Walnut and Diamond Bar), Buena Park, Cerritos, West Covina, Irvine, communities in the South Bay, Los Angeles and southern Orange County. There are also Tibetan, Mongolian and Uygur Americans concentrated in San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Orange County, and the Los Angeles/Long Beach area.

Large Korean American communities exist in the Koreatown of Los Angeles, the eastern San Gabriel Valley, the San Fernando Valley, Cerritos/Long Beach, South Bay, Los Angeles, northern Orange County and San Diego area. There is another large Korean American population in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Koreans are growing in number in the suburban Inland Empire region, in cities such as Chino Hills, Corona, Desert Hot Springs and Loma Linda south of San Bernardino. Since 1990, the Korean American and African American populations relocated westward and northward in the Los Angeles area.

The South Bay area and Little Tokyo have a large Japanese American community. Japanese Americans, however, are also concentrated in San Francisco and across the Bay Area, San Jose, the Salinas Valley and Santa Cruz County; and smaller communities in the Sacramento, Fresno, Bakersfield, Anaheim, San Diego, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara and Stockton areas. Despite the presence of Japanese goods stores, media outlets and restaurants in the state, most "Little Tokyos" and "Japantowns" were evacuated during the forced relocation of Japanese Americans during World War II (see Japanese American Internment). As a result, most Japanese Americans in urban areas do not reside in historical Japanese communities.

California has the largest American population of Southeast Asians, concentrated in the Los Angeles-Long Beach, Sacramento, and Fresno areas. This includes the Hmong and Vietnamese, including Chinese Vietnamese. Long Beach has one of the largest Cambodian American communities in the United States. The neighboring cities of Westminster and Garden Grove have the largest Vietnamese American community outside of Vietnam and are often dubbed "Little Saigon". Vietnamese and Cambodian immigrants also settled in the San Francisco Bay Area, especially San Jose, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, as well across the San Joaquin Valley and in San Diego.

Over 6,000 Laotian Americans live in the Fresno area, including an even larger Hmong American community, the second-largest of its kind. Other Hmong colonies in the Central Valley of California and Northern California developed since the end of the Vietnam war (1975–79). California also has a Thai American community of over 250,000, concentrated in Southern California, with small Thai and Southeast Asian communities in Perris and Banning in the Inland Empire region. Los Angeles has the largest Thai population outside of Thailand and is also home to the world's first Thai Town. About 150,000 Indonesians live in Southern California, primarily the Los Angeles and San Diego areas.

California has the largest Indian American population in the U.S. Many live in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area, San Diego, and the San Francisco Bay Area. The Los Angeles suburbs of Artesia and Cerritos have large Indian American communities. San Jose, Fremont, and other Silicon Valley cities have many Indian Americans who are employed in the high-tech industry. Many Indian Americans are in Central Valley cities such as Stockton, Bakersfield, Fresno, Yuba City, and the Imperial Valley. Most South Asians in California are Indian American, but there are also Pakistani Americans, Bangladeshi Americans, and Sri Lankan Americans (see Sinhalese and Tamils) esp. concentrated in the San Gabriel Valley (Covina Valley) of the Los Angeles area.

Pacific Islanders

The state has 150,000 residents with Pacific Islander ancestry. Most, 80,000, are Native Hawaiians of measurable Polynesian ancestry; many also have Asian, European, or other ancestries. There are also 25,000 Samoan Americans originally from American Samoa or Western Samoa. Most live in Long Beach and the Los Angeles suburbs of Carson, Artesia, Cerritos, and Redondo Beach, Oceanside, and Upland. About 10,000 Chamorros from Guam and Northern Mariana Islands live in northern California, the largest Micronesian community in the mainland United States. An estimated 10,000 Tahitians from French Polynesia live in southern California.

There are also many Palauans in southern California, specifically in the San Diego area, including Vista. Members of the Palauan community often also have Malay, Indonesian, Micronesian, Melanesian, Japanese, and other east Asian ancestries. Many Chuukese or Trukese live in San Diego, while the original settlers on Truk Island are Spanish and German but most Truukese now are Japanese and Korean, then Filipino and some Chinese, and finally the arrival of American expatriates. Many came to the Oceanside area due to the military installations around the city, which has the oldest Polynesian or Pacific Islander community.^{[citation needed]}

Middle Eastern Americans

The state also has over 715,000 Arab Americans, with large communities in Alameda, Fresno, Imperial, Kern, Orange, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Stanislaus counties. They represent all Arab and Middle Eastern nationalities, the most numerous being of Gaza and West Bank (see Palestinian Americans) followed by those from Syria (see Syrian Americans) and Lebanon (about half- 1.5 out of 3.1 million estimated- (see Lebanese Americans) live in California), Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Arabs have resided in California since the 1920s, most notably in Orange County in the section of Little Arabia (Anaheim, California) and the San Diego area.

About 500,000 Iranian Americans live throughout Southern California, including about 20% of the population of Beverly Hills. Iranian American communities also flourish in the San Fernando Valley, Orange County, San Diego, the Palm Springs area, and the San Joaquin Valley. The majority of Iranian Americans immigrated after the ouster of the pro-U.S. Shah regime of Iran in the late 1970s. Over 50,000 Afghan Americans are concentrated in the East Bay primarily in Alameda County and its communities of Fremont and Hayward; Afghans also live throughout the state (esp. Orange County and Ventura County). About 20,000 Israeli Americans live in California, while most live in Southern California in the Los Angeles and San Diego area, they also live predominately in the San Francisco area of Northern California.

There is also large population of Assyrian/Chaldean descent living in the Central Valley, with large communities in Modesto, Ceres and Turlock, as well as throughout the Central Coast and the California Desert (i.e. the Coachella and Imperial valleys). San Diego has one of the largest concentrations of Chaldean immigrants in the United States.

African Americans

California has 2.3 million African Americans as of 2010, the largest population of Black or African Americans in the western U.S, and the 5th highest Black population in the United States. Large African American communities are in Compton, Fairfield, Inglewood, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Pasadena, Richmond, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, and Vallejo. There are also sizable African American populations in Bakersfield, Berkeley, East Palo Alto, Fontana, Fresno, Indio, Marin City, Marysville, Modesto, Moreno Valley, Palm Springs, Perris, Rialto, San Diego, San Francisco, Stockton and Suisun City.

African Americans are approximately 6 percent of the state population. The state percentage of African Americans has dropped in the 1990s and 2000s. The black population of South-Central Los Angeles has greatly decreased as the black middle class has relocated to nearby suburbs, including in the Antelope Valley. Hundreds of thousands of African Americans have moved to the South, where their grandparents may have come from in the "Great Migration" of the mid-20th century.

Older working-class small towns and suburban areas with many African Americans include the Inland Empire (Riverside-San Bernardino and Palm Springs areas), the High Desert north of Los Angeles (i.e. Lancaster-Palmdale and Victorville), and across the San Joaquin Valley (i.e. Stockton-Modesto, Merced, Fresno, Tulare and Bakersfield areas) plus Yuba City-Marysville and Yolo County in the Sacramento area.

Native Americans/American Indians

As of 2010, California's Native American population of 362,801 was the most of any state. It also has the most Native American tribes, indigenous to the state or not, but the majority of known Californian Indian tribes became extinct in the late 19th century. The U.S. Census includes Latin American Indian, especially immigrants who belonged to indigenous peoples or who have Amerindian heritage from North and South America.

The Cherokee Nation is the largest tribe in the state with a population of 110,000, although the number of Cherokee descendants may surpass 600,000 according to demographers. They are often descendants of Dust Bowl refugees in the 1930s and 1940s who migrated to the state's farming counties and urban areas for jobs. The largest urban American Indian communities are Los Angeles/Long Beach, San Francisco/Oakland, Sacramento, and San Diego areas.^{[citation needed]}

California also has significant populations of the Apache, Choctaw, Creek, Hopi, Zuni, Navajo, Blackfeet, Shoshone, Paiute, Pueblos, Cahuilla and Chumash tribes. The Cahuilla in the Coachella Valley have profited from real estate land leases, and much of Indio and Palm Springs are tribal-owned lands under legal tribal jurisdiction.^{[citation needed]}

Illegal/unauthorized/undocumented immigrants

In 2009, illegal/unauthorized/undocumented immigrants constituted an estimated 7% of the population, with the same concentration as Arizona.

Languages

As of 2000, 60.5% of California residents age 5 and older speak English at home and 25.8% speak Spanish. Chinese is the third most spoken language at 2.6%, followed by Tagalog at 2.0% and Vietnamese at 1.3%. Over 200 languages are known to be spoken and read in California, with Spanish used as the state's "alternative" language.

California has more than 100 indigenous languages, making California one of the most linguistically diverse areas in the world. All of California's indigenous languages are endangered, although there are now efforts toward language revitalization.

Since the passage of Proposition 63 in 1986, the California Constitution has specified that English is the common and official language of the state. The politics of language is a major political issue in the state, especially in regard to language policy controlling the teaching and official use of immigrant languages.

Religion

Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph in San Jose

Mission San Diego de Alcalá

Malibu Hindu Temple

California has the most Roman Catholics in the U.S., ahead of New York state, as well as large Protestant, non-religious, Jewish, and Muslim populations. It also has the largest Mormon population outside of Utah. The state's second largest group next to Christianity is the non-religious, which consists of atheists, agnostics, and deists. It is one of the fastest growing groups in the state. The state also has a large American Jewish community, the largest in the western U.S., mainly concentrated in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento and Palm Springs. It also has large Muslim communities in west Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County, Santa Clara County, and the Modesto area.

Most Roman Catholics in California are of Mexican, other Hispanic, Irish, and Italian ancestry. The population of Catholic Californians is rapidly growing due to the influx of Latin American immigrants. In the state, Roman Catholicism is highly represented among non-Hispanic European-Americans, but less represented among non-Hispanic African-Americans. Protestantism is the majority Christian denomination in non-Hispanic black and white groups.

The largest Christian denominations in California in 2000 were the Roman Catholic Church with 10,079,310; the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with 529,575; and the Southern Baptist Convention with 471,119. Jewish congregations had 994,000 adherents, or 3% of the Californian population.

Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintō, Sikhism, and Taoism were introduced in part by Asian immigrants. As the twentieth century came to a close, forty percent of all Buddhists in America resided in Southern California. The Los Angeles metropolitan area has become unique in the Buddhist world as the only place where representative organizations of every major school of Buddhism can be found in a single urban center. The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Northern California and Hsi Lai Temple in Southern California are two of the largest Buddhist temples in the Western Hemisphere. The state also has a growing Hindu population.^{[citation needed]}

With almost one million Jews, California has the highest number of Jews of any state except New York. Many of these Jews live in the West Los Angeles and San Fernando Valley regions of Los Angeles. At the present time, both of California's Senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, are Jewish.

California has the highest Hindu population in the United States, most of them Indian Americans. Many of the prominent Hindu temples including the Malibu Hindu Temple are located in California.

California also has the largest Muslim community in the United States, an estimated one percent of the population, mostly residing in Southern California. Approximately 100,000 Muslims reside in San Diego.^{[citation needed]}

California has more members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Temples than any state except Utah. Latter-day Saints (Mormons) have played important roles in the settlement of California throughout the state's history. For example, a group of a few hundred Mormon converts from the Northeastern United States and Europe arrived at what would become San Francisco in the 1840s aboard the ship Brooklyn, more than doubling the population of the small town. A group of Mormons also established the city of San Bernardino in Southern California in 1851. According to the LDS Church 2011 statistics, just over 750,000 Mormons reside in the state of California, attending almost 1400 congregations statewide.

The religious affiliations of the people of California:

• Protestant – 36%
  • Evangelical Protestant – 18%
  • Mainline Protestant – 14%
  • Black Protestant – 4%
• Roman Catholic – 31%
• Jewish – 2%
• LDS – 2%
• Hinduism – <1%
• Muslim – <0.5%
• Other Religions – 4%
• Non-Religious/ Atheist/ Agnostic – 21%

A Pew Research Center survey revealed, however, that California is less religious than the rest of the United States: 62% of Californians say they are "absolutely certain" of the belief in God, while in the nation 71% say so. The survey also revealed that 48% of Californians say religion is "very important", while the figure for the U.S. in general is 56%.

Cities and towns

California has eight of the 50 most populous cities in the U.S., the most of any U.S. state. It also has 3 of the 10 most populous cities, tied with Texas for the most of any state. Los Angeles, with over 4 million people, is the largest city in California and the second largest city in the U.S. Other large cities in California are San Diego (9th), San José (10th), San Francisco (12th), Long Beach (34th), Fresno (37th), Sacramento (38th), and Oakland (44th).

See also

• California census statistical areas

Media related to Demographics of California at Wikimedia Commons