Long Beach doesn't get a lot of respect around LA Observed, or around Los Angeles generally. It may be because, unlike the other places that float in the orbit of L.A., Long Beach is a big American city all on its own. Some notes from the new Census Bureau numbers:
- Long Beach is the 7th most populous city in California, with 462,257 people. It's essentially the same size as #6 Sacramento.
- But Long Beach barely grew at all since 2000, by less than one percent, and was passed in population by both Fresno (#5) and Sacto.
- Long Beach is just ahead of Oakland (390,724), which lost population, and Bakersfield (347,483, up by 40 percent.) Bakersfield, by the way, added more people since 2000 than Los Angeles did.
- Long Beach has more people than 41 California counties.
- Long Beach has more people than the cities of Miami, Cleveland, Minneapolis or Honolulu.
- Santa Ana lost more residents than any city in California and fell out of the state's top 9. It's now #11.