Historical Census
Racial/Ethnic Numbers in Los Angeles County
1850 to 1980

Chinatown in Los Angeles, 1922. Photo by Paul Grenbeaux, courtesy of Library of Congress.

Also see: Racial/Ethnic Composition, Los Angeles County, 1990-2010 Census

1850 - 1950

Census Year	Total Population	White	Black	Chinese	Indian	Japanese	Mexican ⁽¹⁾	Others
1850	3,530	3,518 ⁽²⁾	12 ⁽³⁾	---	---	---	---	---
1860	11,333	9,221	87 ⁽⁴⁾	11 ⁽⁵⁾	2,014 ⁽⁶⁾	---	---	---
1870	15,309	14,720	134	234	219	2	---	---
1880	33,381	31,707	188	1,169	316	1	---	---
1890	101,454	95,033	1,817	4,424	144 ⁽⁷⁾	36	---	---
1900	170,298	163,975	2,841	3,209	69	204	---	---
1910	504,131	483,478	9,424	2,602	97	8,461	---	69
1920	936,455	894,507	18,738	2,591	281	19,911	---	427
1930	2,208,492	1,949,882	46,425	3,572	997	35,390	167,024	5,202
1940	2,785,643	2,660,042	75,209	5,330	1,378	36,866	---	6,818
1950	4,151,687	3,877,944	217,881	9,187	1,671	36,761	---	8,243

(1) The racial category "Mexican" was only used in the 1930 Census.
(2) Most Los Angeles residents identified as "White" at this time were Spanish-speaking and mostly of Mexican heritage.
(3) Described as "Free Colored"
(4) Also described as "Free Colored." Among these, 25 were further sub-classified as "Mulatto."
(5) Described as "Asiatic"
(6) Described as "Domesticated Indian"
(7) Described as "Civilized Indian"

1960

Census Year	Total Population	White	Black	Chinese	Indian	Japanese	Filipino	Others
1960	6,039,771	5,453,866	461,546	19,286	8,109	77,314	12,122	6,528

1970

Census Year	Total Population	White	Black	Chinese	Indian	Japanese	Filipino	Others	Spanish Origin ⁽⁸⁾
1970	7,032,075	6,006,499	762,844	40,798	24,509	104,078	33,459	59,888	1,051,409

(8) For the first time, the 1970 Census introduced the non-racial category "Spanish Origin," reflecting not a person's racial identification, but a significant American ethnic/cultural identification (i.e., Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican, etc.). Persons of "Spanish Origin" also identified under any of the racial categories in the census (i.e. White, Black, American Indian, etc.). The larger number of persons who identified as "Spanish Origin" in this census also identified as "White."

1980

Census Year	Total Population	White			Black	Chinese	American Indian & Eskimo, Aleut	Japanese
Census Year	Total Population	White, Total	White, Spanish Origin ⁽³⁾	White, not Spanish Origin	Black	Chinese	American Indian & Eskimo, Aleut	Japanese
1980	7,477,503	5,073,617	1,120,014	3,953,603	943,968	93,747	48,120	116,543

Census Year	Filipino	Korean	Asian Indian	Vietnamese	Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	Others	Spanish Origin (All Races) ⁽⁸⁾
1980 (continued)	99,043	60,618	18,562	28,696	17,641	976,948	2,066,103

(8) See note under 1970 Census table above.

Sources: U.S. Census Decennial Census Official Publications and University of Virginia Geospatial & Statistical Data Center.