L.A. Not Among Most Diverse Metro Areas in U.S. (But the OC Is?!)

That whole "Los Angeles is an incredible melting pot" is bunk. Sure, there are people from every corner of the world who call L.A. home, but the way the numbers break down--at least according to Forbes--we can't really call ourselves one of the more "diverse" places in the nation.

Basically Forbes did some numbers crunching with race and ethnicity date from the 2010 Census. They explain further: "We measured diversity as the share of a metro area’s or ZIP code’s population in its largest racial or ethnic group: the smaller the share of the largest group, the more diverse the neighborhood is." So an area with 75% Hispanic,15% white, and 10% black population is less diverse than one with 30% Asian, 25% Hispanic, 25% white and 15% black population.

All that said and done...Los Angeles didn't make the top ten. But guess who did? Our friends to the south, in that well-known mecca of diversity, Orange County, who ranked seventh.

When it comes to L.A., however, in county and city, there are a few standout cities and neighborhoods (by zip code). For example, the folks in Beverly Hills (90210) are pretty much white--83% of them are, making it one of the wealthiest and whitest zips in the U.S.A. Hipster 'hoods, mind you, are more diverse than one might suspect; our own hipster haven, Silver Lake (90026) is 57% Hispanic, 21% White, and 17% Asian. We are also home to large concentrations of other racial populations per zip: "Boyle Heights (90023) [... is] at least 95% Hispanic; and Monterey Park (91755) [...is] at least 70% Asian."

Alas, we Angelenos are divided and conquered--at least more than several other U.S. metro areas...and (grumble) the OC.