Westside (Los Angeles County)

The Los Angeles Westside is an urban region in western Los Angeles County, California. It has no official definition, but according to the Los Angeles Times, it comprises 101.28 sqmi, encompassing not only districts in the city of Los Angeles but also two unincorporated neighborhoods, plus the cities of Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Culver City, and Santa Monica.

Neighborhoods and districts


According to the Mapping L.A. survey of the Los Angeles Times or the 2004 edition of the Thomas Guide, the Westside region consists of the following:


 * Bel Air[MLA]
 * Beverly Crest[MLA]
 * Beverlywood[MLA]
 * Beverly Grove[MLA]
 * Brentwood[MLA][TG]
 * Century City[MLA][TG]
 * Cheviot Hills[MLA][TG]
 * Crestview
 * Del Rey
 * Ladera Heights
 * Mar Vista[MLA][TG]
 * Pacific Palisades[MLA][TG]
 * Palms[MLA][TG]
 * Pico-Robertson[MLA]
 * Playa del Rey[TG]
 * Playa Vista[MLA]
 * Rancho Park[MLA][TG]
 * Sawtelle[MLA][TG]
 * Venice[MLA][TG]
 * West Los Angeles[MLA][TG]
 * Westwood[MLA][TG]

Other cities

 * Beverly Hills
 * Culver City
 * Santa Monica
 * West Hollywood

Unincorporated areas

 * Marina del Rey
 * Veterans Administration

Population
In the 2000 census, the Westside (as defined by the Los Angeles Times) had a population of 529,427. In 2000, non-Hispanic whites made up 63% of the population. The areas within the city of Los Angeles that Los Angeles Almanac recognized as part of the Westside had a population of 413,351.

Education
53% of West Los Angeles residents aged 25 and older had earned a 4-year degree by 2000, according to Census Bureau figures quoted by the Los Angeles Times. They included 89,620 people with master's degrees or higher and 117,695 with bachelor's degrees. In addition, 95,187 people in that age range had some college experience. There were 46,823 with high school diplomas but 40,451 who had dropped out before graduating.

The Westside is home to the University of California, Los Angeles, a public research university in the Westwood neighborhood. It is the second-oldest of the ten campuses of the University of California system. UCLA is considered a flagship campus of the University of California system, along with UC Berkeley. It offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines. With an approximate enrollment of 28,000 undergraduate and 12,000 graduate students, UCLA is the university with the largest enrollment in the state of California and the most popular university in the United States by number of applicants.

Other post-secondary schools in the Westside are as follows:
 * Santa Monica College, first opened in 1929 as Santa Monica Junior College. Current enrollment is over 30,000 students in more than 90 fields of study.
 * West Los Angeles College, which offers associate degrees, vocationally oriented programs and transfer programs to four-year universities.