The 1990 United States census and 2000 United States census found that non-Hispanic whites were becoming a minority in Los Angeles. Estimates for the 2010 United States census results find Latinos to be approximately half (47-49%) of the city's population, growing from 40% in 2000 and 30-35% in 1990 census.

The racial/ethnic/cultural composition of Los Angeles as of the 2005-2009 American Community Survey was as follows:

Hispanic or Latino (of any race): 47.5% White: 41.3% (Non-Hispanic Whites: 29.4%) Black or African American: 9.8% Native American: 0.5% Asian: 10.7% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander: 0.2% Other: 25.2% Two or more races: 2.8%

Approximately 59.4% of Los Angeles' residents were born in the 50 United States, and 0.9% were born in Puerto Rico, US territories, or abroad to American parents. 39.7% of the population were foreign-born. Most foreigners (64.5%) were born in Latin America. A large minority (26.3%) were born in Asia. Smaller numbers were born in Europe (6.5%), Africa (1.5%), Northern America (0.9%), and Oceania (0.3%).

African Americans

Los Angeles was founded by settlers who were predominantly of African descent and the city had 2,100 Black Americans in 1900. By 1920 this grew to approximately 15,000. In 1910, the city had the highest percentage of black home ownership in the nation, with more than 36% of the city's African-American residents owning their own homes. Black leader W.E.B. Du Bois described Los Angeles in 1913 as a "wonderful place" because it was less subjected to racial discrimination due to its population being small and the ongoing tensions between Anglos and Mexicans. This changed in the 1920s when restrictive covenants that enforced segregation became widespread. Blacks were mostly confined along the South Central corridor, Watts, and small enclaves in Venice and Pacoima, which received far fewer services than other areas of the city.Dunn, William. 2007 The Gangs of Los Angeles.

After World War II, the city's black population grew from 63,774 in 1940 to 170,000 a decade later as many continued to flee from the South for better opportunities. By 1960, Los Angeles had the fifth largest black population in the United States, larger than any city in the South. Still, they remained in segregated enclaves. The Supreme Court banned the legal enforcement of race-oriented restrictive covenants in the Shelley v. Kraemer case (1948), yet black home ownership declined severely during this period.

Decades of police mistreatment and other racial injustices eventually lead to the Watts riots of 1965, after a minor traffic incident resulted in four days of rioting. Thirty-four people were killed and 1,034 injured at a cost of $40 million in property damage and looting. So many businesses burned on 103rd Street that it became known as "Charcoal Alley."

The city strove to improve social services for the black community, but with many of the high-paying industrial jobs gone black unemployment remained high. The growth of street gangs and drugs in minority communities exacerbated the problems.

By 1990, the LAPD, which had followed a paramilitaristic model since Chief Parker's regime in the 1950s, became more alienated from minority communities following accusations of racial profiling. In 1992, a jury in suburban Simi Valley acquitted white Los Angeles police officers involved in the beating of a black motorist, Rodney King, the year before. After four days of rioting, more than 50 deaths, and billions of dollars of property losses, mostly in the Central City, the California Army National Guard, federal troops, and the local and state police finally regained control.

Since the 1980s, more middle class black families have left the central core of Los Angeles to settle in other California municipalities or out of state. In 1970, blacks made up 18% of the city's population. That percentage has dropped to 10% in 2010 as many continue to leave to settle elsewhere. Los Angeles still has the largest black population of any city in the Western United States. Blacks from Los Angeles have moved to the north suburbs of Palmdale and Lancaster. Many blacks are relocating to the Southern United States.

Caribbean and African black immigrants are more recent. 7,000 Nigerians, 5,000 Ethiopians, 1,000 Ghanaians, 9,900 Jamaicans, 1,900 Haitians, and 1,700 Trinidadians live in Los Angeles. They are concentrated in South Los Angeles, Compton and Inglewood.

There is an Ethiopian and Eritrean community in Little Ethiopia.

Louisiana Creoles are present in Los Angeles. Between 1940 and 1970, roughly 5 million African Americans from the Southern United States migrated North during the Second Great Migration. Many came from Southern states bordering the Gulf Coast, primarily Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Black families from Louisiana escaping Jim Crow racism primarily settled in California. Many of them were Louisiana Creoles.

Ethiopians There is a large Ethiopian community in Little Ethiopia.

Eritreans There is an Eritrean community in Los Angeles.

Jamaicans Jamaicans are concentrated in South Los Angeles, South Bay and Long Beach.Where Jamaicans Live

Africans There is a growing African immigrant community in Los Angeles. The largest African immigrant groups are Egyptians, Nigerians, South Africans, Ghanaians, Ethiopians, Cameroonians, Moroccans, Ugandans, Kenyans and Eritreans.

Louisiana Creoles Black Louisiana Creole people settled in Los Angeles.

Asian Americans

According to the report "A Community Of Contrasts: Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in Los Angeles County" by the nonprofit group Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Los Angeles (formerly the Asian Pacific American Legal Center), Los Angeles County had 1,497,960 Asian Americans as of 2010. From 2000 to 2010 the Asian population in Los Angeles County increased by 20%.Trinidad, Elson. "L.A. County is the Capital of Asian America" ( ). KCET. September 27, 2013. Retrieved on April 3, 2014.

Within Los Angeles County, as of 2010 13 cities and places are majority Asian. As of that year, the City of Los Angeles had the highest numeric Asian population, with slightly fewer than 500,000. The city with the highest percentage of Asians was Monterey Park, which was 68% Asian. From 2000 to 2010 the city of Arcadia saw its Asian population increase by 38%, the largest such increase in the county.

As of 2010, in the world, except for the respective home countries, Los Angeles County has the largest populations of Burmese, Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Indonesian, Korean, Sri Lankan, and Thai people. In Los Angeles County the largest Asian ethnic groups were the Chinese and the Filipinos. In the period 2000-2010 the percentage of Bangladeshi Americans increased by 122%. Indian Americans, Pakistani Americans, Sri Lankan Americans, and other South Asian ethnic groups had, according to the report and as paraphrased by Elson Trinidad of KCET, "high growth rates".

As of 2010, of the Asian ethnic groups, 70% of Japanese Americans were born in the U.S., the highest such rate of the ethnic groups. 19% of Japanese Americans were senior citizens, the highest such rate of the ethnic groups. From 2000 to 2010 Japanese Americans increased by 1%, the lowest such rate.

Bangladeshis More than 20,000 Bangladeshis live in the Los Angeles area. There is a Little Bangladesh.

Cambodians Cambodians are concentrated in Long Beach, Van Nuys in the San Fernando Valley, the Monterey Park-Alhambra area of the south San Gabriel Valley and the Walnut-Pomona area of the east San Gabriel Valley.

Chinese

The first Chinese arrived in Los Angeles in 1850. The great majority came from Guangdong Province in southeastern China, seeking a fortune in Gum Saan ("Gold Mountain"), the Chinese name for America. Henry Huntington came to value their expertise as engineers. He later said he would not have been able to build his portion of the transcontinental railroad without them.Mason, William Marvin. 1967. "The Chinese in Los Angeles." The Museum Alliance Quarterly, Fall. pp.15–20. After the transcontinental railroad was completed, most took their earnings and returned to China, where they could find a wife and own a little land. Others moved to Chinatowns in the cities. By 1870, there were 178 Chinese in LA; 80% were adult men. Most worked as launderers, cooks and fruit and vegetable growers and sellers.Scott Zesch, "Chinese Los Angeles in 1870—1871: The Makings of a Massacre", Southern California Quarterly, 90 (Summer 2008): 109–158; William R. Locklear, "The Celestials and the Angels: A Study of the Anti-Chinese Movement in Los Angeles to 1882", The Historical Society of Southern California Quarterly, 42 (March 1960), 239–256. Labor unions blamed Chinese for lowering the wages and living standards of Anglo workers, and for being ruled by violent secret societies known as "tongs." The newspapers of both Los Angeles and San Francisco were filled with anti-Chinese propaganda.

The thriving Chinatown, on the eastern edge of the Plaza, was the site of terrible violence on October 24, 1871. A gunfight between rival tongs resulted in the accidental death of a white man. This enraged the bystanders, and a mob of about 500 Anglos and Latinos descended on Chinatown. They randomly lynched 19 Chinese men and boys, only one of whom may have been involved in the original killing. Homes and businesses were looted. Only 10 rioters were tried. Eight were convicted of manslaughter, but their convictions were overturned the following year on a legal technicality. This Chinese Massacre of 1871 was the first time that Los Angeles was reported on the front pages of newspapers all over the world, even crowding out reports of the Great Chicago Fire, which had taken place two weeks earlier. While the Los Angeles Star went so far to call the massacre "a glorious victory", others fretted about the city's racist and violent image. With the coming economic opportunities of the railroads, city fathers set themselves to wipe out mob violence.

Their efforts, however, led to more restrictive measures against the Chinese. In 1878–79, the city council passed several measures adversely affecting Chinese vegetable merchants. The merchants went on strike. Los Angeles went without vegetables for several weeks, finally bringing the city to the bargaining table. Historian William Estrada wrote: "This little-known event may have helped the Chinese to better understand their role in the community as well as the power of organization as a means for community self-defense. The strike was a sign that Los Angeles was undergoing dramatic social, economic, and technological change and that the Chinese were a part of that change."

Filipinos

The city of Los Angeles is home to one of the largest communities of Filipinos abroad, boasting a population of nearly 150,000 people both foreign-born and multi-generational. Filipino American communities can be found throughout the city, however there is a dedicated Historic Filipinotown located near Echo Park.

Indians

Around 109,000 Indian Americans reside in Los Angeles County.

Indonesians There is an Indonesian community in the Los Angeles area.

Japanese

The labor vacuum created by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was filled by Japanese workers and, by 1910, the settlement known as "Little Tokyo" had risen next to Chinatown. As of December 1941, there were 37,000 ethnic Japanese in Los Angeles County, most of the adults lacked United States citizenship. It was disrupted in 1942 with all the residents moved to relocation camps inland in the Japanese American internment.John Modell, The economics and politics of racial accommodation: The Japanese of Los Angeles, 1900-1942 (1977).Hayden, Dolores. "Landscapes of loss and remembrance: the case of little Tokyo in Los Angeles." Studies In The Social And Cultural History Of Modern Warfare 5 (1999): 142-160.

Koreans