According to the U.S. census, the neighborhood's population in 2000 was 40,947, which amounted to 18,760 people per square mile, among the highest densities for the city of Los Angeles and among the highest densities for the county. In 2008 the L.A. Department of City Planning estimated the population at 43,638. The average household size was 4.3 people, considered high for both the city and the county. Renters occupied 70.2% of the housing units and owners inhabited the rest, 29.8%.[2]
There were 1,980 families headed by single parents, 26.3% of the total, considered high for both the city and the county. The median age was 22, "young for the city and young for the county." The percentages of residents aged 10 through 34 were among the county's highest. The percentages of never married men and women were among the county's highest. Just 444 people, 1.8% of the neighborhood population, were veterans, low for both the city and the county.[2]
The Los Angeles Times classified the neighborhood as "not especially diverse." A succession of ethnicities has had dominance in the population. In the early 20th century, new residential developments housed primarily white residents, many of them migrants from the Midwest. By 1930 much of the neighborhood was primarily African American, made up especially of migrants from Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas.
Today Latinos make up 84.6% of the population (high for the county), blacks 13.3% (also high for the county), whites 1% and Asians 0.7%.[2][4]
The median household income of $31,559 (in 2008 dollars) was low for both the city and the county.[2]
In education, just 2.8% of the residents 25 and older had a four-year degree, considered low when compared to the city and the county as a whole. Seventy-five percent of residents in that age range had failed to complete high school, the highest percentage of any Los Angeles City neighborhood.[2][6]
^[1] Diversity "measures the probability that any two residents, chosen at random, would be of different ethnicities. If all residents are of the same ethnic group it's zero. If half are from one group and half from another it's .50." —Los Angeles Times