About Long Beach

Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. As of 2010, its population was 462,257. Downtown Long Beach is located approximately 22 miles (35 km) south of Downtown Los Angeles. Indigenous people have lived in coastal Southern California for over 10,000 years, during which several successive cultures inhabited the present-day area of Long Beach. By the time Spanish explorers arrived in the 16th century, the dominant group were the Tongva people. The discovery of the Long Beach Oil Field, brought in by the gusher at the Alamitos No. 1 well, made Long Beach a major oil producer; in the 1920s the field was the most productive in the world. Days in Long Beach are mostly sunny, as in Southern California in general. As in most locations in Southern California, most rainfall occurs during the winter months. Storms can bring heavy rainfall. Long Beach suffers from some of the worst air pollution in the entire United States. There are beaches, museums, art galleries and music venues in Long Beach.