New York City and Los Angeles Compared

Mr. Beat compares and contrasts Los Angeles and New York, the two largest and most influential cities in the United States.

Thanks to Mr. Betts, Grant Hurst, and the Cynical Historian!

Sources:

Photo credits:
Chun Yip So
DaveofCali
Jengod
Zenhaus
Tuxyso
Caleb George
Jean-Christophe BENOIST
Michael Vadon
Anthony Quintano
Eli Duke
Sam valadi
Arnoldius
Michael Foran

NYC and LA are the two largest cities in the United States. New York has the most people, with a population of 8.5 million, while LA has around 4 million people. The New York metropolitan area, however, has 20.3 million people. So about 1 in 16 Americans live there. The Los Angeles metropolitan area has about 13.1 million people.

Both are cosmopolitan, world famous cities. Two cities that never seem to sleep- always hustling and bustling. Over the last century, the two cities have dominated and influenced the culture of the rest of the country. It’s like the two forget the fact that the rest of us exist. You see this on mainstream TV. Most national news and entertainment programming occurs in LA or New York, although LA has way more YouTubers than New York.

Both are by oceans. NYC by the Atlantic Ocean, and LA by the Pacific.

Both are diverse. We’re talking people flock from all over the world to these two cities to start new lives. More than 37% of New York residents were born in another country. Nearly 40% of LA residents were born in another country. Almost half of the residents of LA are considered either Hispanic or Latino. New York has historically been the main way immigrants come to the United States. In both LA and New York, you’ll see lots of ethnic enclaves, or neighborhoods dominated by one ethnic group.

Both tend to have younger residents compared to most other cities around the United States, although LA’s a bit younger. (The median age in New York is about 35.8, while the median age in LA is about 34.6.)

It’s really freaking expensive to live in both cities, although LA is about 8.3% less expensive than New York. But it’s a lot more expensive to buy a home in LA. The median household income in both cities is similar. (LA 61,931, NYC 64,605) The unemployment rates and job growth rates are also comparable.(LA 4.2%, NYC 4.2% ) (LA 1.2% job growth, NYC 2% job growth)

Related to how expensive it is in both places, of course, is how crowded both cities are. While LA is notorious for its bad traffic, by some metrics New York’s traffic is actually worse. Here’s another surprise. If you look at the entire metro areas, LA, the city known for its sprawl that goes on for miles and miles, has a higher population density than New York. But city proper, ain’t nobody as dense as New York City. We’re talking 27,000 per square mile in NYC versus around 8,000 people per square mile in LA. The average commute time for both cities is way higher than the national average.
New Yorkers use more public transportation than LA folks BY FAR. I mean, there’s really no comparison. In LA, people own cars. They drive. In New York, over half of the households don’t own a car. 75% of Manhattan residents don’t.

[iammrbeat]

Which is better? New York City or Los Angeles? Which two cities should I compare next?

[ekabex]

I don't know if this bothered anyone else, but NY should be on the right side on the screen and CA on the left!!

[elsnipersanchez]

“In LA, no one uses their signals in cars
In New York, no one drives a car”

I can totally agree

[SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

It's no lie that NYC has several ethnic enclaves. In fact studies have been done of exactly how many languages are spoken in NYC...they have shown that over SIX HUNDRED are spoken there. Making it the most linguistically diverse urban center in the world. NYC really is polyglot heaven

[Yvefutura]

I man from LA walked into our coffee shop in NY and asked “how can you tell i’m not from here[Manhattan]?” We all smirked and said “you’re too happy.”

[КонстантинГеоргиев-иф]

NYC seems a lot more like a European city - high taxes, excellent public transit, barely anyone drives, nice food, while LA is what we imagine the US to be as a whole here in Europe.

[grapes]

New York in the East, LA in the West, Chicago the forgotten middle child

[levinknox]

LA definitely sleeps.. retail opens at 10am, coffee shops close at 4pm and bars are only busy thurs-sat

[s.v.]

me living in a small town in northern italy: **watching this video of 2 cities more than 10.000 km away**

[ethang]

Btw not a single person in nyc cares or follows the no public smoking law

[FuseguyisCool]

Why isn't NY on the right side of the screen and Cali on the Left respecting their points on the US map

[slimeybrooklyn]

I think it's important to note that when people think of NYC they usually only think of Manhattan, that being loud, busy, intense, and fast moving. Keep in mind that it's only a fifth of the city, as the other boroughs are much more chill compared to Manhattan.

[gile]

As a European I am absolutely for NY because you can actually walk from place to place and still have functional legs after.

[haris]

Nobody :


Me : Watching NY City vs Los Angeles comparasion although I have never been in NY or LA, and I live 438254231 miles away from USA.

[TandaSandaBanda]

I’d say New York is more “iconic”, due to how prevalent it is in pop culture. I could probably name like 20 movies off the top of my head that take place there. LA is literally where the movie industry is, and they have their fair share of spotlight too. LA also gets way more hate in my experience, but New York has its downsides.

[NaomiVirshbo]

Both states are amazing in their own way. I drove into California, and the redwoods were majestic! However, there’s nothing quite like walking through NY. Both have awesome things to do. - unbiased person from Oregon

[ninbendoyt]

New York City and Los Angeles are both beautiful and cool


-From a Chicagoan

[MarcBurr]

Cali has better weather and is more beautiful... NY has better energy and culture... if i could i would sleep in LA and travel to NY everyday lol

[justinscott]

Nyc is a walking city. Everything you could ever need to live is in walking distance. LA is a driving city. You kind of need a car to get around. I personally love nyc a lot better because of the architecture

[coreystuart]

I had an old friend tell me the difference between these two great cities: In NYC, you can be ugly as sin, but if you have a million dollars, you'll go far. In Los Angeles, you can be broke as hell, but if you LOOK like a million dollars, you'll go far.