Most Densely Populated Cities in California: Ranked by People per Square Mile

The densest city in California in our data is Maywood, CA, with about 22,888 people per square mile, followed by Walnut Park, CA (21,256) and Cudahy, CA (20,044). This list ranks the top 50 places among the 652 California communities with at least 5,000 residents.

What are the top 50 in California?

How dense are the cities in California?

The densest place is about 6 times as dense as the median place in the state, which has about 3,544 people per square mile. At the other end, Lucerne Valley, CA has about 54. Under our scale, 208 places are an urban core (over 5,000 per square mile), 364 are suburban, and the rest are small towns or rural. Los Angeles County contributes 35 of the top 50.

Which counties do the top 50 belong to?

The 50 places on this list are spread across 8 counties of California. Los Angeles County has 35 (Maywood, Walnut Park, Cudahy, Lennox, West Hollywood, East Rancho Dominguez, Huntington Pa); San Mateo County has 4 (Daly City, North Fair Oaks, East Palo Alto, Broadmoor); Alameda County has 4 (Cherryland, Ashland, Berkeley, Albany). Counties with several entries are usually centers of a metropolitan area, where one large city is surrounded by many suburbs that each pass the 5,000-resident threshold.

How does California compare with the rest of the country?

The median California place with a page has about 23,628 residents, compared with about 13,459 nationwide, so the state's typical community is larger than the national typical place. Maywood, CA ranks 1782nd among all US places by estimated population in our data. The state has 1,470 communities in total, of which 652 reach 5,000 residents. See the national ranking of the largest cities for comparison.

Quick answers about California cities

• Which is the densest city in California? Maywood (22,888 per square mile).
• How many California cities have more than 100,000 people? 91 in our data.
• How many have 25,000 to 100,000? 223.
• What is the typical size? About 23,628 residents for a place with a page.

How is this ranking made?

The data comes from the SimpleMaps US Cities Database, which gives each place an estimated population and a density in people per square kilometer. We convert density to people per square mile and rank the places with at least 5,000 residents. Boundaries matter: a city that includes large parks or farmland scores lower on density than a compact city of the same size, and population estimates can include areas that share a city's ZIP codes. Read why population figures differ and how density is calculated before you quote a number.

Where to go next

Rankings use dataset estimates, not official counts.