Westchester Community Data Profile

What is Westchester all about, anyway?

Crowded is never a term I’d use to describe Westchester unless I’m at the Trader Joe’s on La Tijera on a Sunday morning, then I’d consider it. With a population of 40,567 people, the Los Angeles Times “Mapping L.A.” reported it to be a neighborhood with one of the lowest levels of density for the city of L.A.

Growing up in Westchester, I saw many different people move in and out of my neighborhood. Mainly, my passing neighbors were people of many different cultural backgrounds, leading me to assume that my hometown is very diverse. According to “Mapping L.A.,” Westchester is highly diverse for the city of L.A. and for the county, although 52.3% of residents are white.

Despite this diversity, the percentage of children and adults who speak only English at home is quite high, with Spanish running behind at less than half of the rate in California.

Unlike the rest of L.A. County, Westchester has a low percentage of residents who are foreign-born, with Mapping L.A. reporting only 20.8% of the population as foreign-born. The most common being Mexico at 15.1% and the Philippines at 7.0%.

For L.A. County and City, the median household income is rather high according to Census Reporter, the amount stands at $104,578. It’s important to note, however, that the per capita income is reportedly about half that amount.

This above-average number for the L.A.-area could be attributed to the 60.8% of Westchester’s population with a bachelor’s degree or higher, as Census Reporter states.

I believe that this may be because of the rise of Silicon Beach, which is just a few minutes away from Westchester, that the value of homes has risen to a median value of $959,400, nearly double the amount in California.

Coronavirus cases in Westchester have been on the rise within the past few months, as have cases in all of L.A. County. The total cases, however, are not too high compared to other cities within the county, with 2,304 cases reported by USC’s Crosstown Coronavirus Tracker. This number translates to 5,637.52 per 100k population.

It isn’t a secret that cities with higher numbers of minorities have been hit significantly harder than cities with more white people. Taking look at the numbers for Westchester’s neighboring city of Lennox, whose population is 89.4% Latino, the statistics show 18,355.10 cases per 100k population.

Just one city over, it’s difficult to understand the jump in infection rate, however, it clearly shows the privilege that Westchester residents have had during this pandemic.