Understanding Change: The Los Angeles County Demographic Data Project

FAIN: PW-285146-22

University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA 90089-0012)
Deborah Ann Holmes-Wong (Project Director: July 2021 to present)

A Foundations project to plan for the accessibility of a dataset documenting demographics and social change in the City of Los Angeles and 86 Los Angeles County municipalities between 1950 and 2010. 

Our Foundations project will preserve and make accessible a remarkable dataset tracing many aspects of social change in the City of Los Angeles and 86 L.A. County municipalities between 1950 and 2010. In consultation with historian Becky Nicolaides (creator of the dataset) and an advisory board of humanities scholars, geospatial data librarians, and media organizations, we will develop file format and metadata guidelines, planning documents for a website, and a roadmap for publishing the data on public-access platforms including online digital libraries, linked open data repositories, and GIS and geospatial data resources. We will also publish a pilot collection for free online public access via the USC Digital Library, Calisphere, and DPLA.

Media Coverage

“Goodbye, Beaver Cleaver” Political Junkie podcast with Claire Potter, Becky discusses The New Suburbia and the state of American suburbs. (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Potter, Claire, Nicolaides, Becky M.
Publication: Political Junkie podcast
Date: 4/12/2024
Abstract: Discussion of changes in suburbia.
URL: https://clairepotter.substack.com/p/episode-52-goodbye-beaver-cleaver

Becky discusses The New Suburbia with Larry Mantle on “Air Talk,” LAist 89.3 FM, NPR (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Mantle, Larry, Nicolaides, Becky M.
Publication: Air Talk
Date: 5/27/2024
Abstract: Suburban growth defined much of the latter 20th century, with predominantly white, middle-class families leaving urban centers nationwide, including in Los Angeles. Suburbs like Lakewood and South Gate emerged, but the story didn’t stop there. Over time, these areas became more diverse, prompting questions about how communities adapted, how different groups built connections, and how the vision of suburban life evolved. Historian Becky Nicolaides explores these themes in her new book, The New Suburbia: How Diversity Remade Suburban Life in Los Angeles After 1945. On AirTalk, she joins Larry to discuss the transformation of LA’s suburbs.
URL: https://laist.com/shows/airtalk/hearing-from-fast-food-workers-franchisees-as-statewide-wage-increases-loom

AirTalk Host Larry Mantle's favorite LA books of 2024 (perfect for gift giving!) Each book on this list offers insight into Southern California (Review)
Author(s): Mantle, Larry
Publication: LAIST
Date: 11/12/2024
Abstract: The New Suburbia is listed among Larry Mantle, AirTalk host's top books of 2024.
URL: https://laist.com/news/los-angeles-activities/laist-holiday-gift-guide-2024-larry-mantle-la-books

The New Suburbia: How Diversity Remade Suburban Life in Los Angeles after 1945 By Becky M. Nicolaides (Review)
Author(s):
Publication: Western Historical Quarterly
Date: 10/29/2024
Abstract: Review of The New Suburbia.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1093/whq/whae064

The New Suburbia: How Diversity Remade Suburban Life in Los Angeles After 1945 (Review)
Author(s): Anaker, Katrin B.
Publication: Journal of the American Planning Association
Date: 4/4/2024
Abstract: Book review
URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2024.2328495

Associated Products

Los Angeles County Demographic Data Project 1950-2010 (Web Resource)
Title: Los Angeles County Demographic Data Project 1950-2010
Author: Becky M Nicolaides
Abstract: The Los Angeles County Demographic Data Project preserves and makes accessible a dataset tracing social changes in the City of Los Angeles, L.A. County, and 86 municipalities between 1950 and 2010. The Los Angeles County demographic dataset includes over 90 discrete data files and represents the culmination of more than a decade of work by historian Becky Nicolaides and her team while completing research for her book The New Suburbia: How Diversity Remade Suburban Life in Los Angeles After 1945 (Oxford, 2024). Nicolaides’ research for The New Suburbia was supported by grants from NEH, the American Council of Learned Societies the John Randolph Haynes & Dora Haynes Foundation, and other organizations. The dataset traces many facets of demographic change in Los Angeles and 86 nearby municipalities along with poverty rates and voter registration data. Nicolaides and her team painstakingly collected data for each municipality for 54 variables relating to race and ethnicity, country of origin, class, occupation, education, age, family status, and housing from the U.S. Census and voter registration data from the California Secretary of State. Nicolaides and her team carefully documented their methodology and accounted for many changes in definitions used by the U.S. Census. The resulting dataset allows for meaningful, granular comparisons among municipal data for seven decennial years (1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, and 2010).
Year: 2024
Primary URL: https://doi.org/10.25549/lademo-ouc1sto1757543
Primary URL Description: Persistent URL for the project.
Secondary URL: https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/Archive/Los-Angeles-County-Demographic-Data-Project-1950-2010-2A3BF1QHIPZ0Q
Secondary URL Description: System URL for the project.

The New Suburbia: How Diversity Remade Suburban Life in Los Angeles After 1945 (Book)
Title: The New Suburbia: How Diversity Remade Suburban Life in Los Angeles After 1945
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Abstract: America's suburbs have been transforming. The conventional story of suburbs as bastions of white, middle-class homeowners no longer describes the suburbs of America's cities. Today they house a more typical cross-section of the nation--rich, poor, Black American, Latino, Asian, immigrant, the unhoused, the lavishly housed, and everyone in between. Stories of everyday suburban life, in the process, have taken on new inflections.
Year: 2024
Access Model: purchase
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 978-0197578308
Copy sent to NEH?: No

Suburbanization in Los Angeles County: Tracing suburbia’s transformation from homogeneous to diverse, 1950–2010 (Web Resource)
Title: Suburbanization in Los Angeles County: Tracing suburbia’s transformation from homogeneous to diverse, 1950–2010
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Author: Žejdlík, Jakub
Abstract: StoryMap by Becky Nicolaides and Jakub Žejdlík, For the EU Erasmus+ Project, “Urbanism and Suburbanization in the EU Countries and Abroad: Reflection in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts.” August 30, 2024. This StoryMap is based on the Los Angeles County Demographic Data Project 1950-2010, which is cited in the end acknowledgments, and a hyperlink is provided to the site on the USC Digital Library website.
Year: 2024
Primary URL: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/2b096b89f2994bb88f0a6f25c2d95981
Primary URL Description: Storymap using the data from the LA Demographic Data Project

Händelserna som förändrade klimatet/Events that changed the climate, Episode 2 (Film/TV/Video Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Händelserna som förändrade klimatet/Events that changed the climate, Episode 2
Writer: Schulz, Lisen
Producer: Schultz, Lisen
Abstract: Information from grant included in section on growth of suburbs.
Year: 2024
Primary URL: https://urplay.se/program/237201-handelserna-som-forandrade-klimatet-rekordaren-accelererar
Primary URL Description: Episode that features interview with Becky Nicolaides on "Postwar Lakewood and Mass Consumption.”
Access Model: open access
Format: Video
Format: Web

To Understand What Could Happen on Election Day, Understand the Suburbs (Article)
Title: To Understand What Could Happen on Election Day, Understand the Suburbs
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Abstract: Refers to demographic data project.
Year: 2024
Primary URL: https://time.com/7001654/american-suburbs-political-history/
Format: Magazine
Publisher: Time Magazine

Opinion: Can’t afford a house in L.A.? Here’s how that happened (Article)
Title: Opinion: Can’t afford a house in L.A.? Here’s how that happened
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Abstract: References LA Demographic Data Project to show changes in housing.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-09-28/real-estate-housing-prices-income-los-angeles-house-burden
Access Model: subscription (limited free articles for non-subscribers)
Format: Newspaper
Publisher: Los Angeles Times

Reimagining the Suburban Ideal: Forging Multiracial Community in Three American Suburbs (Book Section)
Title: Reimagining the Suburban Ideal: Forging Multiracial Community in Three American Suburbs
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Editor: Wiese, Andrew
Editor: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Editor: Flaisarova, Pavlina
Editor: Freitag, Florian
Abstract: Discusses changing demographics in Los Angeles suburbs.
Year: 2026
Access Model: undetermined at this time
Book Title: Suburbia Reconsidered: Perspectives on Urban Peripheries in the EU and US

Are Latino suburbs ethnoburbs? And why it matters (Book Section)
Title: Are Latino suburbs ethnoburbs? And why it matters
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Editor: Sandoval-Strausz, A. K.
Abstract: Discussion of demographics in Los Angeles suburbs.
Year: 2025
Access Model: hardcover, paperback and online
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Book Title: Metropolitan Latinidad: Transforming American Urban History (Historical Studies of Urban America)

Migrations (Book Section)
Title: Migrations
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Editor: Deverell, William
Editor: Graham, Wade
Abstract: Examines demographic changes in Los Angeles's suburbs.
Year: 2026
Access Model: hardcover, paperback, e-book
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Book Title: [Los Angeles Almanac]

Living Black in Lakewood: Rewriting the history and future of an iconic suburb (Blog Post)
Title: Living Black in Lakewood: Rewriting the history and future of an iconic suburb
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Abstract: Discusses Black population in Lakewood during the last half of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
Date: 01/17/2024
Primary URL: https://blog.oup.com/2024/01/living-black-in-lakewood-rewriting-the-history-and-future-of-an-iconic-suburb/
Blog Title: Oxford University Press Blog
Website: Oxford University Press

The Metropole Bookshelf: Becky Nicolaides and “The New Suburbia" (Blog Post)
Title: The Metropole Bookshelf: Becky Nicolaides and “The New Suburbia"
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Abstract: Discussion of her book "The New Suburbia."
Date: 01/01/2024
Primary URL: https://themetropole.blog/2024/01/09/the-metropole-bookshelf-becky-nicolaides-and-the-new-suburbia/
Blog Title: The Metropole: Official Blog of the Urban History Association
Website: The Metropole Blog

City of Los Angeles, historical housing and land use study (Report)
Title: City of Los Angeles, historical housing and land use study
Author: Architectural Resources Group
Abstract: For the City of L.A, to inform the city’s housing policy. September 2024
Date: 09/20/2024
Primary URL: https://planning.lacity.gov/plans-policies/community-plan-update/housing-element-rezoning-program-news/historical-housing-and
Access Model: open access - public record

Reflections on The New Suburbia (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Reflections on The New Suburbia
Abstract: Discussion of Los Angeles's suburbs and how demographic and other shifts reflect larger trends in society.
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Date: 03/06/2025
Location: College of Environmental Design, History, and American Studies, UC Berkeley

Reflections on The New Suburbia (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Reflections on The New Suburbia
Abstract: Discussion of how changes in Los Angeles's suburbs reflect wider changes in society.
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Date: 02/07/2025
Location: Seaside Institute Symposium, Seaside, FL.

The New Suburbia (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: The New Suburbia
Abstract: Discussion of changes in Los Angeles's suburbs.
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Date: 01/12/2025
Location: Claremont Heritage, Claremont, CA

“The New Suburbia” book talk (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: “The New Suburbia” book talk
Abstract: Discussion of changes in Los Angeles's suburbs.
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Date: 10/28/2024
Location: Altadena Historical Society, Altadena, CA

“The New Suburbia” book talk (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: “The New Suburbia” book talk
Abstract: Discussion of changes in Los Angeles's suburbs.
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Date: 10/05/2024
Location: South Pasadena Preservation Foundation, South Pasadena, CA
Primary URL: https://sppreservation.org/special-event-becky-becky-nicolaides-hostorian-author/

The New Suburbia” book talk, co-sponsored by Departments of History, American Studies, and Sociology, Cal State University Long Beach. (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: The New Suburbia” book talk, co-sponsored by Departments of History, American Studies, and Sociology, Cal State University Long Beach.
Abstract: Impact of demographic change on Los Angeles's suburbs.
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Date: 09/19/2024
Location: Co-sponsored by Departments of History, American Studies, and Sociology, Cal State University Long Beach, Long Beach, CA

“The New Suburbia” book talk, Los Angeles City Historical Society (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: “The New Suburbia” book talk, Los Angeles City Historical Society
Abstract: Impacts of demographic changes on Los Angeles's suburbs.
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Date: 08/19/2024
Location: Los Angeles City Historical Society, Los Angeles, CA, virtual
Primary URL: https://www.lacityhistory.org/events/2024/08/19/the-new-suburbia

Housing tools for displacement and segregation (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Housing tools for displacement and segregation
Abstract: Discusses demographic changes and housing in Los Angeles.
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Date: 08/16/2024
Location: Reconcile Pasadena, Center for Restorative Justice, Pasadena, CA

“The New Suburbia,” The Book Club of California (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: “The New Suburbia,” The Book Club of California
Abstract: Impact of demographic changes on Los Angeles's suburbs.
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Date: 07/01/2024
Location: Virtual

| “The New Suburbia in Pasadena,” book talk, Blinn House, Pasadena Heritage, Pasadena, CA (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: | “The New Suburbia in Pasadena,” book talk, Blinn House, Pasadena Heritage, Pasadena, CA
Abstract: Impact of demographic changes on Pasadena.
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Date: 06/23/2024
Location: Blinn House, Pasadena, CA

“The New Suburbia,” Lanterman House, La Canada, CA (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: “The New Suburbia,” Lanterman House, La Canada, CA
Abstract: Impact of demographic changes on Los Angeles's suburbs.
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Date: 06/16/2024
Location: Lantermann House, La Canada, CA

“The New Suburbia,” Historical Society of Southern California, virtual book talk (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: “The New Suburbia,” Historical Society of Southern California, virtual book talk
Abstract: Impacts of demographic changes on Los Angeles's suburbs.
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Date: 06/04/2024
Location: virtual

Talk on “Housing Tools for Displacement and Segregation” for the “Race & Place Tour: The Racial History of Pasadena,” Center for Restorative Justice, Pasadena (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Talk on “Housing Tools for Displacement and Segregation” for the “Race & Place Tour: The Racial History of Pasadena,” Center for Restorative Justice, Pasadena
Abstract: Impacts of demographic changes on housing.
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Date: 04/27/2024
Location: Center for Restorative Justice, Pasadena, CA

| “The New Suburbia,” College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Cal State Fullerton. (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: | “The New Suburbia,” College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Cal State Fullerton.
Abstract: Impact of demographic changes on Los Angeles's suburbs.
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Date: 04/25/2024
Location: California State University Fullerton, Fullerton, CA

American dreams and nightmares: the life of the American suburb, (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: American dreams and nightmares: the life of the American suburb,
Abstract: Impacts of demographic changes on Los Angeles's suburbs.
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Date: 04/20/2024
Location: Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, USC Campus, Los Angeles, CA

“The New Suburbia: Book Talk,” Leland Weaver Library, South Gate, CA (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: “The New Suburbia: Book Talk,” Leland Weaver Library, South Gate, CA
Abstract: Impacts of demographic changes on Los Angeles's suburbs.
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Date: 03/30/2024
Location: Leland Weaver Library, South Gate, CA

“Suburbia” webinar (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: “Suburbia” webinar
Abstract: History of suburbia.
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Author: Lassiter, Matt
Author: Nickerson, Michelle
Date: 03/26/2024
Location: Huntington-USC Institute on CA and the West, San Marino, CA

“Presentation and Book Signing: The New Suburbia,” Pasadena Museum of History, CA (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: “Presentation and Book Signing: The New Suburbia,” Pasadena Museum of History, CA
Abstract: Impacts of demographic changes on Los Angeles's suburbs.
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Date: 02/29/2024
Location: Pasadena Museum of History, Pasadena, CA

New Directions in Suburban History: A Roundtable,” a conversation with Becky Nicolaides, Matt Lassiter, and Lily Geismer, LA History & Metro Studies Group (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: New Directions in Suburban History: A Roundtable,” a conversation with Becky Nicolaides, Matt Lassiter, and Lily Geismer, LA History & Metro Studies Group
Abstract: History of suburbia.
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Author: Lassiter, Matt
Author: Geismer, Lily
Date: 02/23/2024
Location: Huntington Library, San Marino, CA

“The New Suburbia,” Skyscraper Museum, NYC (virtual) (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: “The New Suburbia,” Skyscraper Museum, NYC (virtual)
Abstract: Changing demographics in Los Angeles's suburbs.
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Date: 02/20/2024
Location: Virtual

“All Saints Church Pasadena presents The Forum: The New Suburbia by Becky Nicolaides,” All Saints Church Pasadena, CA (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: “All Saints Church Pasadena presents The Forum: The New Suburbia by Becky Nicolaides,” All Saints Church Pasadena, CA
Abstract: Demographic changes and Los Angeles's suburbs.
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Date: 01/28/2024
Location: All Saints Episcopal Church, Pasadena, CA

Book Launch: “Becky Nicolaides, In Conversation With Naomi Hirahara, Discusses The New Suburbia,” Vroman’s Bookstore, Pasadena, CA (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Book Launch: “Becky Nicolaides, In Conversation With Naomi Hirahara, Discusses The New Suburbia,” Vroman’s Bookstore, Pasadena, CA
Abstract: Discussion of demographic changes in Los Angeles's suburbs.
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Author: Hirahara, Naomi
Date: 02/26/2024
Location: Vroman's Bookstore, Pasadena, CA

Exploring the History of Our Suburbs,” for the series “Faithful in LA: Exploring Issues and Solutions Around Housing,” La Canada Presbyterian Church, CA. (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Exploring the History of Our Suburbs,” for the series “Faithful in LA: Exploring Issues and Solutions Around Housing,” La Canada Presbyterian Church, CA.
Abstract: Impacts of demographics on Los Angeles's suburbs/
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Date: 01/24/2024
Location: La Canada Presbyterian Church, La Canada, CA

“The New Suburbia: How Diversity Remade Suburban Life in Los Angeles.” Clark Davis Memorial Lecture, LA History & Metro Studies Group, Huntington Library, San Marino, Ca. (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: “The New Suburbia: How Diversity Remade Suburban Life in Los Angeles.” Clark Davis Memorial Lecture, LA History & Metro Studies Group, Huntington Library, San Marino, Ca.
Abstract: Impacts of changing demographics on Los Angeles's suburbs.
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Date: 05/05/2023
Location: Huntington Library, San Marino, CA

Reimagining the Suburban Ideal, in Multiracial Los Angeles (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Reimagining the Suburban Ideal, in Multiracial Los Angeles
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Abstract: Examination of race in Los Angeles's suburbs.
Date: 05/13/2024
Conference Name: Conference on Suburban Studies, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic

“The Suburb Toolkit,” for the roundtable panel “Taking It to the Streets: A Historians’ Roundtable on Translating Scholarship into Community Change.” (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: “The Suburb Toolkit,” for the roundtable panel “Taking It to the Streets: A Historians’ Roundtable on Translating Scholarship into Community Change.”
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Abstract: Using demographic data to enable change.
Date: 01/07/2024
Primary URL: https://www.historians.org/past-meeting/137th-annual-meeting/
Conference Name: American Historical Association 137th Annual Meeting

Suburban political cultures among Latinx homeowners in Los Angeles (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Suburban political cultures among Latinx homeowners in Los Angeles
Author: Nicolaides, Becky M.
Abstract: Discussion of Latinx homeownership in Los Angeles from 1970-2010.
Date: 04/01/2023
Primary URL: https://www.oah.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/oah_2023_conference_program_digital_copy.pdf
Conference Name: Organization of American Historians: 2023 OAH Conference on American History

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