Pomona, California Population 2023

Pomona is located in Los Angeles County, California in the Pomona Valley region between the San Gabriel Valley and the Inland Empire and about 30 miles due east of Los Angeles. The city is part of Great Los Angeles which has an estimated population of 18.8 million.

Diversity

The foreign-born population of Pomona is just over 34%. Among foreign-born populations, the most common places of birth are Mexico (72.4%) and El Salvador (4.4%). The city is considered fairly diverse for the area and has a Hispanic-majority population. The most common ancestries in Pomona are Mexican (53.6% of the population) and German (2.9%).

The Hispanic population of Pomona has grown from 65% in 2000 to more than 70% today. The non-Hispanic white population, meanwhile, has dropped from 17% to just 11% in the same period of time.

Population Growth

While Pomona has grown rapidly since it was settled, its population growth has slowed in the last twenty years and even went negative between 2000 and 2010 for the first time in its history. While Pomona has continued to grow in the last decade, its growth has been slow and is expected to remain fairly stable for the next decade.

Pomona was settled in the 1830s when the region was still part of Mexico. By 1848, the first Anglo-Americans settled in the area after California became part of the U.S. Coachella Valley water and the railroads reaching the region allowed it to thrive and become part of the region's growing citrus industry.

Pomona was named for the Roman goddess of fruit, Pomona, when a horticulturist won the contest to name the new city in 1875. Surprisingly, the city was named before any fruit trees were planted. The city was incorporated in 1888.

By the 1920s, the city was the Queen of the Citrus Belt and had one of the highest levels of income in the country. For most of its history, Pomona has grown very rapidly with a growth rate that has ranged from 13% to 89% in most decades between 1890 and 2000 with the exception of slowed growth in the 1980s.