Rancho Cucamonga, California Population 2023

Rancho Cucamonga is located in San Bernardino County, California 37 miles east of Downtown Los Angeles. Rancho Cucamonga is the 7th largest city in the Inland Empire, a large metropolitan area in Southern California comsisting of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, and the 19th largest city in Southern California.

Diversity

Rancho Cucamonga has a foreign-born population of 20.6%. The city's high Asian population is part of a growing trend across the Inland Empire where Asian-American communities represent the fastest growing group. Growing communities include Cambodians, Laotians, Hmong, Indonesians, and Thai. Filipinos represent the largest Asian community in the Inland Empire.

Population Growth

Rancho Cucamonga has grown rapidly in recent years. Its 2019 population of 177,500 is up about 39% from 2000. In 1980, shortly after incorporating, Rancho Cucamonga had a population of just 55,000 which grew to 101,500 by 1990. The city's steady growth is expected to continue in the next decade as the Inland Empire is expected to grow faster than coastal areas of California.

In the 18th century, the land of Rancho Cucamonga was incorporated into the Mission System under Father Junipero Serra and, after many decades of struggle for control of the region, it eventually came under the control of the governor of Mexico. It was during this time period that Spain's control of much of the region weakened and Mexico won independence, expanding into Baja California and Southern California. In 1839, a large area called Cucamonga was granted to a Spanish native of Los Angeles and smuggler who developed California's first winery on the land. In 1846, American forces entered California and it became a state in 1850 but Southern California was at the time described as a "random collection of adobes." By 1887, irrigation tunnels were created and the Santa Fe Railroad was extended into the region.

Rancho Cucamonga was formed in 1977 when the unincorporated communities of Cucamonga, Alta Loma, and Etiwanda voted to incorporate together.