

Pendersleigh & Sons Cartography's map of North Orange County



Pendersleigh & Sons Cartography's map of South County

DIVERSE ORANGE COUNTY



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LITTLE SEOUL

On this day in 1889,was born, making it 125 years young today.In early 1889,(later) incorporated in(later) launched,adopted theand theopened in. Meanwhile in, the communities on's left bank seceded those on the right bank and incorporatedas theMore precisely, on 11 March a bill was signed into law which allowed for voters to vote whether or not to approve the motion to incorporate -- which they did (2,509 to 500) on 4 June, 1889. But today's date is the one that is observed by most of Orange County's friends and family as its birthday.It wasn't the first time county borders within California had changed. In the first half century after theinvaded and conqueredfrom, the county borders have changed several times;split fromin 1853, parts of Los Angeles County becamein 1866, and in 1893was formed out of what had been parts of San Bernardino andcounties. Several attempts were made and failed to establish Orange County in theandToday Orange County includes the incorporated communities of, andOrange County's unincorporated communities include, andUnlike Los Angeles County, which is usually viewed as comprising about twenty regions (unless you're one of those unfortunate bipolar "Eastside vs Westside" types), Orange County is usually just divided into two --and-- and the dividing line between the two is considered by most to beMost peoples' ideas aboutprobably owe more toseries like(primarily filmed in's) and quasi-scripted "reality" series likeand... or perhaps to films likethan they do to firsthand experience. Of course any sensible person knows better than to trustwhen it comes to depicting the reality of Southern California so set aside our preconceptions and consider some facts.recently namedone of the country's most diverse places (placing it above even). There is no ethnic or racial majority in Orange County (or Los Angeles County, for that matter). Roughly 44% of Orange Countians are non-Latino, 34% areof any race, 18% are, 2% are, and 1% are. It's home to the largestcommunity in the world and three widely recognized ethnic enclaves:, andAdditionally there are large populations of, and. 30% of Orange County's residents were born in another country and 45% speak a language other than English at home. Roughly 31% of Orange County voters are registered as(the same as the national average) and 42% are registered-- meaning of course that there's no political majority.