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Demographics of Pomona, CA
Affluence Level in Pomona, CA
A middle-class area roughly in line with national averages across income, home values, education, and employment.
People of Pomona, CA
Pomona, California, is a majority-Hispanic city of 148,391 residents where 71.4% of the population identifies as Hispanic or Latino, giving it a distinctly working-class, family-oriented character shaped by successive waves of migration. The city’s density—roughly 6,500 people per square mile—reflects its historic role as a railroad and industrial hub that drew laborers from Mexico, the American South, and East Asia. Today, Pomona is a place where Spanish is heard as often as English, where multigenerational households are common, and where the population is younger (median age 31) and less college-educated (19.5%) than the surrounding region. Its identity is rooted not in suburban sprawl but in older, walkable neighborhoods built around downtown and the historic fairgrounds.
How the city was settled and grew
Pomona’s population history begins with the Tongva people, who inhabited the area for centuries before Spanish colonization. The city itself was founded in 1875 by the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroad, which drew Anglo-American settlers from the Midwest and East Coast seeking citrus and agricultural land. By the early 1900s, Pomona had become a center for lemon and orange groves, attracting Mexican laborers who settled in what is now Lincoln Park and the Holt Avenue corridor. A second wave came during the Great Depression and World War II, when African Americans from Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma migrated west for defense-industry jobs, forming a community around Park Avenue and Garey Avenue. Japanese American families, many of whom had been interned during the war, returned to Pomona and established a small but resilient enclave near Towne Avenue. By 1950, Pomona was a diverse, working-class city of roughly 35,000, with distinct ethnic neighborhoods that still bear those historical imprints.
Modern era (post-1965)
The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act dramatically reshaped Pomona’s demographics. Mexican immigration surged, and by 1980 the Hispanic share of the population had risen from roughly 20% to over 50%. This wave concentrated in the Phillips Ranch area (a newer, more suburban section) and the older West Pomona neighborhoods near the fairgrounds. At the same time, white flight accelerated: the non-Hispanic white population fell from 70% in 1970 to 10% today. East and Southeast Asian immigrants—primarily Vietnamese, Filipino, and Chinese—arrived after 1975, settling in the North Pomona and Indian Hill neighborhoods, where they now make up 10.2% of the city. The African American population, which peaked at roughly 12% in 1990, has declined to 5.0% as families moved to nearby cities like Fontana and Moreno Valley. Indian subcontinent residents (0.8%) and other groups remain small. The foreign-born share is 16.5%, lower than many neighboring cities, indicating that Pomona’s Hispanic population is increasingly U.S.-born second and third generation.
The future
Pomona’s population is likely to become more Hispanic and more U.S.-born over the next decade. The city’s Hispanic share is already among the highest in the San Gabriel Valley, and with a median age of 31 and a birth rate above the county average, natural increase will drive growth. The white population is aging and shrinking; the Black population is stable but small. East and Southeast Asian communities are plateauing, with little new immigration from those regions. The city is not tribalizing into distinct enclaves—rather, it is homogenizing into a predominantly Hispanic, working-class city where English and Spanish coexist. The Phillips Ranch area, with its newer housing stock and slightly higher incomes, may remain more mixed, while West Pomona and Lincoln Park will likely stay heavily Hispanic. Gentrification pressures from nearby Claremont and La Verne are minimal, as Pomona’s older housing stock and lower home values (median $480,000) attract few affluent newcomers.
For someone moving to Pomona now, the city offers a dense, family-oriented environment with a strong Hispanic cultural identity, affordable housing relative to Los Angeles County, and a population that is younger and more rooted than many neighboring suburbs. The trade-off is limited economic mobility: only 19.5% of adults hold a bachelor’s degree, and the median household income ($62,000) lags the county average. Pomona is not a place of rapid demographic change or new arrivals—it is a stable, working-class city where the population is increasingly native-born and where the future looks much like the present.
* Values derived from national, state, county, city and local statistics and may differ in a specific area. Last updated: 2026-04-24T05:06:47.000Z
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