Brea, California
Brea is a city in northern Orange County, California, United States. The population as of the 2020 census was 47,325. It is southeast of Los Angeles. Brea is part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
The city began as a center of crude oil production and was later propelled by citrus production. It is a significant retail center, including the Carbon Canyon Dam, Carbon Canyon Regional Park, Brea Mall and downtown Brea. The city has an extensive public art program that began in 1975 and has over 140 artworks placed throughout the city.
History
Indigenous
The area began as part of the homelands of the Tongva, who lived in the area for thousands of years before any contact was made with Europeans. The Tongva established extensive routes for travel and trade between Tongva villages as well as with neighboring Indigenous nations. The closest known village site to the city of Brea today is Hutuknga.Spanish era
The area was visited on July 29, 1769, by the Spanish Portolá expedition, the first Europeans to see inland parts of Alta California. The party camped in Brea Canyon, near a large native village and a small pool of clean water.Image:Brea-oilfields1900s.jpg|left|thumb|Oil fields of the Brea area, early 1900s
The village of Olinda was founded in present-day Carbon Canyon at the beginning of the 19th century. Many entrepreneurs came to the area searching for "black gold".
Mexican era
The majority of the current city borders of Brea were within the Rancho San Juan Cajon de Santa Ana. The cessation of territory to the United States in 1848 ushered in a new era of decline for the ranchos as rigorous title-proving processes enacted in 1851 and drought in 1860 caused most owners to sell their land.American era
The 1880s saw the development of agriculture in northern Orange County, particularly in the form of Valencia Oranges after it was found that the crop grew better in the cool foothills. Additionally, the construction of the Santa Fe Railroad as well as the discovery of oil in the area created an environment that kept winter frost from damaging the plant. Nearby oil fields provided supply for a process called "smudging", subsequently causing a grimy fog to settle over the area which reportedly caused health issues for the workers.In 1894, the owner of the land, Abel Stearns, sold west of Olinda to the newly created Union Oil Company of California, and by 1898 many nearby hills began sporting wooden oil drilling towers on the newly discovered Brea-Olinda Oil Field. In 1908 the village of Randolph, named for railway engineer Epes Randolph, was founded just south of Brea Canyon for oil workers and their families. Baseball legend Walter Johnson grew up in Olinda at the start of the 20th century, working in the surrounding oil fields.
Olinda and Randolph grew and merged as the economy boomed. On January 19, 1911, the town's map was filed under the new name of Brea, from the Spanish language word for natural asphalt, also called bitumen, pitch, or tar. With a population of 752, Brea was incorporated on February 23, 1917, as the eighth official city of Orange County.
As oil production declined, some agricultural development took place, especially lemon and orange groves. In the 1920s, the Brea Chamber of Commerce promoted the city with the slogan “Oil, Oranges, and Opportunity.”
In 1950, Brea had a population of 3,208, 641 more than ten years earlier. The citrus groves gave way gradually to industrial parks and residential development. In 1956, Carl N. Karcher opened the first two Carl's Jr. restaurants in Anaheim and Brea. The opening of the Orange Freeway and the Brea Mall in the 1970s spurred further residential growth, including large planned developments east of the 57 Freeway in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.
In the late 1990s, a swath of downtown Brea centered on Brea Boulevard and Birch Street was redeveloped into a shopping and entertainment area with movie theaters, sidewalk cafes, a live comedy club from The Improv chain, numerous shops and restaurants, and a weekly farmer's market. It is locally known and signed as Downtown Brea. The downtown area opened in 2000.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of. of it is land and 0.26% is water.It is bordered by unincorporated Orange County and Los Angeles County to the north and east, La Habra to the west, Fullerton to the southwest, Placentia to the south, Chino Hills to the northwest, and Yorba Linda to the southeast.
Climate
According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Brea has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated "Csa" on climate maps.Demographics
Brea first appeared as a city in the 1920 U.S. census as part of Brea Township.| Race / Ethnicity | Pop 1980 | Pop 1990 | Pop 2000 | Pop 2010 | % 1980 | % 1990 | % 2000 | % 2010 | ||
| White alone | 23,668 | 25,359 | 23,541 | 20,690 | 18,256 | 84.73% | 77.14% | 66.48% | 52.67% | 38.58% |
| Black or African American alone | 56 | 332 | 409 | 499 | 784 | 0.20% | 1.01% | 1.16% | 1.27% | 1.66% |
| Native American or Alaska Native alone | 276 | 115 | 111 | 90 | 101 | 0.99% | 0.35% | 0.31% | 0.23% | 0.21% |
| Asian alone | 638 | 1,957 | 3,184 | 7,068 | 13,082 | 2.28% | 5.95% | 8.99% | 17.99% | 27.64% |
| Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone | 638 | 1,957 | 71 | 62 | 54 | 2.28% | 5.95% | 0.20% | 0.16% | 0.11% |
| Other race alone | 26 | 32 | 57 | 82 | 230 | 0.09% | 0.10% | 0.16% | 0.21% | 0.49% |
| Mixed race or Multiracial | x | x | 832 | 974 | 1,846 | x | x | 2.35% | 2.48% | 3.90% |
| Hispanic or Latino | 2,547 | 5,078 | 7,205 | 9,817 | 12,972 | 9.12% | 15.45% | 20.35% | 24.99% | 27.41% |
| Total | 27,913 | 32,873 | 35,410 | 39,282 | 47,325 | 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% | 100.00% |
2020
The 2020 United States census reported that Brea had a population of 47,325. The population density was. The racial makeup of Brea was 45.1% White, 1.8% African American, 0.8% Native American, 28.0% Asian, 0.2% Pacific Islander, 10.3% from other races, and 14.0% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 27.4% of the population.The census reported that 99.4% of the population lived in households, 0.3% lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 0.2% were institutionalized.
There were 17,069 households, out of which 33.4% included children under the age of 18, 56.6% were married-couple households, 5.3% were cohabiting couple households, 24.1% had a female householder with no partner present, and 14.0% had a male householder with no partner present. 20.4% of households were one person, and 9.4% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.76. There were 12,553 families.
The age distribution was 21.2% under the age of 18, 8.2% aged 18 to 24, 27.5% aged 25 to 44, 26.6% aged 45 to 64, and 16.5% who were 65years of age or older. The median age was 40.1years. For every 100 females, there were 93.3 males.
There were 17,881 housing units at an average density of, of which 17,069 were occupied. Of these, 61.5% were owner-occupied, and 38.5% were occupied by renters.
In 2023, the US Census Bureau estimated that the median household income was $124,837, and the per capita income was $53,128. About 4.5% of families and 6.4% of the population were below the poverty line.
2010
The 2010 United States census reported that Brea had a population of 39,282. The population density was. The racial makeup of Brea was 26,363 White, 549 African American, 190 Native American, 7,144 Asian, 69 Pacific Islander, 3,236 from other races, and 1,731 from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 9,817 persons.The census reported that 39,213 people lived in households, 69 lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 0 were institutionalized.
There were 14,266 households, out of which 5,043 had children under the age of 18 living in them, 8,132 were opposite-sex married couples living together, 1,605 had a female householder with no husband present, 632 had a male householder with no wife present. There were 569 unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 100 same-sex married couples or partnerships. 3,070 households were made up of individuals, and 1,265 had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.75. There were 10,369 families ; the average family size was 3.23.
The population was spread out, with 9,057 people under the age of 18, 3,654 people aged 18 to 24, 10,669 people aged 25 to 44, 10,952 people aged 45 to 64, and 4,950 people who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38.7 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.9 males.
There were 14,785 housing units at an average density of, of which 9,266 were owner-occupied, and 5,000 were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.3%; the rental vacancy rate was 5.3%. 26,889 people lived in owner-occupied housing units and 12,324 people lived in rental housing units.
According to the 2010 United States census, Brea had a median household income of $82,055, with 5.6% of the population living below the federal poverty line.