Riverside County, California


Riverside County is located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, its population was 2,418,185, making it the fourth-most populous county in California and the 10th-most populous in the United States. Located in Southern California, the county is named for the city of Riverside, which is its county seat.
Riverside County is included in the Riverside–San Bernardino–Ontario Metropolitan Statistical Area, also known as the Inland Empire included in the Greater Los Angeles Area.
Roughly rectangular, Riverside County covers in Southern California, spanning from the greater Los Angeles area to the Arizona border. Geographically, the western region of the county is chaparral with a Mediterranean climate, while the central and eastern regions of the county are predominantly desert or mountainous. Most of Joshua Tree National Park is located in the county. The desert resort cities of Indio, Coachella, Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Indian Wells, La Quinta, Rancho Mirage, Cathedral City and Desert Hot Springs are located in the Coachella Valley region of central-eastern Riverside County.
Between 2007 and 2011, large numbers of Los Angeles-area workers moved to the county to take advantage of more affordable housing. Along with neighboring San Bernardino County, it was one of the fastest-growing regions in the state prior to the recent changes in the regional economy. In addition, smaller, but significant, numbers of people have been moving into southwest Riverside County from the San Diego metropolitan area.

Location

Riverside County is bordered on the north by San Bernardino County; on the east by La Paz County, Arizona; on the southeast by Imperial County; on the southwest by San Diego County; and on the west by Orange County.

Etymology

When Riverside County was formed in 1893, it was named for the city of Riverside, the county seat. That city, founded in 1870, was so named because of its location near the Santa Ana River.

History

Indigenous

The Indigenous peoples of the valleys, mountains and deserts of what is now Riverside County are the Serrano, the Payómkawichum, the Mohave, the Cupeno, the Chemehuevi, the Cahuilla, and the Tongva. The Aguanga and Temecula Basins, Elsinore Trough and eastern Santa Ana Mountains are the traditional homelands of the Payómkawichum. The inland valleys in the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains and the desert of the Salton Sink are the traditional homelands of the Cahuilla.

Spanish era

The first European settlement in the county was a Mission San Luis Rey de Francia estancia or farm at the Luiseño village of Temescal. In 1819, the Mission granted Leandro Serrano permission to occupy the land for the purpose of grazing and farming, and Serrano established Rancho Temescal. Serrano was mayordomo of San Antonio de Pala Asistencia for the Mission of San Luis Rey.

Mexican era

With the signing of the Treaty of Cordoba in 1821, Mexico gained its independence from Spain, but the San Gabriel Mission near what is now Los Angeles, California, continued to expand, and established Rancho San Gorgonio in 1824. The ranch was to be one of the Mission's principal rancherias, and the most distant, and it occupied most of today's San Gorgonio Pass area.
Following the Mexican secularization act of 1833 by the First Mexican Republic, a series of rancho land grants were made throughout the state. In the Riverside County this included; Rancho Jurupa in 1838, El Rincon in 1839, Rancho San Jacinto Viejo in 1842, Rancho San Jacinto y San Gorgonio in 1843, Ranchos La Laguna, Pauba, Temecula in 1844, Ranchos Little Temecula, Potreros de San Juan Capistrano in 1845, Ranchos San Jacinto Sobrante, La Sierra, La Sierra, Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Nuevo y Potrero in 1846.
New Mexican colonists founded the town of La Placita on the east side of the Santa Ana River at the northern extremity of what is now the city of Riverside in 1843.

American era

When the initial 27 California counties were established in 1850, the area today known as Riverside County was divided between Los Angeles County and San Diego County. In 1853, the eastern part of Los Angeles County was used to create San Bernardino County. Between 1891 and 1893, several proposals and legislative attempts were put forth to form new counties in Southern California. These proposals included one for a Pomona County and one for a San Jacinto County. None of the proposals were adopted until a measure to create Riverside County was signed by Governor Henry H. Markham on March 11, 1893.

County formation

The new county was created from parts of San Bernardino County and San Diego County. On May 2, 1893, seventy percent of voters approved the formation of Riverside County. Voters chose the city of Riverside as the county seat, also by a large margin. Riverside County was officially formed on May 9, 1893, when the Board of Commissioners filed the final canvass of the votes.
Riverside county was a major focal point of the Civil Rights Movements in the US, especially the African-American sections of Riverside and heavily Mexican-American communities of the Coachella Valley visited by Cesar Chavez of the farm labor union struggle.
Riverside county has also been a focus of modern Native American Gaming enterprises. In the early 1980s, the county government attempted to shut down small bingo halls operated by the Morongo Band of Cahuilla Mission Indians and the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians. The tribes joined forces and fought the county all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in the tribes' favor on February 25, 1987. In turn, Congress enacted the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in 1988 to establish a legal framework for the relationship between Indian gaming and state governments. Naturally, both tribes now operate large casinos in the county: the Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa and the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino adjacent to Spotlight 29 Casino.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of, of which is land and is water. It is the fourth-largest county in California by area. At roughly wide in the east–west dimension, the area of the county is massive. Riverside County, California is roughly the size of the State of New Jersey in total area. County government documents frequently cite the Colorado River town of Blythe as being a "three-hour drive" from the county seat, Riverside. Some view the areas west of San Gorgonio Pass as the Inland Empire portion of the county and the eastern part as either the Mojave Desert or Colorado Desert portion. There are probably at least three geomorphic provinces: the Inland Empire western portion, the Santa Rosa Mountains communities such as Reinhardt Canyon, and the desert region. Other possible subdivisions include tribal lands, the Colorado River communities, and the Salton Sea.

Flora and fauna

There is a diversity of flora and fauna within Riverside County. Vegetative plant associations feature many desert flora, but there are also forested areas within the county. The California endemic Blue oak, Quercus douglasii is at the southernmost part of its range in Riverside County.

National protected areas

There are 19 official wilderness areas in Riverside County that are part of the National Wilderness Preservation System. Some are integral parts of the above protected areas, most are managed solely by the Bureau of Land Management, and some share management between the BLM and the relevant other agencies. Some extend into neighboring counties:

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, the county had a population of 2,418,185. The median age was 36.8 years, with 24.6% of residents under the age of 18 and 15.3% 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 98.4 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 96.4 males.
The racial makeup of the county was 41.2% White, 6.5% Black or African American, 1.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 7.1% Asian, 0.3% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, 26.4% from some other race, and 16.8% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 49.7% of the population.
94.5% of residents lived in urban areas, while 5.5% lived in rural areas.
There were 763,283 households in the county, of which 38.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them and 24.4% had a female householder with no spouse or partner present. About 19.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 848,549 housing units, of which 10.0% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 66.6% were owner-occupied and 33.4% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.5% and the rental vacancy rate was 5.4%.