5 Standout Stats about Downtown LA

The International Downtown Association recently published The Value of U.S. Downtowns and Center Cities calculating the value of Downtown Los Angeles. We asked Elan Shore, our Director of Research and Special Projects, for his take on the report. Here are his top five statistics that stand out and what they mean for DTLA.

1)     1.4%

Downtown Los Angeles represents only 1.4% of the land area of the City of Los Angeles, but has almost 20% of the city’s jobs, almost half of its office space, and generates around 40% of its business and sales tax revenues.

2)     48K/square mile

Downtown’s outsized economic contribution is due to its density. At 47,999 employees per square mile, DTLA has 13.5 times more than the rest of the city. The same is true of retail, where DTLA is 11 times as dense, with 753 retail businesses per square mile vs. 75 for the rest of the city.

3)     29%

In a region experiencing a housing shortage of crisis proportions, Downtown is doing much of the heavy lifting to address the problem, increasing its residential inventory by 29% between 2010-2019 vs. only 6% citywide.

4)     $100K

Downtown’s residential draw for high-income earners is clearly illustrated by maps showing population growth and median household income by census tract. For example, in the tracts that cover the South Park neighborhood, the median household income is around $100,000 and the population has more than doubled in the past 10 years.

5)     37%

One of the most compelling data points is the Housing & Transportation Index score. This is an estimate of the combined cost of housing and transportation for each census tract in the country. What it shows is that the average Downtown resident spends about 37% of their income on housing and transportation, 1/3rd less than the city average.

Looking for a different perspective? Check out Johnna Hughes' take on the report and her reflections on becoming a DTLA resident.