(May 3, 2006) -- The City of LB had 490,166 residents as of 1/1/06, says the annual May release of updated population estimates from the CA Dept. of Finance's Demographic Research Unit. LB's population increased 0.3% from 488,688 a year earlier.

As of 1/1/06, Lakewood had 83,287 residents (a 0.1% increase over 83,175 on 1/1/05)...while Signal Hill's population grew to 11,089 (a 1.9% increase over 10,883 estimated for 1/1/05).

The state agency revised downward its initial 1/1/05 estimates (issued 5/1/05) for LB, Signal Hill and Lakewood. In May 05, it estimated 491,564 for LB, 83,675 for Lakewood and 10,951 for Signal Hill for 1/1/05. The agency's May figures are "provisional" for the current year until finalized a year later.

The DoF's Demographic Research Unit estimates L.A. County has 10,245,572 residents (up 0.8% from a year earlier), accounting for 27% of CA's residents, making it the most populous County in the nation. Orange County, number two in CA, grew to 3,072,336 residents (up 0.8% from a year earlier). Almost half the state's population resides in L.A, OC, San Diego and San Bernardino Counties.

DoF estimates California had 37,172,015 residents as of 1/1/06, an increase of 1.2% from a year earlier. "Californians represent 12.5 percent, one out of every eight persons, of the United States population," the agency notes.