The history of Orange County,California, spans thousands of years, beginning withAcjachemen indigenous peoples who lived off the land through hunting, fishing, and gathering. Later, Shoshonean-speaking tribes, including theJuaneño andGabrielino, settled in the area.Spanish colonization began in 1769 with expeditions and the establishment of missions likeMission San Juan Capistrano. Under Spanish and later Mexican rule, largeland grants formed ranchos, which dominated the economy through cattle ranching.
AfterCalifornia became part of theUnited States in 1850, theGold Rush spurred demand for beef,[13] boosting the local economy. However, environmental challenges and legal disputes over land ownership led many rancheros to sell their lands, often to American settlers.[14] The first American-founded town,Anaheim, was established in 1857 by German immigrants.[15] Other towns likeSanta Ana[16] andOrange soon followed, supported by agriculture and improved irrigation.[17]
The arrival ofrailroads in the 1870s and a real estate boom in the 1880s fueled rapid growth. In 1889, Orange County officially separated fromLos Angeles County, with Santa Ana as its seat. Agriculture, especially citrus,[17] dominated until the mid-20th century, alongside oil discoveries and transportation developments like highways and railways.[18]
World War II brought military bases and postwar population growth. By the 1950s, suburban development replaced farmland, and cities rapidly incorporated.The Disneyland Resort 1955 opening marked the rise of tourism.[19]
In 1994,Robert Citron was serving as Treasurer-Tax Collector and chose leveraging strategies with county investments that ended inChapter 9 bankruptcy for the County, costing 3,000 jobs at the county and $1.64 billion in losses.[20]
According to theU.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 948 sq mi (2,460 km2), of which 791 sq mi (2,050 km2) is land and 157 sq mi (410 km2) (16.6%) is water.[21] It is the smallest county by area inSouthern California, being just over 40% the size of the region's next smallest county,Ventura. The average annual temperature is about 68 °F (20 °C).
The northwestern part of the county lies on thecoastal plain of theLos Angeles Basin, while the southeastern end rises into the foothills of theSanta Ana Mountains. Most of Orange County's population reside in one of two shallow coastal valleys that lie in the basin, theSanta Ana Valley and theSaddleback Valley. The Santa Ana Mountains lie within the eastern boundaries of the county and of theCleveland National Forest. The high point isSantiago Peak (5,689 ft (1,734 m)[22]), about 20 mi (32 km) east of Santa Ana. Santiago Peak and nearbyModjeska Peak, just 200 ft (60 m) shorter, form a ridge known asSaddleback, visible from almost everywhere in the county. ThePeralta Hills extend westward from the Santa Ana Mountains through the communities ofAnaheim Hills,Orange, and ending inOlive. The Loma Ridge is another prominent feature, running parallel to the Santa Ana Mountains through the central part of the county, separated from the taller mountains to the east bySantiago Canyon.
TheSanta Ana River is the county's principal watercourse, flowing through the middle of the county from northeast to southwest. Its major tributary to the south and east isSantiago Creek. Other watercourses within the county includeAliso Creek,San Juan Creek, and Horsethief Creek. In the North, theSan Gabriel River also briefly crosses into Orange County and exits into the Pacific on the Los Angeles-Orange County line between the cities ofLong Beach andSeal Beach.Laguna Beach is home to the county's only natural lakes, Laguna Lakes, which are formed by water rising up against an underground fault.
Orange County is sometimes divided into northern and southern regions. There are significant political, demographic, economic and cultural distinctions between North and South Orange County.[23] A popular dividing line between the two regions is theCosta Mesa Freeway.
Northern Orange County, includingAnaheim,Fullerton,Garden Grove andSanta Ana, was the first part of the county to be developed and is culturally closer to neighboringLos Angeles County. This region is more Hispanic (mostly Mexican) and Asian (predominantly Vietnamese and Korean),[24] more densely populated (Santa Ana is theamong the most densely populated cities in the United States), younger, less wealthy and with higher unemployment. It has more renters and fewer homeowners and generally votes Democratic. There are notable exceptions to these general trends, such as strongly RepublicanYorba Linda and affluentAnaheim Hills,North Tustin, andVilla Park.[23] Northern Orange County is predominantly flat, giving way to theSanta Ana Mountains in the Northeast.
Southern Orange County is wealthier, more residential, more Republican, predominantly non-Hispanic white, and more recently developed.Irvine, the largest city in the region, is an exception to some of these trends, being not only a major employment center, but also a major tech hub and education center with UCI. Furthermore, the city is an Asian plurality (both South and East Asian), and votes reliably Democratic in recent years. Southern Orange County almost always includesIrvine,[25]Newport Beach, and the cities to their southeast, includingLake Forest,Laguna Hills,Laguna Niguel,Laguna Beach,Laguna Woods,Mission Viejo,San Juan Capistrano,Aliso Viejo, andSan Clemente.
Another region of Orange County is theOrange Coast, which includes the six cities bordering the Pacific Ocean.
Older cities in North Orange County like Santa Ana, Anaheim, Orange andFullerton have traditional downtowns dating to the late 19th century, with Downtown Santa Ana being the home of the county, state and federal institutions. However, far more commercial activity is concentrated in clusters of newer commercial development located further south in the county'sedge cities which include:
Orange County, California – Racial and ethnic composition Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos may be of any race.
Racial / Ethnic Profile of places in Orange County, California (2020 Census)
Following is a table of cities and census-designated places in Orange County. Data for the United States (with and without Puerto Rico), the state of California, and Orange County itself have been included for comparison purposes. The majority racial/ethnic group is coded per the key below.
Majority minority with no dominant group
Majority White
Majority Black
Majority Hispanic
Majority Asian
Racial and ethnic composition of places in Orange County, California (2020 Census) (NH = Non-Hispanic) Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos may be of any race.
The Hispanic and Latino population is predominantly ofMexican origin; this group accounts for 28.5% of the county's population, followed by Salvadorans (0.8%), Guatemalans (0.5%), Puerto Ricans (0.4%), Cubans (0.3%), Colombians (0.3%), and Peruvians (0.3%).[89]Santa Ana with its population reportedly 75 percent Hispanic/Latino, is among the most Hispanic/Latino percentage cities in bothCalifornia and the U.S., esp. ofMexican-American descent.[90]
Among the Asian population, 6.1% are Vietnamese, followed by Koreans (2.9%), Chinese (2.7%), Filipinos (2.4%), Indians (1.4%), Japanese (1.1%), Cambodians (0.2%), Pakistanis (0.2%), Thais (0.1%), Indonesians (0.1%), and Laotians (0.1%).[89] According toKPCC in 2014, Orange County has the largest proportion of Asian Americans in Southern California, where one in five residents are Asian American.[91] There is also a significantMuslim population in the county.[92]
Out of 935,287 households, 37.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.9%married couples were living together, 10.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.6% were non-families. 21.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.00 and the average family size was 3.48.
Ethnic change has been transforming the population. By 2009, nearly 45 percent of the residents spoke a language other than English at home. Whites now comprise only 45 percent of the population, while the numbers of Hispanics grow steadily, along with Vietnamese, Korean and Chinese families. The percentage of foreign-born residents jumped to 30 percent in 2008 from 6 percent in 1970. The mayor of Irvine, Sukhee Kang, was born in Korea, making him the first Korean-American to run a major American city. "We have 35 languages spoken in our city," Kang observed.[95] The population is diverse age-wise, with 27.0% under the age of 18, 9.4% from 18 to 24, 33.2% from 25 to 44, 20.6% from 45 to 64, and 9.9% 65 years of age or older. The median age is 33 years. For every 100 females, there were 99.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.7 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $61,899, and the median income for a family was $75,700 (these figures had risen to $71,601 and $81,260 respectively as of a 2007 estimate[96]). Males had a median income of $45,059 versus $34,026 for females. Theper capita income for the county was $25,826. About 7.0% of families and 10.3% of the population were below thepoverty line, including 13.2% of those under age 18 and 6.2% of those age 65 or over.
Residents of Orange County are known as "Orange Countians".[97]
As of 2025, the Board of Supervisors oversees a $10.8billion annual budget and over 16,000 employees.[102][103] The county government is managed on a day-to-day basis by a county executive officer and is organized into many departments. Outside of the elected official departments (named above), the board of supervisors manage the following departments: Clerk of the Board, County Counsel, Orange County Ethics Commission, Office of Independent Review and Internal Audit. Other major departments are grouped into four categories.[104]
The County Department of Education is wholly separate from the County government and is jointly overseen by the elected County Superintendent of Schools and the five-member Orange County Board of Education, whose trustees are popularly elected from five separate trustee areas.[101]
In October 2024, SupervisorAndrew Do submitted a guilty plea to conspiracy to commit bribery as a result of taking more than $550,000 in bribes for directing and voting in favor of more than $10 million in COVID funds to his daughter's charity. His plea deal included paying back bribes that he and his daughters had received. He was sentenced to 5 years in federal prison.[105]
On July 12, 2010, it was revealed that former SheriffMike Carona received over $215,000 inpension checks in 2009, despite his felony conviction for attempting to obstruct a grand jury investigation.[106][107] A 2005 state law denied a public pension to public officials convicted of wrongdoing in office, however, that law only applied to benefits accrued after December 2005. Carona became eligible for his pension at age 50, and is also entitled, by law, to medical and dental benefits.[108][109] The county pension program continues to pay out his pension through 2023.[110]
From the mid-20th century until the 2010s, Orange County was known as aRepublican stronghold and consistently sent Republican representatives to the state and federal legislatures—so strongly thatRonald Reagan described it as the place that "all the good Republicans go to die."[112] It was one of five counties in the state that voted forBarry Goldwater in 1964. During most of the 20th century and up until 2016, Orange County was known for its politicalconservatism and for being a bastion for theRepublican Party, with a 2005 academic study listing three Orange County cities as among America's 25 most conservative.[113] Orange County's Republican registration reached its apex in 1991, 55.6% of registered voters.[114] But with the 2008 election it began trending Democratic until Hillary Clinton won the county with an eight-point majority in 2016.[115][116]
Hillary Clinton became the first Democrat since 1936 to carry Orange County in a presidential election and in the2018 midterm elections theDemocratic Party gained control of every Congressional seat in the county.[112][117][118][119] Although Democrats controlled all congressional districts in Orange County at the time, Republicans maintained a lead in voter registration numbers (although it shrunk to less than a percentage point as of February 10, 2019,[120] as compared with over 10% on February 10, 2013).[121] The number of registered Democrats surpassed the number of registered Republicans in the county in August 2019. As the number of Democrats increased, the number of voters not aligned with a political party increased to comprise 27.4% of the county's voters in 2019.[122] Republicans held a majority on the countyBoard of Supervisors until 2022, when Democrats established a 3–2 control of the body. Seven out of the 12 state legislators from Orange County are also Republicans.
In 2020,Joe Biden further improved slightly on Clinton's 2016 margin of victory.[123][124] In 2023, the Republican party's registration was 33%, while the Democratic party's registration was 37.5%.[114] In2024, Orange County again voted for the Democratic nominee and California nativeKamala Harris, though Harris only won a plurality by a smaller margin than Biden or Hillary Clinton. Orange County is one of six "reverse pivot counties", counties that voted Republican in 2008 and 2012 before voting Democratic in 2016 onward.[125]
United States presidential election results for Orange County, California[126]
The Republican margin began to narrow in the 1990s and 2000s as the state trended Democratic until the mid- to late-2010s when it voted for theDemocratic Party in2016 and in2018, when the Democratic party won every United States House District anchored in the county, including four that had previously been held by Republicans.[127] This prompted media outlets to declare Orange County's Republican leanings "dead", with theLos Angeles Times running anop-ed titled, "An obituary to old Orange County, dead at age 129."[112][117][118][119][128] While Republicans were able to recapture two of the seven U.S. House seats in Orange County in2020, Democrats continued to hold the other five, Biden won the county by a slightly greater margin than Clinton had, and Democrats received a majority of the votes in each of the seven congressional districts.[124] Republicans still carry more weight at the local level, and in 2020 for theState Assembly elections, they won 50.2% of the vote and four out of seven seats of the county.[129] In the2022 midterm elections, no congressional districts flipped, though Republicans performed strongly in Orange County, with every statewide GOP candidate carrying it.
The 40th, 45th, 46th, and 47th districts are all centered in Orange County. The 38th has its population center in Los Angeles County, while the 49th is primarily San Diego County-based.132, 154, 188In theCalifornia State Senate, Orange County is split into 6 districts:[130]
According to the California Secretary of State, as of February 10, 2019, Orange County has 1,591,543 registered voters. Of these, 34% (541,711) are registered Republicans, and 33.3% (529,651) are registered Democrats. An additional 28.5% (453,343) declined to state a political party.[120]
While the growth of the county'sHispanic andAsian populations in recent decades has significantly influenced Orange County's culture, its conservative reputation has remained largely intact. Partisan voter registration patterns of Hispanics, Asians and other ethnic minorities in the county have tended to reflect the surrounding demographics, with resultant Republican majorities in all but the central portion of the county. WhenLoretta Sanchez, aBlue Dog Democrat, defeated veteran RepublicanBob Dornan in 1996, she was continuing a trend of Democratic representation of that district that had been interrupted by Dornan's 1984 upset of former CongressmanJerry Patterson. Until 1992, Sanchez herself was a moderate Republican, and she is viewed as somewhat more moderate than other Democrats from Southern California.
The county is featured prominently in Lisa McGirr's bookSuburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right. She argues that its conservative political orientation in the 20th century owed much to its settlement by farmers from theGreat Plains, who reacted strongly to communist sympathies, thecivil rights movement, and the turmoil of the 1960s in nearby Los Angeles — across the "Orange Curtain". In the 1970s and 1980s, Orange County was one of California's leading Republican voting blocs and a subculture of residents with "Middle American" values that emphasized capitalist religious morality[clarification needed] in contrast toWest coast liberalism.
Orange County has many Republican voters from culturally conservativeAsian-American,Middle Eastern and Latino immigrant groups. The largeVietnamese-American communities inGarden Grove andWestminster are predominantly Republican; Vietnamese Americans registered Republicans outnumber those registered as Democrats, 55% to 22% as of 2007, while as of 2017 that figure is 42% to 36%. Republican AssemblymanVan Tran was the first Vietnamese-American elected to a state legislature and joined with TexanHubert Vo as the highest-ranking elected Vietnamese-American in the United States until the 2008 election ofJoseph Cao inLouisiana's 2nd congressional district. In the 2007 special election for the vacant county supervisor seat following DemocratLou Correa's election to the state senate, two Vietnamese-American Republican candidates topped the list of 10 candidates, separated from each other by only seven votes, making theOrange County Board of Supervisors entirely Republican; Correa is first of only two Democrats to have served on the Board since 1987 and only the fifth since 1963.
Even with the Democratic sweep of Orange County's congressional seats in 2018, as well as a steady trend of Democratic gains in voter registration, the county remains very Republican downballot. Generally, larger cities–those with a population over 100,000, such as Anaheim, Santa Ana, and Irvine – feature a registration advantage for Democrats, while the other municipalities still have a Republican voter registration advantage. This is especially true in Newport Beach, Yorba Linda, and Villa Park, the three cities where the Republican advantage is largest. As of February 10, 2019, the only exceptions to the former are Huntington Beach and Orange, while exceptions to the latter include Buena Park, Laguna Beach and Stanton.[120]
Similarly, despite Orange County supporting Democratic candidates for president in 2016, and 2020, there are still several smaller municipalities in the county that have continued to vote Republican for president. In addition to the aforementioned Newport Beach, Yorba Linda, and Villa Park, the cities of Huntington Beach, Dana Point, San Juan Capistrano, and San Clemente also supported Republican nomineeDonald Trump for president twice.[131]
Tourism remains a vital aspect of Orange County's economy.Anaheim is the main tourist hub, with theDisneyland Resort'sDisneyland being the second most visited theme park in the world. Also,Knott's Berry Farm gets about 7 million visitors annually and is located in the city ofBuena Park. TheAnaheim Convention Center holds many major conventions throughout the year. Resorts within the Beach Cities receive visitors throughout the year due to their close proximity to the beach, biking paths, mountain hiking trails, golf courses, shopping and dining.
1965 aerial photo of AnaheimDisneyland,Disneyland Hotel with its Monorail Station. The Disneyland Heliport, surrounding orange groves, Santa Ana Freeway (now I-5) and the Melodyland Theater "in the round," and part of the City of Anaheim.Anaheim Stadium can be seen under construction near the upper left.
The area's warmMediterranean climate and 42 mi (68 km) of year-round beaches attract millions of tourists annually.Huntington Beach is a hot spot for sunbathing andsurfing; nicknamedSurf City USA, it is home to many surfing competitions. "The Wedge", at the tip of The Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, is one of the most famous body surfing spots in the world. Southern Californiasurf culture is prominent in Orange County's beach cities. Another one of these beach cities being Laguna Beach, just south of Newport Beach. A few popular beaches include A Thousand Steps on 9th Street, Main Street Beach, and The Montage.
Other tourist destinations include thetheme parks Disneyland Park andDisney California Adventure Park in Anaheim and Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park. Due to the 2022 reopening ofWild Rivers in Irvine, the county is home to threewater parks along withSoak City in Buena Park andGreat Wolf Lodge in Anaheim.[147] The Anaheim Convention Center is the largest such facility on the West Coast. TheOld Towne, Orange Historic District in the City of Orange (the traffic circle at the middle of Chapman Avenue at Glassell Street) still maintains its 1950s image, and appeared in the movieThat Thing You Do!.
Little Saigon is another tourist destination, home to the largest concentration ofVietnamese people outsideVietnam. There are also sizable Taiwanese, Filipino, Chinese, and Korean communities, particularly in western Orange County. This is evident in several Asian-influenced shopping centers in Asian American hubs like Irvine. Popular food festival626 Night Market has a location atOC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa and is a popular attraction for Asian and fusion food, as well as an Art Walk and live entertainment.[148]
In 2014, the county had 1,075 religious organizations, the sixth-highest total among all US counties (matching its status as the sixth most populous county in the US).[149]
Orange County is the base for several religious organizations:
Temple Beth El of South Orange County, located inAliso Viejo, and built in 2001 to serve the fast-growing Jewish community in Orange County, this 65,000 sq ft (6,000 m2) synagogue can seat 1,400 congregants and is the largest by size in Orange County, and is one of the largest places of worship in the state in terms of size. Temple Beth El is affiliated with both theReform andConservative Judaism denominations.[150]
Temple Bat Yahm of Newport Beach, is the largest Reform synagogue inNewport Beach and serves more than 500 families.
Chabad of Orange County, serves more than 100,000 Jewish families at more than of a dozen of its synagogues and community centers located in Irvine, Laguna Woods, Newport Beach, Aliso Viejo, Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, San Clemente, North Irvine, Laguna Niguel, Yorba Linda, Tustin, Dana Point, Huntington Beach and Laguna Beach. These synagogues adhere to theChabad-Lubavitch school ofOrthodox Judaism, but all Jews are welcome to worship regardless of denomination or background.[151]
Temple Beth Emet of Anaheim, is the only synagogue inAnaheim and was the firstConservative Jewish synagogue to open in Orange County back in 1955.
The Islamic Educational Center of Orange County (IECOC), located inCosta Mesa[156]
Forty Martyrs Armenian Apostolic Church,[157] located in Santa Ana is one of twoArmenian Apostolic Church, otherwise referred to as "Armenian Orthodox Church" or "Gregorian Church" in Orange County.
St. Mary Armenian Church,[158] located in Costa Mesa is one of twoArmenian Apostolic Church, otherwise referred to as "Armenian Orthodox Church" or "Gregorian Church" in Orange County.
Street banners promoting the county's two major league teams, the Ducks and the Angels
TheMajor League Baseball team in Orange County is theLos Angeles Angels. The team won theWorld Series under managerMike Scioscia in 2002. In 2005, new ownerArte Moreno wanted to change the name to "Los Angeles Angels" in order to better tap into the Los Angeles media market, the second largest in the country. However, the standing agreement with the city of Anaheim demanded that they have "Anaheim" in the name, so they became the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. This name change was hotly disputed by the city of Anaheim, but the change stood, whichprompted a lawsuit by the city of Anaheim against Arte Moreno, won by the latter. Prior to the 2016 season Moreno and the club officially dropped the Anaheim moniker now simply going by the Los Angeles Angels.
The Toshiba Classic, the only PGA Champions Tour event in the area, is held each March at The Newport Beach Country Club. Past champions include Fred Couples (2010), Hale Irwin (1998 and 2002), Nick Price (2011), Bernhard Langer (2008) and Jay Haas (2007). The tournament benefits the Hoag Hospital Foundation and has raised over $16 million in its first 16 years.
Professional football made its debut in 1960 when theLos Angeles Chargers of theAmerican Football League held their inaugural training camp atChapman University, then known as Chapman College. In 1966, the AFL considered expansion into the Southern California market and staged a doubleader exhibition at the newly-openedAnaheim Stadium. A year later, theNational Football League'sLos Angeles Rams began holding one preseason game at The Big A for the next three seasons before making a permanent move in time for the 1980 season. Though the team had some success, the Rams stayed for only 15 years before relocating toSt. Louis in 1995.
TheNational Basketball Association'sLos Angeles Clippers played some home games at The Arrowhead Pond, now known as theHonda Center, from 1994 to 1999, before moving to Staples Center (nowCrypto.com Arena), which they shared with theLos Angeles Lakers. In 2011, a relocation bid was launched by theSacramento Kings to move to Anaheim, but the effort was denied in a vote by the NBA Board of Governors and the franchise ultimately remained in Sacramento.
Orange County is served bymedia in Los Angeles, including its TV and radio stations. Two television stations—KOCE-TV, the mainPBS member station in the Southland andKDOC-TV, aTri-State Christian Television (TCT) owned-and-operated station—are located in Orange County.
There are a few radio stations that are actually located in Orange County.KYLA 92.7 FM has a Christian format.KSBR 88.5 FM airs a jazz music format branded as "Jazz-FM" along with news programming.KUCI 88.9 FM is a free form college radio station that broadcasts fromUC Irvine.KWIZ 96.7 FM, located inSanta Ana, airs a regional Mexican music format branded as "La Rockola 96.7".KWVE-FM 107.9 is owned by theCalvary Chapel ofCosta Mesa. KWVE-FM is also the primaryEmergency Alert System station for the county. TheLos Angeles Angels of Anaheim also own and operate a sports-only radio station from Orange,KLAA. KX 93.5 FM[163] broadcasts out of Laguna Beach and features an eclectic mix of mostly alternative rock.
County-wide politics and government coverage is primarily provided by theOrange County Register andVoice of OC.OC Weekly was an alternative weekly publication, andExcélsior is a Spanish-language newspaper. A few communities are served by theLos Angeles Times' publication of theDaily Pilot.Orange Coast was established in 1974 and is the oldest continuously published lifestyle magazine in the region.OC Music Magazine is also based out of Orange County, serving local musicians and artists.
TheOrange County Plain Dealer (January 1898 to May 8, 1925), was a mostly Anaheim-based newspaper, and successor toThe Independent, bought by James E. Valjean, a Republican and edited by him, a former editor of the Portsmouth Blade (Ohio).[164][165]
Other newspapers were:Anaheim Daily Herald,Anaheim Gazette,Anaheim Bulletin.[166]
The bus network comprises 6,542 stops on 51 lines, running along most major streets, and accounts for 210,000 boardings a day. The fleet of 508 buses is gradually being replaced byCNG (Compressed natural gas)-powered vehicles and electric powered buses, which already represent over 70% of the total fleet. Service is operated by OCTA employees and First Transit under contract. OCTA operates fourbus rapid transit service, Rapid, onHarbor Boulevard,Beach Boulevard, Main St and 17th/Westminister. In addition, OCTA offers paratransit service for the disabled (OC ACCESS), also operated by MV. OCTA offers OC flex for the rural areas of Orange County.
Since 1992,Metrolink has operated three commuter rail lines through Orange County, and has also maintained Rail-to-Rail service with parallelAmtrak service. On a typical weekday, over 40 trains run along theOrange County Line, the91/Perris Valley Line and theInland Empire–Orange County Line. Along withMetrolink riders on parallelAmtrak lines, these lines generate approximately 15,000 boardings per weekday.Metrolink also began offering weekend service on the Orange County Line and the Inland Empire-Orange County line in the summer of 2006. As ridership has steadily increased in the region, new stations have opened atAnaheim Canyon,Buena Park,Tustin, andLaguna Niguel/Mission Viejo. Plans for a future station inPlacentia are underway and is expected to be completed by 2020.
OC Streetcar, formerly known as the Santa Ana/Garden Grove Fixed Guideway Project, is astreetcar line connecting Downtown Santa Ana to the Depot at Santa Ana which is currently under construction and expected to open in 2026.[168] OCTA has also proposed connecting the two systems viaHarbor Boulevard and theWest Santa Ana Branch corridor.[169][170] Plans for a streetcar for Harbor Boulevard in Fullerton, Anaheim, and Garden Grove — theAnaheim Rapid Connection — were shelved in 2018.
A car and passenger ferry service, theBalboa Island Ferry, comprising three ferries running every five minutes, operates within Newport Harbor between Balboa Peninsula andBalboa Island inNewport Beach. TheCatalina Flyer connects the Balboa Peninsula toAvalon with daily round-trip passage through about nine months of the year. TheCatalina Express connectsDana Point to Avalon (with departures from two greaterLong Beach ports also connecting toTwo Harbors).
Orange County's only major airport isJohn Wayne Airport; its abbreviation (SNA) refers to Santa Ana, the closest large town in the early 20th century.[171] The airport is located in unincorporated territory surrounded by Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, and Irvine. On destination monitors with flights to SNA, the airport is usually described as "Orange County, CA" or "Santa Ana/Orange County". In 2014, itsThomas F. Riley Terminal handled over 9 million passengers annually and as of 2019, seven airline brands provide scheduled service.Los Angeles International Airport, is frequently used by Orange County residents which provides more domestic and international destinations.
Orange County was featured byHuell Howser inRoad Trip Episode 109.[172]
Popular television series set in Orange County include theFox dramaThe O.C. (2003–2007), the Fox sitcomArrested Development (2003–2006), and theBravo reality showThe Real Housewives of Orange County (2006–present). The three programs share a common focus on the extravagant lifestyles of the county's upper class.
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Mike Heywood,A History of Orange County: Twelve Decades of Extraordinary Change, 1889 to 2010. n.c.: Aardvark Global Publishing, 2010.
Philippe Jorion and Robert Roper,Big Bets Gone Bad: Derivatives and Bankruptcy in Orange County. San Diego: Academic Press, 1995.
Kling, Rob, Spencer C Olin, and Mark Poster,Postsuburban California: The Transformation of Orange County since World War II. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1991.
Milkovich, Barbara Ann. "Townbuilders of Orange County: A study of four southern California cities, 1857-1931" (PhD dissertation, University of California, Riverside; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 1995. 9527796).
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