Los Angeles County was one of the original counties of California, created at the time of statehood in 1850. Parts of the county's territory were given to San Bernardino County in 1853, to Kern County in 1866 and to Orange County in 1899.
       Los Angeles County is the most populous county in the United States. The county seat is the city of Los Angeles. The county is home to 88 incorporated cities and many unincorporated city-like areas. The coastal portion of the county is heavily urbanized, though there is a large expanse of lesser populated desert inland in the Santa Clarita Valley, and especially in the Antelope Valley which encompasses the northeastern parts of the county and adjacent eastern Kern County, lying just north of Los Angeles County. In between the large desert portions of the county which make up around 40 percent of its land area and the heavily urbanized central and southern portions sits the San Gabriel Mountains containing Angeles National Forest. All of southern Los Angeles County, up to about the center of the county, is heavily urbanized.