Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California

Southern California

Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

, on the Pacific

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

 coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and the seventh-largest in California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. As of 2010, its population was 462,257. In addition, Long Beach is the second largest city within Greater Los Angeles

Greater Los Angeles Area

The Greater Los Angeles Area, or the Southland, is a term used for the Combined Statistical Area sprawled over five counties in the southern part of California, namely Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County, Riverside County and Ventura County...

 and a principal city of the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana metropolitan area.

The city is a dominant maritime

Sea

A sea generally refers to a large body of salt water, but the term is used in other contexts as well. Most commonly, it means a large expanse of saline water connected with an ocean, and is commonly used as a synonym for ocean...

 center of the United States and was recently named "Aquatic Capital of the Nation." It wields substantial influence critical to the global economy

Economic globalization

Economic globalization refers to increasing economic interdependence of national economies across the world through a rapid increase in cross-border movement of goods, service, technology and capital...

.