Cerritos highlight
Strong community identity
A multicultural community where 61.7% of residents are Asian, with significant Filipino, Korean, Indian, Chinese and Taiwanese populations.
Cerritos incorporated on April 24, 1956, originally named Dairy Valley after the milk-producing farms that dotted southeastern Los Angeles County. The freeway system—the 605 and 91 routes completed in 1963 and 1964—made the area accessible to broader regions, and by the early 1970s, dairy ranches gave way to suburban housing. The city changed its name to Cerritos in 1967, Spanish for 'little hills,' capturing both its geography and its character as a place in transition.
Today, Cerritos is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the United States. According to the 2020 Census, the population is 61.7% Asian, 16.0% Hispanic, 11.7% White, 5.7% Black and 4.1% Multiracial. The city became a major destination for immigrants from the Philippines, Korea, China and Taiwan during the 1970s and 1980s, and now hosts the Festival of Friendship each year to celebrate that diversity. The Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, opened in 1993 with a 1,700-seat theater, and the Cerritos Library, which opened in 2002 with its distinctive titanium exterior, serve as community gathering places that reflect that range of backgrounds.
A community built on diversity teaches the practical importance of planning for family. Whether a household is in its first generation of homeownership or multi-generational, term life insurance sized to your obligations and your family's years of need is the foundation that lets those goals continue.