Biohazard and Pathogen Disinfection in Azusa, CA

Azusa was founded in 1887, when banker Jonathan S. Slauson laid out the town plan, and it incorporated in 1898, growing out of the Rancho Azusa lands once owned by Henry Dalton, who built a winery, distillery, flour mill and vineyard there in the 1840s.

Azusa had a population of exactly 50,000 at the 2020 census, up from 46,361 in 2010, living in 14,735 households with an average household size of 3.2.

The name Azusa comes from Asuksa-nga, the Tongva village that stood at the site — often translated as 'skunk place' — and locals have long promoted the city with the backronym that 'Azusa stands for everything from A to Z in the USA.'

Azusa is nicknamed 'The Canyon City' because it sits at the mouth of the San Gabriel Canyon on the east bank of the San Gabriel River, at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains about 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.

Historic Route 66 runs through Azusa along Foothill Boulevard and Alosta Avenue, and the city's rail history runs from the Santa Fe line of 1887 through the Pacific Electric to today's Metro A Line light rail built on the old right-of-way.

Azusa is home to Azusa Pacific University, a private Christian university that is also the city's largest employer, with about 1,433 employees; the aerospace firm Northrop Grumman is another major employer in the city.

About 64% of Azusa's residents were Hispanic or Latino at the 2020 census, and about 5% of the population lived in group quarters such as university dormitories rather than households.

Azusa briefly swallowed a neighbor — the short-lived boom town of Gladstone, founded the same year as Azusa in 1887, merged into the city in 1905.

Azusa is a diverse, working city: the Census Bureau estimated its median household income at $85,727 in 2023, and about 31.8% of its residents were born outside the United States.