Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Cudahy, CA

Cudahy is a city in southeastern Los Angeles County and, at only about 1.23 square miles, it is the second-smallest city in the county by area, after Hawaiian Gardens.

Despite its tiny footprint, Cudahy has one of the highest population densities of any incorporated city in the United States — about 19,393 people per square mile at the 2020 census — and in 2007 it was the second-densest city in California, behind only Maywood.

Cudahy is named for its founder, meat-packing baron Michael Cudahy, who in 1908 bought 2,777 acres of the old Rancho San Antonio to resell as one-acre farms.

Those one-acre parcels became known as Cudahy lots and were designed so families could keep large vegetable gardens, fruit trees, chicken coops, and horse stables; as late as the 1950s, some residents still rode horses into downtown.

Cudahy was incorporated on November 10, 1960, and it is part of the Gateway Cities region of southeastern Los Angeles County.

Cudahy had a population of 22,811 at the 2020 census, down slightly from its peak of 24,313 in 2000.

Cudahy's roughly 5,787 households average 3.80 people per household, one of the largest average household sizes of any city in California, reflecting its many large families.

After World War II Cudahy was a blue-collar town built around steel and automobile plants, but when the factories closed in the late 1970s, stucco apartment complexes replaced the old farm lots and the population density climbed dramatically.

Cudahy is today a predominantly Latino, immigrant community, bordered by Bell to the north, Bell Gardens to the east, South Gate to the south, and Huntington Park to the west.