LONG BEACH, CA - MAY 22: Contractors build high-density upscale residential units on May 22, 2003 in Long Beach, California. The Los Angeles metropolitan area has a reputation for sprawl but is also adept at packing its population into ever-denser areas within its cities. A Census Bureau survey released May 19 reports that about 782 people moved to the Los Angeles-Long Beach metropolitan area, already the nation's most populated at nearly 9.5 million, each day in 2001. The 2001 total was more than 285,000. Nearly one-third of those new southern California residents arrived from abroad. This does not include L.A.'s commuter population sprawl, which is slopping over into northern Los Angeles, Ventura, and Riverside Counties.