The estimated 6.8 million people who live in the 25 largest cities in Los Angeles County run the gamut of cultural and economic backgrounds.

In Lancaster, still the least-expensive place to buy a home in L.A. County, the median price of a single-family home is $83,500; that compares with $747,000 for a home in Pacific Palisades. In the community of Venice a microcosm of Los Angeles with its incredibly mixed population of haves and have nots the median home price is $315,000.

Income levels are equally diverse, with some areas of the county several times richer than others.

According to the latest available census information, the median family income in the city of Burbank, for example, is only about half that of Beverly Hills, while the median family income in Compton is less than one third the Beverly Hills median.

Similarly, the portions of area populations on public assistance vary widely. In Santa Monica, 4.8 percent of the households are on public assistance, compared with Pasadena’s 9.2 percent, Long Beach’s 11.3 percent and Compton’s 23 percent.