If you have ever watched a movie or a cartoon, some of it probably came out of Burbank. Warner Bros. and Disney both have studios here, and the Warner Bros. Studio Tour is the easiest way to see how the work gets done. Universal Studios Hollywood is right next door, and Griffith Park and the LA Zoo are a short drive away.
With about 100,000 people, Burbank feels more like a tidy small town than a piece of Los Angeles. Downtown has dining and shops, Magnolia Park is the trendier stretch, and on Friday nights the classic car crowd gathers at Bob's Big Boy. The Verdugo foothills give you hiking right at the edge of town. It is a pricey place to live, with housing far above the national average, and homes cost well over a million dollars. Summers run hot, sometimes past 100 degrees, and the foothills carry wildfire risk. Traffic on the I-5 and 134 can wear you down. Crime is fairly low, mainly parked-car theft.
Cities with a similar character, anywhere on the site.
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- Known as
- Media Capital of the World; Home of Warner Bros., Disney and Nickelodeon studios; Where Hollywood works
- Founded
- 1887 founded as a town by Dr. David Burbank's land sale; 1911 incorporated as a city
- Languages
- English; Spanish; Armenian; Tagalog; Korean; Russian
- Airports
- Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR), about 3 miles northwest of downtown, in the city; Los Angeles International (LAX), about 22 miles south; Van Nuys (VNY), about 8 miles west (general aviation only); Long Beach (LGB), about 35 miles south
- Tipping
- Restaurants 18-20%; bars $1-2 per drink; taxis and rideshare 15-20%; hotel housekeeping $3-5 per night; bellhops $2-5 per bag; counter service optional to 10-15%; delivery 15-20%
About this data
Population is Census QuickFacts July 1, 2025 estimate; land area 17.32 sq mi from Census; median value and rent from Census ACS 2020-2024; Redfin figure from Aug 2026. Metro figure 12,844,441 is the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim MSA (shared; city is not the anchor). Elevation, coordinates, founding, hotel ranges, tipping, cost-of-living index, crime rates and airport distances are approximate or from general knowledge and not verified in this pass. Event details come from the Visit Burbank calendar snapshot; URLs not load-tested.
