It's a truism that will come as a surprise to few.

Los Angeles doesn't really reflect the rest of America. Sure, this is the United States. We are Americans (most of us, anyway). And L.A. is Hollywood's perpetual stand-in for Anytown, U.S.A.

But personal-finance website WalletHub confirmed that Los Angeles is in a league of its own compared with the rest of the nation. The site looked at metrics such as age, gender, income, household demographics and housing tenure to determine “2015's Metro Areas That Most and Least Resemble the U.S.”

Out of 381 cities examined, L.A. ranked 284th overall. The lower the ranking, the less a city is like the rest of the nation.

In housing demographics, which include how long people have lived in their homes, median home price and vacancy rate, we ranked a sad 379th — almost the bottom.

But you already know about the city's nation-topping housing crisis.

Among big metro areas, L.A. still ranked fairly low — 49th out of 166. A WalletHub spokeswoman broke out some other data for L.A:

330th – Race
152nd – Household Makeup
295th – % of Population with Health Insurance Coverage Housing
380th – Tenure (Renter-to-Owner Ratio)
105th – Household Income
144th – Wealth Gap
311th – % of Households Receiving Food Stamps
200th – Educational Attainment

This is a city where minorities outnumber whites and the gap between rich and poor is huge. But some of the stats are startling. The home of Caltech, considered by some to be the best university in the world, is 200th in educational attainment?

We need to elevate our game.

The city that most reflects America, by the way, is Indianapolis. 

Source: WalletHub

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