With a population of 2,409,331, Riverside County is the fourth most populous county in the 58-county state of California. It is closely followed by San Bernardino County, with 2,171,071 people, and Santa Clara County, with 1,932 022 people. This county has 12 federally recognized Indian reservations, connecting it to Sandoval County, New Mexico - the second largest county in the United States. Despite the federal trend towards Democrats, Republicans have continued to win Riverside County at the state level.
The county's municipal departments are Banning, Beaumont, Blythe, Calimesa, Cathedral City, Corona, Desert Hot Springs, Hemet, Indio, Menifee, Murrieta and Palm Springs. It also includes Riverside Community College. With its most popular demographics and current data, it is the perfect starting point for research on Riverside County and the rest of California. Riverside County was one of the main focal points of civil rights movements in the United States - especially in the African-American sections of Riverside and in the mostly Mexican-American communities of the Coachella Valley visited by César Chávez - a member of the agricultural union struggle.
Roughly rectangular in shape, Riverside County covers 7,208 square miles (18,670 km) in Southern California - from the Los Angeles metropolitan area to the Arizona border. As a result of this, Orange County and the City of Riverside began to become more attractive for new or relocated offices, corporations and financial centers in the late 1990s and 2000s. The Riverside County Sheriff provides judicial protection, jail management and forensic services throughout Riverside County. California's endemic blue oak tree - Quercus douglasii - is found in its southernmost part in Riverside County.
In addition to this, a smaller but significant number of people have moved to southwestern Riverside County from the San Diego metropolitan area. There are 19 official wilderness areas in Riverside County that are part of the National Wilderness Preservation System. The indigenous peoples of the valleys, mountains and deserts of what is now Riverside County are Serrano, Payómkawichum, Mohave, Cupeno, Chemehuevi, Cahuilla and Tongva. This county is organized as a general law county as provided in the California Government Code.
Riverside County voted 64.8% in favor of Proposition 8 which amended the California Constitution to prohibit same-sex marriages. Government documents often cite Blythe - on the Colorado River - as being a three-hour drive from the county seat Riverside.
