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Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal or the South Land, is an informal name for the megalopolis and nearby desert that occupies the southernmost quarter of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people, and is the nation’s second most populated region, behind only the BosWash Region in the Eastern United States. Counties usually associated with Southern California are Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Imperial, and in some cases Santa Barbara. There are no clear, exact boundaries for this area; instead, residents rely on physical features to establish the boundary. On the west is the Pacific Ocean; to the south is the international border between the United States and Mexico; to the east are the Mojave and Colorado Deserts and the Colorado River at the state’s border with Arizona and Nevada. To the north is the Tehachapi Mountain range, located about 70 miles north of Los Angeles, which separates the region from the rest of the state. Adding to the confusion over the northern border is the issue of just how many sections California is actually to be broken up into. For those supporting only two divisions, North and South, the border would shift a bit more northward. Yet for those supporting three sections, which would include a center section known as Central California, the border tends to get shifted a bit more southward.