Before becoming a city, La Verne was home to Native Americans. Isaac Wilson Lord, a Los Angeles businessman, convinced the Santa Fe Railroad to build a track through the city. The railroad's first stop was in La Verne, where the filming of the Wayne's World 2 wedding scene took place. In the 1920s, La Verne's population reached a high of 80,000 people.
In 1880, the city had a population of just over 5,000. Today, the city has a population of around 32,078. The median age is 42.9 years old, and the average household income is $78,385. The city has a 73.2 percent homeownership rate. The population is made up of 50.9 percent white residents, 34.7 percent Hispanic, and 7.49 percent Asian.
The city's 2010 Census shows that the population is about the same as it was in 1980. There were 30387 people living in households. That's 97.8% of the total population. Of those people, 501 lived in non-institutional group quarters, and 175 were institutionalized. The median age was 42.9 years. The city has a high percentage of families with children.