Paradise is an unincorporated town and census-designated place (CDP) in Clark County, Nevada, United States, adjacent to the city of Las Vegas. It was formed on December 8, 1950. Its population was 191,238 at the 2020 census, making it the fifth-most-populous CDP in the United States; if it were an incorporated city, it would be the fifth-largest in Nevada. As an unincorporated town, it is governed by the Clark County Commission with input from the Paradise Town Advisory Board.
Paradise contains Harry Reid International Airport, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), most of the Las Vegas Strip, and most of the tourist attractions in the Las Vegas area (excluding downtown).
History
The southern part of the Las Vegas Valley was referred to as Paradise Valley as early as 1910, owing to a high water table that made the land particularly fertile for farming. County commissioners established a Paradise school district in 1914.
In 1950, mayor Ernie Cragin of Las Vegas sought to annex the Las Vegas Strip, which was unincorporated territory, in order to expand the city's tax base to fund his ambitious building agenda and pay down the city's rising debt. A group of casino executives, led by Gus Greenbaum of the Flamingo, lobbied the county commissioners for town status, which would prevent the city from annexing the land without the commission's approval. The commission voted to create the unincorporated town of Paradise on December 8, 1950. The town encompassed a strip wide and long, from the southern city limits of Las Vegas to just south of the Flamingo. The town board initially consisted of five casino managers, chaired by Greenbaum.
A month after its establishment, the town was expanded to include the residential areas of Paradise Valley, giving it a total area of . Months later, however, it was reported that county officials had determined that the town had not been properly established, because the petition for the town's formation had an insufficient number of signatures and because it had violated a state law forbidding formation of a town spanning multiple school districts. On August 20, 1951, county commissioners accepted petitions to create two new towns covering the area of the putative town. Town "A" of Paradise included the areas that lay within a Las Vegas school district, extending from the city limits to a point one mile south, while Town "B" included the areas within the Paradise school district.
In 1953, Town A was renamed as Winchester, and Town B became known simply as Paradise.
In 1975, Nevada enacted a law that would have incorporated Paradise (along with Sunrise Manor and Winchester) into the City of Las Vegas. Before it could take effect, however, the bill was struck down as unconstitutional by the Nevada Supreme Court.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the census-designated place (CDP) of Paradise (which may not coincide exactly with the town boundaries) has a total area of , all of it land.
The official town boundaries are bordered by Desert Inn Road to the north, Nellis Boulevard to the east, Sunset Road to the south and Decatur Boulevard to the west. There is a southern finger between Bermuda Road and Eastern Avenue south to Silverado Ranch Boulevard. South of Russell Road, the eastern border stairsteps on a rough 45-degree angle toward the corner of Eastern and Robindale Road, and there is an additional finger surrounding Interstate 215 east to St. Rose Parkway.
Demographics
At the census of 2010, there were 223,167 people residing in Paradise. The racial makeup was 59.8% White, 8.9% African American, 0.8% Native American, 9.5% Asian, 1.0% Pacific Islander, and 5.5% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents made up 31.2% of the population, and 46.3% of the population was non-Hispanic White.
As of the census of 2000, there were 186,070 people, 77,209 households, and 43,314 families residing in the CDP. The population density was . There were 85,398 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the CDP was 72.51% White, 6.59% African American, 0.77% Native American, 6.52% Asian, 0.59% Pacific Islander, 8.37% from other races, and 4.65% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 23.47% of the population.
There were 77,209 households, out of which 24.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.7% were married couples living together, 10.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 43.9% were non-families. 31.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.39 and the average family size was 3.04.