562 Area Code: Cities, Time Zone & Virtual Phone Numbers

Whether you're a business owner looking to establish a local presence in Southern California or simply trying to identify a call you just received, understanding the 562 area code is more useful than you might expect. Area code 562 is one of California's most commercially active telephone prefixes, serving a densely populated corridor of Los Angeles County anchored by Long Beach — the state's seventh-largest city — along with dozens of surrounding communities.

From one of the world's busiest seaports to thriving healthcare campuses and retail districts, the 562 region represents a significant economic zone. In this guide, we cover everything you need to know: where the 562 area code is located, which cities it serves, its history, time zone, how to spot scam calls that use it, and how businesses can get a 562 phone number to build a credible local presence in Southern California. If you're wondering what is 562 area code and why it matters for your business, the sections below cover it in full.

The 562 area code is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) covering a large portion of southeastern Los Angeles County in California. It primarily serves Long Beach — home to one of the country's busiest container ports — along with an extensive network of neighboring cities stretching across the southern tier of the Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area.

This area code is administered by the North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA) and is exclusively assigned to California. It is not a toll-free code; calls to and from 562 numbers are standard local or regional calls depending on your carrier plan.

Businesses operating in or targeting customers within this geographic zone frequently choose a 562 local number to signal credibility and improve customer engagement. Research on call answer rates consistently shows that local numbers are significantly more likely to be picked up than out-of-area or toll-free alternatives — making the 562 prefix a practical marketing asset for companies focused on the Southern California market. So where is 562 area code exactly within that market? Southeastern Los Angeles County, anchored by Long Beach.

Before the 562 area code existed, the entire region was part of the 310 area code. During the 1990s, Southern California experienced an explosive surge in telephone number demand — driven by fax machines, pagers, early mobile phones, and dial-up internet connections. Area code 310 began exhausting its supply of available numbers faster than regulators could anticipate.

To relieve this pressure, the North American Numbering Plan Administrator introduced area code 562 on January 25, 1997, carving it out of 310 through a geographic realignment. It was among 43 new area codes introduced across North America that year and became the 185th area code in active service — the same wave of 1990s California splits that produced the 661 area code around Bakersfield. The transition gave the Long Beach corridor its own distinct telephonic identity — one now recognized across California as the signature prefix of the southeastern LA County region.

The 562 area code location has never changed since that 1997 split — only the numbering did, while the underlying Long Beach and southeastern LA County territory stayed exactly the same.

The 562 area code spans a wide section of southeastern Los Angeles County, with some coverage extending into northern Orange County. Primary cities and communities served include:

• Long Beach
• Downey
• Norwalk
• Whittier
• Lakewood
• Bellflower
• Compton
• Lynwood
• Paramount
• Pico Rivera
• Montebello
• Signal Hill
• Hawaiian Gardens
• Artesia
• Cerritos
• La Mirada
• Cypress (partial)

Economic Character of the Region

The 562 area code region carries substantial commercial weight. The Port of Long Beach processes hundreds of billions of dollars in cargo annually, making this corridor a hub for logistics, warehousing, and international trade. Beyond the port, the region hosts a strong concentration of healthcare providers, academic institutions (including California State University, Long Beach), aerospace manufacturers, and retail centers. For businesses in any of these sectors, a local 562 number sends an immediate signal of regional relevance and trustworthiness. Anyone asking where is 562 area code within this economic zone will find the answer spans all the cities listed above.

The 562 territory borders several other Los Angeles County prefixes: 310 to the west, 714 to the southeast in Orange County, and the 626 area code to the north, covering the San Gabriel Valley cities of Pasadena and Alhambra.

The 562 area code falls entirely within the Pacific Time Zone (PT). It observes Pacific Standard Time (PST) at UTC−8 from early November through mid-March, and Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) at UTC−7 from mid-March through early November, per the standard reference maintained by the Area code 562 on Wikipedia.

A local phone number in any market can meaningfully impact how customers perceive your business — and the Long Beach area code is no exception. Once you know what is 562 area code and who it reaches, the business case for claiming one becomes obvious.

Build Instant Local Trust

Consumers are far more likely to answer and trust calls from a recognizable local area code. A 562 number signals that your business is part of the Long Beach and Southern California community — even if your team operates entirely remotely. In markets where competition is high and buyers are cautious, that local signal can be the difference between an answered call and a missed opportunity.

Higher Call Answer Rates

Research consistently shows that outbound calls from local area codes outperform toll-free and out-of-state numbers in pick-up rates. If your sales or support team is reaching out to prospects or customers in the 562 region, dialing from a local prefix puts you on the right side of caller ID.

Strengthen Local SEO Signals

A consistent local phone number listed across your Google Business Profile, online directories, and website reinforces NAP (Name, Address, Phone) consistency — one of the key signals Google uses for local search rankings. A 562 number can help your business surface in more local searches for the Long Beach and southeastern LA County market, the same way a 774 area code number does for a business rooted in Massachusetts.

Getting a 562 virtual phone number requires no physical presence in Long Beach and can be done in minutes. Here's the general process:

1. 1Choose a cloud communications provider that carries 562 area code inventory and offers the features your business needs.
2. 2Select your plan — most platforms offer per-user monthly pricing covering calling, SMS, voicemail, and routing features.
3. 3Pick your 562 number — browse available local numbers and choose one that fits your brand identity or target market.
4. 4Configure your setup — define business hours, call routing rules, IVR greetings, and CRM integrations from a web dashboard.
5. 5Go live immediately — your 562 number is active for inbound and outbound calls right away.

With Softtop, you can provision a 562 area code number instantly from an inventory spanning 800+ US area codes, port an existing number at no cost, and have everything running inside a full cloud communications stack — voice, SMS, AI receptionist, and contact center — on day one.

Like any active area code, 562 is occasionally weaponized by bad actors using caller ID spoofing to impersonate local numbers. Because people in and around Southern California are more likely to answer a call displaying a familiar local prefix, scammers specifically target the 562 code.

• Fake process server calls — Callers claim to represent a legal firm and threaten to serve you with civil documents unless you call back to "resolve a complaint."
• IRS impersonation — Callers pose as IRS agents and demand immediate payment to avoid a fabricated tax audit or arrest warrant.
• Spoofed local numbers — Scammers generate caller IDs that appear to be 562 numbers, banking on the fact that locals answer calls from their own area code more readily.

Never call back an unsolicited number that threatened you. Use a reverse phone lookup to verify callers. Report suspicious calls to the FTC. The 562 area code itself is completely legitimate — the scam behavior is about spoofing the number, not a problem with the area code or its residents and businesses.

The 562 area code is far more than a telephone prefix — it's the telephonic identity of a thriving, economically significant stretch of Southern California. Whether you're a local resident tracking down an unknown caller, a new business building a footprint in Long Beach, or a distributed company targeting the Greater LA market, understanding this area code gives you a real-world advantage.

The 562 region's commercial density — logistics, healthcare, education, retail — means there's substantial opportunity for businesses that show up with local credibility. With modern cloud communications platforms, getting a 562 phone number requires no office lease, no hardware, and no long-term contract — just a local number backed by a platform built to make every conversation count.