Los Angeles ? Television series feature largely white casts even when the setting is an ethnically diverse city such as Los Angeles or New York, according to a study released Tuesday.

An analysis of shows on the six major networks found a drop in Hispanic and other minority lead characters, according to the Chicano Studies Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Television is presenting a distorted microcosm of society that is “at odds with our nation’s changing demographic,” study co-authors Chon Noriega, the center director, and Alison Hoffman said in a statement.

While Los Angeles County’s population is nearly 45 percent Hispanic, Hispanics accounted for only 14 percent of characters seen regularly on the eight 2004 primetime series set in Los Angeles, Hoffman said.

All those characters were on one series, the ABC sitcom “George Lopez.”

There were no Asian-American regular characters, the study found, although the ethnic group makes up 12 percent of Los Angeles County’s population.

Among the 16 shows set in New York, Hispanics and Asian-Americans made up a combined 9 percent of regular characters, researchers found — while the city’s population is 27 percent Hispanic and nearly 10 percent Asian-American.

Series set in ethnically diverse cities but found by the study to have all-white casts included “8 Simple Rules” (Detroit); “Still Standing” (Chicago); “Joey” (Los Angeles); “Tru Calling” (New York) and “The O.C.” (Orange County).

Eighty-five percent of all series excluded Hispanics from among regular characters.

Of the U.S. population, Hispanics make up more than 13 percent.

The study also showed an overall decline in the total number and percentage of black, Asian-American and Native American regular characters.

In contrast to the UCLA study, a coalition of civil rights groups said recently it found measurable improvement at some networks in the hiring of Hispanic actors as well as directors and producers.